In the U.S. alone, says the MetLife Foundation, more than 30 million Americans, ranging in age from 44 to 70 years old, want to start a business in the next five to 10 years. Isele writes: “People in their retirement careers are three times more likely to be entrepreneurs and small-business builders than young people. The Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Entrepreneurial Activity notes the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. for the last 15 years has been among the 55-to-64 age group. The lowest level of entrepreneurial activity was among 20- to 34-year-olds.”
As of spring 2016, Isele learned from one of the Kauffman researchers that the trend shows no sign of slowing down for those entrepreneurs 64 years old or older. Isele also points out that this entrepreneurial DNA in the boomers seems innate: “In case you are assuming that layoffs, age bias and the dismal lack of job opportunities forced this extraordinary entrepreneurial activity, the Kauffman Index also reported that more than 80% of respondents said the inability to find traditional employment at their age was not a factor in starting their own businesses—just 4.5% said it was an important factor.”
The institute has embarked on an initiative called “the Experience Incubator” in which young and mature workers come together to learn how to parlay their experience into their next chapter. This could be pre-retirees closing in on a retirement date or workers in their 30s trying to figure out how to cash in on their experience and acquired knowledge.
The Global Institute for Experienced Entrepreneurship is bringing the initiative to Germany, the Netherlands, France, the U.K. (at Oxford), the U.S. (at Babson College), Chile, Japan and Africa. Google was involved in launching the pilot for this program at its London campus. As a result of the initial success, Google subsequently launched an initiative called “Founders 50+,” which offers workshops on the campus for those over 50 who want to start a business.
Clearly, the world is waking up to the economic impact of experience. It is time that our corporations (and our culture) accept the reality that experience is a chief economic driver. The time has come to officially recognize the Experience Economy and its many contributions through new start-ups, job creation and contributions to the tax base and GDP. Let’s stop marginalizing people and workers on the basis of age and start capitalizing on the trend. Jobs will be created, the economy will benefit—and the largest growing demographic in the workforce will continue to produce and flourish.
Mitch Anthony is the author of The New Retirementality (Wiley), now in its fourth edition.