Train like Muhammad Ali: Read These Tips For Boomer Entrepreneurs

15 january 2013

On a sun-kissed California day, I dragged my chair across the porch of the Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito and pulled it up next to 71-year-old Randal Charlton, a newly minted 2011 Purpose Prize winner. He had already sunk into a chair for a brief break in a whirlwind weekend of meetings and celebration.

As we gazed up at sweeping span of The Golden Gate Bridge nearby, we talked about new beginnings. Something he knows a lot about.

Charlton’s efforts at Detroit’s business incubator TechTown, where he was the executive director from 2007 until the end of October — and the turnaround in his personal life­­–landed him one of five $100,000 Purpose Prizes, which honors Americans over 60 who are developing new ways to tackle social problems.

That’s not surprising. Recent research released by Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, shows that approximately 25 million people – one in four Americans ages 44-70 – are interested in starting businesses or nonprofit ventures in the next five to 10 years. The findings support research from the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, which shows that in 2010, entrepreneurs between the ages of 55 and 64, accounted for 23 percent of new entrepreneurs, up from 14 percent in 1996.

“There are many obstacles to building successful enterprises at this stage in life,” Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures and author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, says. “But, as we’ve seen with The Purpose Prize, many have been able to make a living while making a difference. We need to help many more do the same.”

(Read my column here on What You Need to Know to Be Your Own Boss.)

Charlton is an entrepreneur to the core. He has bought and sold 14 different companies during his career and been an executive for several global biotech companies. But his path has been twisty. A native of England, Charlton kicked off his career as an agriculture journalist, worked for an agricultural export company and  lived for weeks in a Saudi Arabian desert tending a Saudi  sheik’s herd of dairy  cows. He has been a consultant for cattle breeding associations and for the European Development Fund, too.

Not all of his endeavors have been hits. He lost money on a cattle-ranching operation to produce low-fat beef, for instance. And when he was 53, his Cajun-tinged jazz club in Sarasota, Fla. went belly-up.

And when I say belly-up, I mean kaput. Not only did he lose his club, but his luxurious waterfront home was signed over to creditors to pay his debts. His marriage ended. Then in 1998, one of his four daughters, Kate, who suffered from schizophrenia, committed suicide at the age of 28.  His world had exploded