Old Habits Die Hard in the Third Age Years
I spent a lifetime in retailing and I'm still at it in retirement; albeit virtually.
You know how it goes.
You put up a web page and throw in some stock.
Your page begets another and another and another until one day you're looking at a site that's got more stock than Bloomingdales.
But you can't stop?
The old sourcing skills are making a comeback, sharpening their talons, and coaxing you to duck and dive, bob and weave to find still more stock at even better prices.
So you build another virtual retail store and then another and another and another until you're looking at an empire.
Then you diversify.
If you are upmarket, you go downmarket.
Why not?
There no shareholders breathing down your neck or smart ass vice presidents demanding that you pull in the reins.
And so you build a bargain basement store and another and another until you're looking at Wal-Mart.
Expending your energy in this way is fun; it's therapeutic, and if you go about matters in the right way, it doesn't cost a thin dime apart from hosting fees - and it can be hugely profitable.
In between times you are still knocking out the odd bestseller just to keep your hand in.
But even now you can't stop.
You dig deep into the inner recesses of the psyche and draw down expertise that has been rusting away for eons in the vaults of the supraconscious.
Ideas leap out at you from nowhere; you create courses on creative writing, starting a business, offline marketing, online marketing, maximising on retirement, and what have you.
So you build more websites and more websites and more websites and now you are busier than ever you were when you thought you were working.
So how am I doing with all these third age activities?
I'm not hurting.
Most mornings my inbox is crammed with cute little messages like 'Invoice from Clickbank' and 'You have money at PayPal' and so forth.