Keep the expertise and change the container. List everything you could get paid for, pick the one you’d happily explain at a dinner party, and start saying it out loud before it feels ready. Your brain is on your side: in one large study, vocabulary didn’t peak until about 65.
The internet’s version of reinvention at 50 involves a linen kaftan, a one-way ticket to Bali and a new name with “Moon” in it. Feel free. But you can also reinvent yourself from your kitchen table with a notepad and a strong coffee. Cheaper. Fewer mosquitoes.
Why it’s harder than it sounds
At 50 your job title has done a lot of heavy lifting. It answered “so what do you do?” for two decades. Take it away and the question gets uncomfortable fast.
Then there’s the picture in your head of what a fresh start looks like. One COO who walked away after more than 20 years admitted she’d ruled out starting her own business because she pictured “a ridiculously gender biased, 1950s version of what an entrepreneur looks like.” Not risky enough. Not loud enough. Not, apparently, a 25-year-old man in a fleece vest. She started one anyway.
And the self-doubt is loud. Her own list, once she’d made the call: “who am I? What am I gonna do? Will I add value somewhere else?” If that’s your inner monologue right now, you’re in excellent company.
The science is kinder than your inner monologue. In a 2015 study in Psychological Science, Joshua Hartshorne and Laura Germine looked at data from more than 48,000 people online plus standardized test norms. Different abilities peak at different ages. Vocabulary peaked around 65 in their online data. Reading other people’s emotions held steady between 40 and 60. So some of the skills you’ve spent decades building are not on their way out. One of them hasn’t even peaked.
What actually works
Take the “no” seriously
Her turning point came in a coffee shop, looking at next year’s calendar and a training she’d delivered year after year. Every part of her said, “we’re not doing it. We’re absolutely not doing it.” Her reasoning afterward was simple: “Doing anything for two decades, like you’re a dynamic creature. That’s enough.” Twenty years is a long time to do anything. Even a good thing.
Make the money list
Once she’d decided to go, she wrote down everything she could do that would earn money. Not to do it all. Just to see the options on paper. When the slate is clean, she asked herself, what’s available “if other people’s opinions are not the main driver”? Try it. You’ll be surprised how long the list gets.
Start with the low-hanging fruit
She didn’t reinvent from zero. She started with executive coaching, consulting and training, which she called “low hanging logical fruit,” because she’d done it all at her old company. Later came a book and a one-woman show. Reinvention usually starts next door to what you know, then wanders off somewhere better.
Say it before it’s true
When people asked what was next, she started answering, “I’m starting my own business.” Saying it gave it a certain reality. Then came the boring bits, like setting up QuickBooks, which she admits were a welcome distraction.
Don’t overgive on the way out
She gave six months’ notice and made sure everything was handed over. Her verdict now: “That was an overgiving.” Be generous, by all means. Just don’t spend half a year building someone else’s future while yours waits in the car.
Hear it from someone who’s done it
Barbara Burgess left a COO role after more than two decades, founded the consultancy Corluma and wrote a book called Enough. She tells the coffee shop story in the first few minutes. Jump to 1:19 or find the full conversation on the episode page.
FAQ
How do I find myself after 50?
Stop looking for a new self and audit the one you’ve got. What do people ask your advice on? What did you love before the job title took over? The answers are usually already in your diary and your inbox.
How can women over 50 use their networks to reinvent themselves?
Tell people what you’re doing next, out loud and early. Your network can’t refer you to a business it doesn’t know exists. Several people told the COO in this piece to start her own thing before she believed she could.
Has anyone reinvented themselves after 55, and how hard was it?
Plenty have, and the honest answer is that it’s both terrifying and freeing. The COO in this piece described swinging between “terror and joy.” Expect both. Plan for the terror and enjoy the joy.
Is 50 too old to change careers?
No. The skills that come from experience, like vocabulary and reading people, hold up or keep improving well past 50. Pick a direction that uses what you already know and you start ahead, not behind.
Next step: if your reinvention involves being known for what you know, a show of your own does the introducing for you. Serena’s company, Captrr, builds podcasts for experts with plenty to say. See how Captrr works.