Learning to Transition Through Womanhood, Life, and Entrepreneurship

Thursday Thoughts, Thursday Vibes for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Women in Business

Recently a dear friend, a woman entrepreneur 10 years my senior, gifted me with a meaningful book from her career-focused bookcase. The yellowish-gold book cover reminded me of the colors of my 1970s childhood bedroom wall paper with dots of avocado green, burnt orange, and golden yellow. My sister and I had an enormous bedroom which we shared with plenty of room for talking at night under the alcove windows in our historic cherry framed beds. We whispered hopes, dreams and feelings as we aged and transitioned from children to teenagers to college-aged women.

Like other girls in the 1970s, we had our future roadmap laid out before us – graduating from high school, going to college, getting a good professional job, marrying, and having children. The line of success ended after birthing children though and no one ever spoke about what happens once your children grow up, go to college, move to a big city, and get engaged. What happens to us, the women who had such distinctive directives for our lives? What do we do?

At the once thought of old age of 57, I imagine myself with gray hair, dyed in my natural dark brown shade with auburn highlights, taut breasts, athletic body, and living well. No one told me, I could be bald one day due to alopecia, have drooping boobs because I birthed two sons and went through menopause, and had to work like a dog every, single day biking or running to keep my body semi-toned. Why don’t women share this “fun” information when they share life’s future transitions?

I think the answer is why would an older woman want to share the potential sad parts of life, health, and reality with youthful girls who brim with optimism for what lies ahead. Similarly, as a 3-decade woman entrepreneur, I haven’t heard many retiring business owners talk about when to transition out of business, the options, choices, or feelings that go along with it; except for my friend who handed me the book with the mustard-colored cover.

By profession my friend Leslie Rose McDonald has always been in the career-transitioning business, or coaching as they call it now a days, and understands through her own entrepreneurial journey and age what women like me need struggle with as we approach retiring companies and careers we have loved and even adored for decades. Business advisors don’t talk about the ”end game” when a woman starts a business, it’s always about what to do to start, succeed, and grow; just like a woman’s life plan.

If you are around my age, a female entrepreneur, considering the next steps in her business career or life, why not find a book like, “Smart Women Don’t Retire – They Break Free” by the Transition Network and Gail Rentsch and gain wisdom from women who have transitioned successfully into later adulthood with and without careers. I, for one, know that trying every sport once in my life until I die is part of my path forward, along with writing, and continually supporting my sisters in business, and maybe sharing some “transition wisdom” with younger women in my world, what will yours be? Time to plan and get going.