I have sensational news for you. One day, you will have gray hair. What I mean is that your hair will be gray, and later white, assuming you still have any. Some of you have been in this situation for a long time, and for those of you who have not, we hope you get there, because the alternative is sad and undesirable. Under the happy assumption that you do get gray hair, it will not happen when you are 70. It starts much earlier, at some point in your thirties, and continues to develop as you become older and more experienced. Together with all the good and nice things that age brings, you will gradually feel that the work environment surrounding you is changing. The flattering telephone calls you now get from personnel managers running after you will become more seldom. The moves from one job to another will become slower and much more frightening, and anxiety about a possible lack of work in between jobs will suddenly seem threatening and very concrete. Any of you getting laid off are likely to experience a long period of unemployment, ever fewer opportunities, and difficulty coping with unaccustomed uncertainty and challenges, and even worse, that you never thought to prepare for since you entered the cozy high-tech bubble 20 or more years ago.
Udi Keshet has had gray hair for many years. He started working in high tech in 1980, following his military service in the navy. He worked as a computer programmer in a growing and developing sector that won a place in the forefront of the Israeli economy, the engine that drives the Israeli economy. Udi Keshet was there in the vanguard of technology, worked at challenging jobs in an exciting, rewarding, and even pampering international environment. And then, after almost 30 years of a successful and promising career that repeatedly raised him to new heights, came the 2008 economic crisis. Udi found himself unemployed, with no preparation or tools for dealing with this crisis, which was much more than an economic crisis. Within the great uncertainty enveloping him, he came to realize that he - with his gray hair - had to reinvent himself. He decided to take himself and his fate into his own hands, and create for himself an activity what would provide a solution for his career needs in the coming years.
For this purpose, he joined forces with others who had also gone through the shock of being laid off and their lack of preparation for the new situation. They shared what was happening to them. Thus was born the "Gray-Haired Club." Among its founders, together with Udi Keshet, was Efrat Ramati, who decided to give up a senior high-tech job to do "something else" with a social contribution. She now leads the Gray-Haired Club's "business factory," a program that combines training for internal change with actually setting up a business venture. Another entrepreneur who joined Keshet and Efrati is Yoram Moskovitch, who is now leading the social involvement part of the club, following a long career in banking in Israel and overseas.
Building a new career
The club is a professional support framework that provides its members with tools enabling them to define their goals and build a new career for themselves. Their activity is based on an online social network that allows every gray-head to be connected, to share opportunities, and to create joint business activities. The club's network of experts offers its services to companies and organizations interested in tackling the gray hair problem and its employment consequences in an orderly and planned manner. A significant part of the club's activity consists of meetings in which connections are made between the gray-haired members, some of which lead to the creation of employment and business opportunities. In recent years, a business incubator has been founded in the framework of the club that encourages its participants to create their own business ventures. Sadel Technologies, a software house employing high-tech personnel from the scattered Bedouin communities in the Negev, is a fine example of a venture that sprung up in the framework of this incubator.
Last week, as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week observed also in Israel, with dozens of meetings and various events connecting large communities of entrepreneurs with investors and various parties in the Israeli high-tech environment, a special meeting of the Gray-Haired Club took place in Herzliya. Under the title, "The Secret Ingredient of Over-45s that Will Make Your Dream Come True," the meeting discussed the creation of entrepreneurship opportunities for gray heads willing to take their fate into their hands and create occupational opportunities for themselves that will also be an enjoyable and exciting environment for the foreseeable future. Talking to Keshet the other day, I asked him about the insights he had gained in almost a decade of working for gray heads.
Who are the people you are aiming at? Whom do you want to help?
Keshet: "Unfortunately, most people feel the change at work, but don't really absorb it. They read about it in the newspaper, and pray that 'it' won't get them. Then, if retirement or being laid off is forced on them, they often try to think that the change is only temporary. But it suddenly takes longer, much longer, to get back to work. This situation affects everything that is important to you in life, so it's more difficult. Another adverse trend appearing in recent years is outmoded professions. This is already happening to gray heads now, and it will get worse in the coming years. People have to find within themselves abilities and uniqueness to understand where their specialty lies, and how to offer it to the market. It's also important for us to help those who have had a successful career, but who want something new in another field. Our goal in all the courses and meetings is to show these people that there's a solution, but you have to do something different, something more, so that work will become a sources of enjoyment and pride, not just a livelihood. Incidentally, in recent years, we've discovered that the age of those contacting us has gradually fallen. When we began, they were over 50, but now there are a lot of people in their 40s, who are already planning for the next stage in their careers."
Is your activity yielding results?"
"We see that 40% of those going through our courses find work within three months. 30% discover new opportunities, and decide to change the form of their work and become independent entrepreneurs, while 30% continue looking for something else. This usually happens to someone over 63."
Maybe it sound naive, but the law bans age discrimination in employment. Why is there a problem?
"Technological progress, the new business models, and the need for quick business results are reducing the number of jobs in the market, especially well-paying jobs. At this time, there are four generations together in the labor market, with Generation Y being dominant in it. We have detected business pressure in enterprises - between management, the workers, the customers, and the suppliers - and the result is that over 40s are not competitive enough, and in many cases have to leave the system. Sometimes it's because the enterprise wants it that way, and sometimes they don’t feel comfortable in the framework being offered. In many cases, it's hard to make specific accusations against employers, but the bottom line is that the gray heads have the most chance of finding themselves outside the system."
"Entrepreneurship with social motifs"
Does entrepreneurship have special characteristics at the age at which hair has turned gray?
"Sometimes we see "impression entrepreneurship" among our entrepreneurs - the desire to feel that I'm doing something significant that will leave an impression on our planet. This is business entrepreneurship with social motifs, which seeks to make money but doesn't forget the employees, the community, and the environment. Such entrepreneurs wake up with joy each morning, and return home with a feeling of satisfaction and significance, and sometimes also with a respectable salary. Another characteristic we've noticed is that gray heads realize that at this stage in their lives, they don't have to do everything by themselves; they can hook up with partners."
The Gray-Haired Club provides a framework for those who have realized that their hair color has changed. Those of you who are young and are still ineligible for this prestigious club of people with great experience and many insights will do well to realize that the dizzying pace of progress makes it necessary for you to plan your future and control the course of your lives to the greatest possible extent. Not everyone has to or can be an entrepreneur, but everyone should assume that he or she cannot rely on chance and the good will of employers. So take hold of yourselves and try to control what happens in your lives, because it is much easier now, before your hair turns gray.
Izhar Shay is a managing partner in Canaan Partners.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 22, 2016
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