Work
by Terry Elliott—Age 59—Lakeville, MN
Starting late, I take a radical step and move me, my wife, and 1-yr old daughter to Minnesota, without a home, without a job. I answer an ad in the paper and talk my way into an entry level financial analyst position with Sperry Corp. The hiring manager tells me in confidence: “We want to hire you, but to be fair, I have to give you a typing test like I did the other applicants—who are all female. €? After I type 88 words a minute, he gives me the test again just to make sure.
The job pays so little, I watch our pile of US Savings Bonds grow smaller each month. I work hard, and soon begin demonstrating the software tools I use to potential customers. I transfer to Systems to learn about software and give demos full-time.
Two years later I join Airlines Marketing. Now I’m flying to San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, all in the same week. Traveling every week.
The software I design is a hit. Now I join Global Transportation as head of the software team. My demos are now in Brussels, in Sydney, in Santiago. Soon we have over a dozen clients around the world, with 15 people working on the program.
Whether in Hong Kong or Helsinki, I have my favorite hotel, my regular jogging path, my favorite shopping spots. Sometimes I buy cut flowers and a vase and make up a simple arrangement for my room. Sundays I read English papers and have a big breakfast at the best hotel in town. On the way home from Helsinki, I swing by Stockholm to visit my daughter studying abroad one term.
There can be surprises: I visit a Baptist church in Sydney, arriving early. A few minutes later, a Chinese lady sits near me. Then a Chinese girl. By service time, I realize I’m in Chinatown Baptist Church.
Today, I work out of my home, like my colleagues. I’m on 4-5 virtual teams, yet I’ve never met most of my teammates. I’ve morphed into a business consultant. I take an MBA at 55. I take a 7-month project in Germany to develop my newly acquired business modeling skills.
It has been 30 years of scrambling and reinventing myself. Financial analyst, software designer, salesman, trainer, writer, tester, speaker. I have 6 years until retirement: how many transformations remain?
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