What are the best midlife career changes? I wasn’t looking for a career change because I already had one of arguably the best careers possible. I had a dream job and was already working as a professional stunt performer. The problem was I wasn’t getting enough work. It was still kind of a “hobby job” and time was ticking away. Maybe I was kidding myself, thinking I was actually a stuntman! Perhaps I was actually in a psychiatric unit licking a mirror and just telling myself that I was a stuntman!
As time wore on I started realising the reality of this dream! I hadn’t made it and I needed to take some action. But, I simply didn’t have the enthusiasm for the business any more after many years of foolishly waiting for work and wishing my time away! Being out of work more often than not took its toll, and even when I was working, I really wasn’t “feeling it” any more. I had become disillusioned.
I still loved the work, when it came. But it was far too seldom and I wasn’t getting any younger!
Best Midlife Career Changes
During the many gaps in my work I had taken various jobs on. I had worked in factories, on building sites, as an HGV driver and pretty much taken anything I could get. In my late 30’s I was working in a builders yard for minimum wage wondering where it all went wrong. Perhaps I hadn’t really had the ambition I needed. Did I really want it badly enough? Were my strategies all wrong?
I looked to the internet as a solution. It was work I could pick up and drop around the TV and film work. It allowed me to work in my own way and around work when it came up. Ultimately I wanted something which I could build over time and which could be worked on whenever I was free.
Initially I looked to eBay and started buying and selling items I found in car boot sales and charity shops. I then found items on eBay itself. Checkout my eBay business strategy here: how to start a profitable eBay business.
I found this business model after purchasing an eBook on eBay. What I found more interesting was the purchase of the eBook. Selling digital products seemed like the perfect business model. I bought this eBook and downloaded it instantly. This struck me as the perfect business model. An automated online sale which could be sold to anyone globally over the internet. No postage necessary!Â
An Automated Online Business
I decided the eBay model wasn’t really working for me. It had kept me busy and entertained but it didn’t hold any long term interest or future for me. I looked at making my own ebooks and selling them online without much success. However, I knew there was more to using the internet for a business. I had a laptop and the ability to connect with a global population. Surely there was something I could do with some future in it!
After dismally failing with the eBook idea I bought a couple of courses which claimed to teach how to make money online. I later learned of a business model known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing lets anyone sell someone else’s product over the internet and earn a commission on the sale.
You can sell pretty much anything you want, providing the product is attached to some kind of affiliate program. Join the program and promote the product over the internet with your own specific affiliate link. This link is specific to you and when you make a sale from it, you are credited with the sale.
This was definitely one of the best midlife career changes I could have found! I could still take the stunt work when it came up and work on the internet business when I wasn’t busy.
Best Midlife Career Changes
I put all of my energy into the online business. When I wasn’t building websites and content, I was studying videos and looking for new strategies to make money. It was an exciting time. I thought I was going to be ‘rich’ overnight. The enthusiasm soon turned to indifference after failing time and time again to make any money. I had tried many methods of building an online business:
- Google Adsense
- YouTube
- Content Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing and so on.
But somehow success eluded me still. I kept jumping from one ‘system’ to the next. Each one promised more than the last! Was this going to be one of the best midlife career changes, or the worst?! I kept taking the work when it popped up and kept up the internet efforts among various other low paid jobs.
Thoughts Vs. Reality
When I thought about the internet business, it made so much sense. Automating digital sales over the internet and scaling up with automated tools and strategies. In my mind I saw the ultimate goal as complete financial freedom. This was potentially better than my dream job of being a stuntman! If only I could get it to work for me, I wouldn’t even need any of the other jobs I was juggling!
The main problem was that I didn’t have a definite plan. I didn’t have a mentor or someone to follow and ask for advice. It was all random people online who I would never meet.
As I had some small successes, it gave me the motivation to keep going. I just decided I wouldn’t quit no matter what.
Finding A Mentor
After many trials and difficulties, I eventually found a community of support. I actually met up with my mentors who run workshops and seminars around the world teaching affiliate marketing. It was the break through I had needed. Once I joined an online community, things began to change. I could “shadow” people who were already being successful online and copy what they were doing.
Finding a mentor and group of people to help was the biggest step in overcoming the challenges in going it alone online. Obviously trust is a big issue in the online world. You eventually need to trust someone if you’re going to make any progress with an online business. It wasn’t until I decided to do so that things changed for me!
You can access the same community of support and mentorship that I found online here.