by Joe Roissier

Created on: May 25, 2008   Last Updated: July 28, 2008

How many times will life allow you to re-invent yourself? What are your options at 50-plus after a rewarding career in the sweet spot of the telecommunications boom of the late 1990's? What choices are left after you gambled in the California real estate boom of 2000 to 2005 and came out far enough ahead to keep your seat at the table but not to retire?

It's true what your guidance counselors in high school and employment counselors later on tell you. Find a passion and pursue it. Look deeply into your soul and know what motivates you to achieve. Use that, and only that, as your guide when you look for meaning in your professional and personal lives. If you have only money as your guide, you'll get distracted from the things that matter. If you come to understand who you are and selflessly offer the best of it to others, the money will come. As trite a all of this sounds, it's true.

I tried it the other way for 20 years and I found myself on a plateau from which I only recently escaped. It wasn't a bad place to be, but I was truly stuck in a rut. I had to move up to the next level and it was not about the money.

For about a year longer than I should have, I lived like the high times would never end. I accomplished some good things and acted on a few middle-aged fantasies. I indulged an un-lived dream and learned how to handle a 40 ft. sailboat. I bought a retirement home in Mexico, half of which I eventually had to sell so I could keep it. I raised a son to adulthood and another to early adolescence.

I had some cash left from all of this, but the interest it accrued wouldn't even pay for the gas and insurance on the 5 series BMW I acquired 3 years ago as a sop to my middle-aged ego. The thrill of driving a nice car wears off after the first month anyway. I came to the conclusion, finally, that money and material pursuits are an illusion. The more we grasp at them, the more the happiness they're supposed to bring to us, eludes us.

But we still have to live a decent life, pay the bills and raise the kids. I found myself in need of income and after 7 years of self-employment, I was facing un-employment without any of the benefits that may have come if I worked for someone else. I broke down and realized that I had to get a job.

But what's available for someone pushing 53? This is the age when most people are counting the years until their corporate pension kicks in and the health care benefits become permanent. I started to move my resume in the telecommunications business

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