Get Job or Find An Opportunity?

My professional life followed a pretty normal pattern. After high school, I went to college, got a degree and started as a classroom teacher. I left teaching and coaching after five years and started a 30-year career in sales, working my way up the corporate ladder to my last position as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for a national manufacturing company in Portland, Oregon.

Along the way, I had stints as a National Director of Sales, President of a small sales company and Senior VP of Training for a finance company. When I finally decided to move back home to Honolulu in 2008, I thought my resume and experience would easily land me a high paying job.

I was wrong.

At 57 years old, I found companies reluctant to pay me the dollars consistent with my experience when they could hire someone right out of college for a fraction of the cost. I applied for dozens of jobs and wasn't even able to get an interview. I started looking at positions that were way below my qualifications and salary history, only to be told I was "over-qualified." My life as a corporate sales professional was over.

I finally decided that I had to take my destiny into my own hands. If no company was going to give me a job, then I had to figure out a way to create one. I had been involved with several start-ups before and saw the enormous cash strain and stress and didn't want to be a part of that. I didn't want to be involved in manufacturing or in retailing. I didn't want to do "hard selling" where I was responsible for "closing the deal." My business experience told me the best position is to be the "middle man," the person who connects the producer of the product or service with the distribution network. Low liability, miminal cash infusion, high profitability. That's the ticket. Now, I just had to find the right opportunity.

This is what I found.