When I'm Sixty Four

Hi, my name is Steve, I’m 64 and I recently lost one of the primary contracts/jobs I had been doing and it has left me scrambling to work out what I can do now.

I know there is lots of us out there, so I’ve started “When I’m Sixty Four” to document the journey and hopefully help others along the way.

Sure I will look for more work but at this juncture … read age, in my industry, well really in most industries there’s a snowballs chance in hell that someone in their 50’s or 60’s is going to get an interview let alone a full time corporate job.

Maybe through friends, contacts and old business acquaintances I can make that happen but it is a long shot and I don’t want to just sit at my computer day after day applying for jobs that I am qualified or even overqualified to do, getting more and more disheartened by either the lack of responses or the standard “Thank you … while etc etc etc… we will not be progressing with your application”. No Thank You.

If I do that, I can see the black dog of depression and self doubt taking over and I am too young, too passionate, too driven and too intelligent to just wait for something to happen. Particularly, as I still have a mortgage to pay and I really need to keep earning some good coin for at least another five or six years or we will have to sell up and move away from family and friends.

I know that there are many, many people out there who face the same situation and to you I say “do not go quietly into the night”.

Sadly, the world of business and employment does not appreciate our decades of experience; our capabilities and skills honed solving a multitude of problems or our common sense and committed work ethic. They think that “If your over 50 your over the hill”. RUBBISH, I believe that we are just starting and are in our prime. We have the capacity to learn new skills, start new endeavours and be as productive and creative as our younger selves.

So rather than waiting for further rejection emails I’ve decided to start “When I’m Sixty Four” a blogg that charts the next stage of my journey.

The channel will follow my progress as I set and then try to achieve  a range of challenges now I’m in my sixties. The challenges I set will cover my financial, personal, health & fitness, work, sports and online life.

As I progress, I will share with you, my friends the tips and tricks, do’s and don’t, tools and reviews of the products and services I try out along the way.

Every challenge will have specific objectives, milestones and timelines, budget restrictions, rewards for success and consequences should I fail. Some of which, like not making any income will be dire indeed, while others will be there to motivate me to succeed.

For most of the challenges I will be starting off as a beginner or novice like most of you. So I expect to have lots of new learnings, some funny adventures and quite a few disasters but hopefully along the way, I can encourage others like yourself to try something new, to stretch your boundaries and join me in this adventure. Do not go quietly into the night!

Challenge number 1 – Create a Youtube Channel that captures 1,000 subscribers in the 1st six months. Can I Do it?