The new age people are peaking

FORGET about peaking at 30. There’s a new group of entrepreneurs working shorter hours and making more money than the rest of us.

AMBITIOUS millennials entering the workforce may need to pace themselves — their careers may not take off until their 60s, 70s or later.

Career momentum isn’t a bell curve anymore, with a growing trend of later-in-life career fulfilment. One look at the US presidential race gives a glimpse of this — the average age of frontrunner candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump is 70.

They’re not cutting back to part-time, knocking off at 4pm and introducing themselves to new starters as “part of the furniture”. It’s the opposite — they’re ramping up their campaigns, and potentially at the peaks of their political careers.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to the crowd during a rally at the Apollo Theater in New York, Wednesday, March 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

At home, Australians over 50 are now the fastest growing sector for entrepreneurship, according to research led by Swinburne University of Technology. The image of retirement we see in superannuation ads — sepia-coloured walks through autumn forests — can wait.

The report shows that retirees have the time, energy and desire to keep applying their skills and experience to fill market gaps. They are creating start-ups to support their lifestyles or to keep contributing to society, except now on their terms.

Older entrepreneurs are not just ‘keeping busy’ either. In fact they’re outperforming their younger counterparts by several measures, and it takes them less effort.

“Younger entrepreneurs work 23 hours per week compared to 18.5 for seniors,” writes the report. “Younger entrepreneurs earned $115,000 in their young business compared to $264,000 earned by seniors”.

But are we ready for the image of today’s entrepreneur as a 60-year-old dad from the suburbs with adult kids and sensible life insurance cover? It seems far from the prevailing entrepreneur stereotype of the 25-year-old manchild CEO of a tech start up.

Happy affectionate couple spending quality time while at home

We’ll have to adapt. Much of this trend of latent career blossoming is due to our ever-increasing life expectancies, which also means being active until later in life.

Many of us in our 20s, 30s and 40s now have about a 20 per cent chance of living until 100, compared to the 0.7 per cent chance we had if we were born in 1912, according to the UK Department for Work and Pensions.

The Queen is feeling the impact. Her team who sends out personalised centenary letters has expanded to keep up with the surge of people reaching the triple digit milestone.

Our longer lifespans are testament to advances in health, hygiene and other innovations over the last century. But when we hear about the “ageing population”, it’s generally a doom-and-gloom topic.

The Treasury calls it our “demographic challenges”, projecting a crisis due to the lopsided balance of workers versus retirees, declining birthrates, and other havoc our older selves will cause.

But another take on this is the potential which awaits. National Seniors Australia estimates that there’s a $10.8 billion a year opportunity to use the skills of older Australians. And if we’re an ageing population, then this is a growing talent pool.

Outdated perceptions of older people are limiting many retirees from foraying into entrepreneurship, though it’s also a trigger for some. “I decided to start my own business because when you’re 40+ people think you’ve got one foot in the coffin,“ said one anonymous participant of the Swinburne research.

“For some reason people have got this preconceived idea that if you’re under 40 you’re viable to them, if you’re over 40 you’re half dead”.

The report points out that more role models in our communities would help spur growth. Fortunately there are more and more examples of people later in life who have bucked mainstream perceptions and have gone from career strength to strength, notably in the media and entertainment industries.

Dolly Parton made her debut at the prolific Glastonbury music festival only two years ago, at age 68. She drew one of the biggest crowds at the event, and got the highest at home TV ratings. Last year, she opened a Dolly-themed hotel with 307 rooms.

GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 29: Dolly Parton performs on the Pyramid Stage during Day 3 of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm on June 29, 2014 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

American journalist Barbara Walters was 68 years old when she created popular talk show The View in 1997. She only retired last year at age 85. Betty White was 88 when she started on successful sitcom Hot In Cleveland, and is still acting at age 94.

So if we’re more and more likely to live until 100 and if some of us may still have the capacity to work until 94, then we might need to start picturing our life stages differently.

Tom Champion is a digital strategist and author, based in Sydney. He tweets @AusztralTom.

Originally published as The new age people are peaking