Byline: Alan Sugar
Dear Sir Alan
I AM a regular reader of your column and have long been encouraged by your advice and comments.
I was an insurance and mortgage broker and became one of the many casualties of ageism in the workplace. But the young man who told me I was too old to do my job actually liberated me into the most enjoyable and productive business I could have wished for.
Mike Cooke, Tamworth, Staffs
Sir Alan says
WHAT a great story - and one I am delighted to publish in the Daily Mirror to encourage our readers.
You used to advise people on insurance and mortgages before being told by your manager just before Christmas a few years ago that at 57 you were too old and they wanted to move you from sales into a clerical position.
It seems to me this was a nasty way of forcing you to quit because they did not do the honourable thing of saying they wanted to make you redundant which would, of course, have cost them money.
The old traditional High Street insurance broker is a dying thing. Lots of people now buy insurance on the internet and also respond directly to adverts.
You seem to have been a victim of the mass redundancy occurring in the traditional mortgage and insurance industry. The good news is you decided to use your experience and set up on your own advising people on their mortgages and insurance. Now you have built up a very nice business.
You have three websites www. xpert-mortgage.co.uk, www.actors-mortgage.co.uk and www.mike cooke.promptquote.co.uk This shows you have adapted to the modern requirements of the consumer.
Seven years on and coming up to your 65th birthday, you seem really fired up and enjoying what you are doing as your own man.
This is a success story that a lot of people should take note of. Even better still, the guy who sacked you was last seen driving a minibus!
The moral is that while industry and commerce these days tends to look down at people over the age of 50, you have proved that age has nothing to do with it. It's your experience that has made you successful.
More people at your age should take the leap to start businesses for themselves if they have been made redundant. There is lack of self-belief and people don't know what an asset their experience is.
The only sad thing is you are probably kicking yourself for not doing it 20 years ago.
CAPTION(S):
AGE OF EXPERIENCE: Mike Cooke has his own business now
No comments:
Post a Comment