Seniors, Technology, Bob Dylan, Careers.

My blog is “A changin,” just like the times, as Bob Dylan would sing. I am changin from an economic/political no demographic-slant to a slant toward the issues of seniors. Not college seniors, but seniors like me. Why you may ask? Because there are more than 60 million of us now and we are the new market.

Marketeers are recognizing that tweens and millennials do not have as much money as seniors. New marketing campaigns and product development are now directed at seniors. My blogs will be focused on how a particular issue impacts seniors, that’s us, people over 60 or 65. The references will be a few years back, a la, the Bob Dylan song of 1963, (written by the way just a few months before JFK was assassinated). The point is if you have not been around a while, my future blogs may seem obscure.

Contrary to senior conventional wisdom, I will be anti-bucket list. Why? Because a bucket list implies a finite list of final things before one kicks it. I will be, on the other hand, a supportive of making lists to get things done.

A person can build a successful career in 10 years. That's why, at age 65, a person has at least one more career to look forward too. Further, at age 65 a person has experience and wisdom for intimate partners. These are partners that are typically lacking in people starting a career right out of college. A senior’s age may eliminate a career as a NFL linebacker, or a pro tennis player, but age has the advantage in starting any career that uses mind over brawn.


And further forget the notion that seniors are technology challenged. Most of us seniors invented or financed the technology in use today. I personally worked on the Internet in 1991 and was a player in the development of the true color display you are probably seeing on your computer screen as you read this blog. A successful senior knows which skills have been mastered and which skills must be supplied by others and is unafraid to confess both.


Seniors are not technology challenged. Quite the contrary, we challenge technology to be cute as well as useful. When I finish writing this blog, I will close my Toshiba laptop, open my iPad to read the news, charge my iPhone, open my Mac Book for some Mobile-Me cloud development work, and set aside my new iMac for use later. Technology challenged? Hardly!

Watch for my next blog where I am going to introduce the concept of a “shadow senior” for companies that wish to accelerate organizational development.