Sunday, January 24, 2010

Baby Boomers - Especially Entrepreneurs - Seth Godin's New Book Linchpin Is For You



How can I make such a statement to you baby boomers? After all. Seth says:
- I didn't set out to get you to quit your job
- or to persuade you to become an entrepreneur
- or merely to change the world.

Yet, he also says: ...fearful employees are in pain. They're in pain because they're overlooked, underpaid, laid off, and stressed out.”

“You weren't born to be a cog in the great industrial machine. You were trained to be a cog.”
“ You were promised: Follow these instructions and you don't have to think”

Now I ask, who can he be speaking to other than baby boomers. Who has lived under this training longer than any other generations? All of our lives, we baby boomers have been “pushed to produce, to conform, and to consume”. That is why 77+ million of us are looking to end our work careers. That is why many of us are seeking an alternative to traditional retirement and searching for advice on how to start your baby boomer business. We don't want anymore “attendance based compensation”.

We want the choice to be indispensable and to make a difference. As consumers, employees, and business owners - we do not want to participate in the old model “of racing to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities”.

As baby boomer entrepreneurs, we are starting baby boomer businesses at an amazing clip. We are already half of all the self employed business owners in America. Baby boomer women are leading the way at business formation at about twice the rate of men.

Seth doesn't promise you a map. What he does provide is a compass to point you in the right direction. He does advise you to focus on the audience you choose. He advises you to listen to them to the exclusion of all others. He advises making these customers happy. “Let the other guys pound sand”.

Baby boomers, especially entrepreneurs...this one is for you!