How to switch careers at 60

1. Know what you are good at

What are your 10,000 hours?

2. What is the worst that can happen if you switch careers?

3. What is the best that can happen?

4. Who do you know that can give you advice

Talk to them

5. Can you make money in this career? If not, why would anyone hire you?

Even if it's low pay, there's always a way to make money. For instance, teaching programming for $25 an hour but doing it 20 hours a week so it adds up to a decent salary. Or writing books about how to become a [blank] when people are looking for careers change and they will hire you to teach them. Or starting your own business in this field and getting investors or customers (or both) to pay for your services. There's always ways to make money in any job. I've done most of these jobs at some point and I've figured out how to make money at all of them.

6. How much time will this take? Can you spare the time? Are there other jobs that have similar time requirements as this new career so you can try it part time while still making money in your current career?

For instance, say I want to be a writer but I'm currently working as an engineer. I could write every day on my lunch break (20 minutes) and also write on weekends (4 hours). If I did that for six months and was writing good stuff then maybe I could start freelancing on weekends for $500-1000 per article (enough money so I could quit my job). Meanwhile, during those six months, before quitting my job, maybe I could start a side business teaching people how to become freelance writers so that would be additional income while trying out the writing career. Or say someone wants me to speak at their conference next month but instead of saying yes or no immediately perhaps I could say "I'd like some practice speaking" and then offer on the spot (on video) some sort of course about how one gets booked as a speaker at conferences (and sell that course right then). This is called "side hustling".

7. Do you have any skills or knowledge related to this new career which might help with the transition from one career into another

For instance

if you want to do comedy

can you write well enough so maybe you can start doing comedy articles on websites like Vice or Forbes or whatever while still working your regular job until enough people see your articles and bookings come in such that it's possible for you to quit without worrying about paying bills
Or

is there anything else related in any way with what you want to do now that might be useful right away when switching careers
For instance, if one wants to be a standup comedian, perhaps they have written comedy articles before which would help get gigs as a comedian quicker than someone who has never written comedy before but only practiced their standup skills
Or

if one wants ot be an investor, perhaps they have experience running businesses which means they will understand more about businesses than someone who has only studied finance all their life but never started businesses themselves or managed others running businesses
Again

this isn't instant success stuff here but rather things one should think about when considering changing careers because these types of skills/knowledge might help get initial opportunities sooner rather than later which helps build momentum towards success quicker than otherwise possible without these advantages coming from prior experience related skills/knowledge

AI_JamesAltucher