In partnership with

Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

Whether you are forced to review your options, or you pro-actively choose to reassess what you want to do, I really like the term refirement.

Corporate folks have known they might get caught by the cost cutting axe for years. It’s no fun when the pendulum swings.

A little introspection goes a long way toward what you might do next.

Let's get into it.

Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Rewrite your narrative

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

There’s a host of blogs and AARP articles about refirement for retirees, but that’s not exactly today’s topic. I’m talking about aiming yourself toward something new you could start while you’re still working.

Work takes far too much time for you to not enjoy what you’re doing. Sure, in your 20’s you need to grind. But late-career you should able to pick and choose the type of clients and work you prefer.

It’s never a bad idea to review your work.

• What are you really good at?

• What don’t you want to do?

• What can you do better than others?

• What problems do peers bring to you?

• What unique solutions have you created?

• What other insight do only you bring to projects?

We all need to be fired up about what we do.

It’s not just work – but relationships, religion, kids, fitness, hobbies, travel, side hustles, creative energy. One of the reasons Launch Key came about was from late-career friends confiding in me that they hated their corporate gig.

I first thought about refirement when my Charlotte pastor, David Chadwick started Moments of Hope after being ousted from the previous church he built. This time he’s created a whole new church model with low overhead, fantastic outreach and organic growth.

Many others have started late-career businesses because of their refirement. Business strategy and supply chain expert Dr. James A. Tompkins founded Tompkins Ventures for just such a reason.

Rewrite your narrative

We can do it any time, but typically we get a few times during our lives to completely rewrite our story.

• When our playing days come to an end

• Or we leave for college

• When we start a new job

• Or fail at one

• When we get married

• Or have a child

• When we get fired

• Or start a business

Why not completely change up in our 50’s or 60’s?

Clean out the debris from corporate and do something meaningful – for you. Leverage experience into your new new thing.

I recently came across this excellent David Epstein substack interview of Steve Magness, about rewriting your whole narrative. Magness’ honesty is refreshing. He made a really bad decision but eventually changed course to align with his values.

His latest book is highlighted below in Old School Wisdom.

You don’t need to rationalize taking a banned supplement to make a radical change. You don’t need to become a whistleblower on the sport you love or deal with public criticism like Magness did.

You don’t even need to move.

It can start pretty small right where you are. The digital opportunities today outweigh all the cost of change and starts with your own list of uncommon knowledge.

I write about the possibilities of the Creator Economy for people of a certain age. You can find a few examples below.

• Attention is the new oil

• Human generated content

• The anti-IPO plan

Sometimes a change of scenery does help though. My own move late last year has given me new neighbors with new insights and plenty of new ideas.

But to my friends who have wondered – yes – it is more like a Refirement Community.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

The modern way to manage bills and expenses.

Simplify with BILL. Get a BrüMate Backpack Cooler.

We love our customers—and the feeling is mutual! Demo BILL Spend & Expense and get $200 to spend with BrüMate.

“BILL gives me the capability to create as many virtual cards as I want. It makes budgeting easy. I use a different card for marketing, office expenses, etc and can set budget for each. All free, no hidden fees. Makes expense tracking extremely simple.” – Dylan Jacob, Founder @ BruMate

BILL gets you:

• Customizable spending limits

• Real-time tracking

• Scalable credit lines

Take a demo and claim $200 to spend with BrüMate.¹

Request a demo

¹Terms and Conditions apply. See offer page for details. Card issued by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC, and is not a deposit product.

Old School Wisdom

Striving is in our nature. We all want to perform at our best when it matters most.

Renowned performance scientist and bestselling author Steve Magness reveals a new path to sustainable success. In Win the Inside Game, Magness argues that excellence and fulfillment are not mutually exclusive; we can and should seek both.

Free Knowledge

Muge Wood and Christine Zmuda started a weekly podcast to share interviews and sometimes humorous information on transitioning from full time work to anything else.

Here’s Why Over 4 Million Professionals Read Morning Brew

• Business news explained in plain English

• Straight facts, zero fluff, & plenty of puns

• 100% free

See for yourself

Recommendations

💡 Product-Led Geek : Get your FREE GROWTH TOOLKIT and join over 7600 founders and leaders learning how to scale their B2B software companies with product-led growth and product-led sales.

📕 MGMT Playbook : Practical management insights straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

🗃️ Dealroom Business Success Uncovered : Learn directly from billionaire entrepreneurs on how to grow a business. Join a community of 2,000+ innovators.

👋 Huntrs : Join Hanna Larrson and learn how to build your personal brand and audience, monetize your knowledge, build multiple income streams and a lean, profitable online business.

🧠 Seven Deadly Stupidities : Discover the patterns that lead to failure and learn how to avoid them.

Visual Crapshoot