I recently read an article about managing your professional decline, and laughed. Having recently crossed the dreaded 50 threshold myself, and after watching many of my talented colleagues struggle with this firsthand, I want to offer some advice.
My entire career has been spent in the ever-changing tech and design industry, and I can’t even count how many people — friends, family and job applicants — I come across who feel they are no longer relevant after 50. I’m also shocked that so many people don’t seem to understand their value. We’ve all watched technology decimate well-established industries like film development, for example. And it all comes down to value.
Fortunately, Nassim Nicholas Taleb has an excellent book called Antifragile about how to understand and deal with this problem. Taleb notes that we tend to rate businesses (and careers) on a scale from fragile to strong. But according to Taleb, that’s a mistake. We should rate businesses and careers like this: fragile, strong and anti-fragile.
A business that’s anti-fragile is one that, like our muscles, gets stronger with stress and change. Consider businesses such as Toyota that react to market stresses and get even better as a result. In 2009 and 2010, Toyota had the largest car recall in history followed by a tsunami that decimated its international supply chains. This likely would have destroyed a lesser company, but for Toyota, an anti-fragile company, this was a challenge it already knew how to handle, and because of the improvements it made in response to this crisis, its 2013 profits were more than four times its earnings in 2010.
So how do you make your career anti-fragile?
I own a branding agency, and at the heart of branding is what we call the value proposition. What this often misused term means is what you do differently and, more importantly, better than your competition. Our firm likes to explain value proposition like this: If you’re at a party, and someone asks you what you do for a living, you should be able to tell them in a sentence or two and walk away with business.
Our value proposition is this: Big-brand marketing put to work for small businesses, startups and nonprofits. This works so well that my son’s school, my dentist and even my wife’s dermatologist became clients.
For those over 50, your competition is usually younger people with more up-to-date skills who are willing and able (perhaps not having mortgages and families yet) to work for way less money. We’ve all heard the story of the 50-something employee who was replaced by a younger worker at half their salary.
Being a business owner, I say, “Well, duh.” If I can hire someone equally or better qualified for less money, I’d be stupid not to. This is capitalism 101.
I believe that people over 50 need to understand the job market and what their marketable skills are. The world has changed dramatically in the last few years, so if you try to rely on what used to be true — get a good job in the mailroom, work your way up to vice president of sales and retire at 65 with a good pension — then you’re on a speed boat to failure.
The part that those over 50 often overlook is their personal value proposition — what they do differently and, more importantly, better than a younger person willing to work for half their salary. In many cases, their personal value is based on their experience. Once you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ve probably, like me, had tremendous successes and spectacular failures. This type of experience is invaluable to organizations. Once you’ve navigated from failure to success a few times, then you have a very marketable skill. People will pay dearly for you to solve devastating business problems for them.
In the famous words of Littlefinger from Game of Thrones: “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” I’m sure you’ve noticed the chaos the world is in right now as people are trying to figure out disruptive technology, artificial intelligence and a host of other issues that never before existed.
What this also means is that there’s a wealth of opportunity today that never existed in the history of the world. Tools like LegalZoom, Enterprise Nation, WeWork and Shopify make starting a business faster and easier than ever before. The gig economy means it’s easier to hire staff quickly and inexpensively with Codeable, Upwork and Fiverr when a big project comes your way. Instead of trying to keep up with younger, more talented people who are able and willing to work for less, start your own business and hire them. Platforms like LinkedIn, Clarity and even Craigslist also make identifying opportunities easier and faster than ever before.
So rather than managing your professional decline, think like a branding agency and craft your personal value proposition to prevent it. This could help you start a business of your own or transition into a leadership role.
Here are the steps:
1. Learn about your competition. Maybe interview a few of your colleagues. And be very careful. It’s not who you think your competition is; it’s who your boss or future customers think your competition is.
2. Identify what it is that you do differently and better than your competition, and craft that into a paragraph or two.
3. Lastly, make every part of your appearance reflect what you wrote — the way you dress, the way you talk and the way you walk. People can only see what’s on the outside. So like a great website, first you must get their attention, and then they’ll want to learn more.
Now that you’ve crafted your personal value proposition, marketing yourself is easy; it’s just a matter of getting yourself in front of the right people. Start with your boss and the people you know. The people who already like you will probably be your most enthusiastic brand ambassadors.
