Ideal Living - Summer 2009

better with age
Recession Antidote3
by Carol Segrave
It’s never too late to find your calling

Hard times seem to be here for most everyone, but they are specially hard for the 50+ crowd. The unemployment rate for senior workers rose in April of this year to its highest level on record. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics results as reported in AARP Bulletin Today state that nearly 1. 85 million people age 55 and older were out of work in April. The gloom continues with the shrinking of retirement funds and home loss among family and friends. Stress abounds with all its symptoms: fatigue; loss of memory, appetite and sleep; digestive problems; muscle tension; weakened immunity; spiraling blood pressure; depression. YIKES!

We need an antidote! We need role models and mentors to lead the way back to some balanced, healthful happiness. I found such models in Andrea March, Betty Jandl and Betty LaMarr, who are poster women for the guaranteed power of positive thinking from cradle to grave.

All three women have put at least 25 years into careers in business. All three women walked away from those careers and jumped feet first into entrepreneurship (actually, entrepreneurship with a benevolent twist). All three women run entrepreneurial ventures whose missions are to improve the quality of life for all on the planet. All three women are over 50 (and one is way over 50!).

Andrea March

Andrea March has successfully reinvented herself several times as a woman business owner and leader in real estate; in jewelry import and distribution with Andrea March Accessories; as an asset management innovator with Investment Expo; and most recently, with Women’s Leadership Exchange.

The inspiration for Investment Expo came to her as she watched a business program on CNBC, and she realized she had no idea what they were talking about. Like many others, Andrea says, “I did not understand investing, and was probably not the exception— there were undoubtedly millions of people like me, with money to invest and no understanding of how to make smart decisions.” And so Investment Expo was born. Andrea founded and ran the company for the next five years. Investment Expo became the largest financial strategies trade show/seminar program in the Northeast and South Florida, attracting up to 14,000 attendees annually.

Four years later, in 2001, Andrea met Leslie Grossman. The two experienced women business owners shared a powerful commitment to women entrepreneurs like themselves, and that commitment coalesced into Women’s Leadership Exchange (WLE).