This weekend I went to Wal Mart. As I entered the store, I was approached by this lovely person who wanted to sell me a new floor cleaning utensil to clean floors. In looking at her, I knew that she was retired, so after she finished her sales pitch, I asked her a personal question. “How old are you?”

She said that she was a mere 71. In fact her mother was still alive and was 93! She was not only a Grandmother, but a great grandmother! Then I asked her the secret to her energy, vitality and longevity, she said it was simple, to keep away from boredom!

She had actively gone out and found this position, even though it was only part time. It kept her mind active, she told me, and that this was the key she attributed to a long and happy life. 

But, as a 40-something professional, why am I so interested in retired people? For two reasons. One, most of my relatives are in or at the retirement age bracket. Two, because I am the author of the book, Marketing is King! where I show people how to improve their lives through marketing, irrespective of age. My theory in life is that marketing is multi-dimensional not mono-dimensional, it can be applied to all areas of your life, it is not just for business.

Marketing is about being proactive. I believe that it’s better to live in a world based on possibility, not probability. Probability is when we hope, that by chance, someone somewhere will recognize our skills, talents and innate abilities. Possibility is when we make people realize how our skills and talents can help them by showing them in no uncertain terms the value we can add.

I was the first person to teach Job Hunting 101 at California State University , and the main thing I believe I taught my students was to be proactive, to go out and create opportunity for themselves using marketing, not just to wait for opportunity to come to them.

Young and old people face the same problem, and that is “false assumption,” assuming that no one is interested in them.

It is better to get the facts. The facts are, and in the case of students people do not hire pieces of paper, they hire the potential that the piece of paper (a degree ) offers. In the case of retired people, you may believe that no one is interested in you, when in reality many people would love to have you come in part time.

Young people need to get over the phobia of people telling them that they have no experience. For older people, it’s fear that their experience may not be relevant or that they’ll be rejected strictly on the basis of age..

But the challenge is the same. You need to be able to “sell” or persuade people that what you are offering is something that they could benefit from, and this is where your ability to market comes in. There are numerous job and career opportunities that are available to you, even if you are handicapped or have little or no mobility. You can counsel, and consult over the phone. You can set up a web site (it’s not that difficult) without leaving your home. People have web pages that sell thousands of dollars of products daily. The point is, do you have something to sell, that people would value? You need to look back at your career and ask yourself

– What did you do well

– What was your greatest achievement in life?

– How could someone else benefit from this in today’s economy

Simple example: my mother loves to counsel people, and she’s always helping people in our family that have problems. I told her that she would make a great professional counselor. She could spend a few hours each day on the phone, which she loves to do any way, helping people. And start making money from what is essentially her hobby.

Another example: Let’s return to the 71- year-old great grandma that I met in Wal Mart. As a marketing professional I saw that she had so much more potential, so I told her that she could earn a lot more money if she found a product that she really enjoyed using, and gained most benefit from, then contacted the company that manufactured it and told them that she wanted to be it’s chief spokesperson. Or she could source the product from overseas at minimal cost, get a local graphics designer to put her photo on the packaging, then go out and promote it herself, vs promoting what she did at the moment. 

For example, if she had used a certain brand of diapers, that she could stand behind and that diaper had been used through her generations, she could very easily be picked up by the national media. A lot of people would trust the advice of a great grandma.

Marketing is about being able to recognize opportunity, the opportunity in yourself, and the opportunity that you can provide to others.

In life, we are not limited by our abilities but our mindset.

Whenever I teach, I always ask the following question of my students:

What would you do if nothing could stop you? Forget about your age, handicaps and anything else for this very moment.

If you can answer the question, you’re actually realizing your true inner potential. All you need to do now is let others know, and this is called marketing.

Remember that most of us are not limited by our age, but our imagination and our ability to convert our imagination into reality. The cure is marketing.

So even if you are retired, I urge you not to give up, but to believe that you have more experience now than most people have, you have most probably seen more, done more and know more than you are giving yourself credit for.

The only obstacles that you face are those that you put in front of yourself.

All too often I have my retired family members tell me that they really would like to do something a few hours a week, well it is possible? Yes! Find a good idea, skill, natural talent that you have and use marketing to bring this product to the marketplace. You can make a difference! We all have something to contribute to this world.

The secret to remember is that marketing brings good things to life, and it will prevent you from getting bored, which is the secret to longevity.