I’m 51 and was aged out before 40. Here’s what I wish someone had told me.

I remember that moment meeting an old work colleague after being laid off 3 months later.

“What are you doing now, angel investor in businesses?”.

Peoples perception is ridiculous.

What I wanted to hear is “anything I can help with or do you want a recommendation for LinkedIn?”.

Things don’t happen instantly.

It’s like you have to build the momentum again yourself regardless of your industry reputation.

I'm seeing it everywhere now.

People my age now late 40s, early 50s getting laid off, "restructured," or quietly aged out of jobs they held for 10-15 years.

LinkedIn is full of "exciting new chapter!" posts from people who are terrified.

I've been there. Twice.

The first time, I panicked.
Sent 200 resumes.
Got ghosted.

Realized nobody's hiring 50-year-olds when they can get a 28-year-old for half the price.

The second time, I did something different.

I stopped looking for job security (it's gone) and started building leverage.

Here's what I learned:

1. You're not building a new job. You're building a system.

The 9-5 is dead for people like us. Accept it.

Instead of "finding a job," think:
What can I sell?
Who needs it?
How do I deliver it repeatedly?

I know people who spent 6 months looking for jobs.

I know people who spent 2 weeks building a service and got their first client.

Guess which one paid their mortgage?

1. Start with a problem, not an idea.

I wasted 3 months building "my thing" that nobody wanted.

Then I spent 1 week talking to 20 people in my old industry asking: "What's your biggest pain right now?"

I heard the same problem 15 times.

Built a solution in a week. Sold it to 3 of them.

You don't need a revolutionary idea. You need to solve a painful problem for people who have money.

1. Cut your personal overhead immediately.

This is brutal, but necessary.

Every dollar you're spending on lifestyle is a week you can't focus on building.

I cut my expenses by 40% in month one:
Cancelled subscriptions I forgot I had
Downgraded everything (phone plan, car, gym)
Moved to a cheaper place

It bought me 6 months of runway.

6 months to figure it out without panic.

You can't build clearly when you're terrified about next month's rent.

1. Sell something in 2 weeks or pivot.

Entrepreneurship rewards speed, not perfection.

I see people spend 6 months "getting ready to launch."

Meanwhile, someone else solved the same problem in 2 weeks and has 10 customers.

Build something minimal. Offer it to 20 people.

If nobody buys, you learned fast.

If someone buys, you have validation.

The market doesn't care about your polished website. It cares if you solve their problem.

1. Build in public. Daily.

Nobody knows you exist if you're building in silence.

I started posting daily about what I was learning, building, failing at.

• LinkedIn posts
• X posts
• Blog posts
• YouTube posts
• Reddit comments (adding value, not selling)
• Industry forums

It felt awkward. Nobody cared at first.

But after 90 days, people started reaching out.

"I have that same problem. Can you help?"

Visibility builds trust. Trust builds clients.

You don't need to go viral. You need to be visible to the right 100 people.

1. Find other builders. Not cheerleaders.**

I joined every "entrepreneur group" I could find.

90% were full of people talking about starting.

10% were people actually shipping things.

I focused on the 10%.

Those people became my sounding board:

"Does this offer make sense?"
"Here's my landing page. Be brutal."
"I just got rejected by 10 people. What am I missing?"

You don’t need to ask friends and family that have no idea.

You don't need cheerleaders saying "you got this!"

You need people who will tell you your idea sucks and why.

You need more insights on the real meat of the situation and continually adjust based on those conversations.

1. Treat failure like data.

I sent 50 cold(ish)emails. Got 2 responses. I tried to make them as warm as possible.

I posted 30 times on LinkedIn. 3 got traction.

I offered my service to 20 people. 3 bought.

Old me would've thought: "I'm failing."

New me: "I have data. 10% conversion on outreach. 10% content hits. 15% close rate. Now I optimize."

Every rejection is just a datapoint.

You're not losing. You're learning faster than everyone still waiting for permission.

you've just been pushed into this:

You're not broken.

You're not "too old."

You're just early to the next era of work.

The job market doesn't want us anymore.

Fine.

Build something they can't ignore.

What I'd do if I was starting from scratch today:

Week 1: Talk to 20 people in my old industry. Find the pattern in their pain.

Week 2: Build the simplest solution. Price it. Offer it to 20 people.

Week 3: If 2+ buy, I have a business. If 0 buy, I have data. Adjust and repeat.

Week 4: Post daily about what I'm building and learning. Build visibility.

Month 2: Find 5 other people doing the same. Learn from their wins and losses.

Month 3: Refine the offer. Raise prices. Build recurring revenue.

Look for patterns.

Sign up for emails.

Study the copy.

I'm not going to pretend this is easy.

It's not.

But it's more reliable than waiting for someone to hire a 50-year-old into a system that doesn't want us anymore.

You've got decades of expertise.

You've solved problems for companies that paid you a fraction of what you were worth.

Now you get to solve those same problems and keep 100% of the value.

That's not a downgrade.

Its leverage.

If you're in this boat, what's your biggest blocker right now?