I'd like to take you back about seven years in my life. Friday afternoon, a few days before Christmas 2009, I was the director of operations at a consumer products company in San Francisco, and I was called into a meeting that was already in progress. That meeting turned out to be my exit interview. I was fired, along with several others. I was 64 years old at the time. It wasn't completely unexpected. I signed a stack of papers, gathered my personal effects, and left to join my wife who was waiting for me at a nearby restaurant, completely unaware. Fast-forward several hours, we both got really silly drunk.
Vratit ću vas sedam godina mog života unatrag. Petak popodne, nekoliko dana prije Božića 2009. godine, bio sam direktor poslova u kompaniji za proizvode široke potrošnje u San Franciscu i pozvali su me na sastanak koji je već bio u tijeku. Ispalo je da je to bio razgovor o mom odlasku. Otpušten sam, kao i još neki. Imao sam tada 64 godine. Nije to bilo posve neočekivano. Potpisao sam hrpu papira, pokupio svoje stvari i otišao do svoje žene koja me čekala u obližnjem restoranu, posve zatečena. Nekoliko sati kasnije, oboje smo bili zaista pijani.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So, 40 plus years of continuous employment for a variety of companies, large and small, was over. I had a good a network, a good reputation -- I thought I'd be just fine. I was an engineer in manufacturing and packaging, I had a good background. Retirement was, like for so many people, simply not an option for me, so I turned to consulting for the next couple of years without any passion whatsoever.
Znači, 40 i nešto godina stalnog zaposlenja u raznim tvrtkama, velikim i malim, za mene je završilo. Znao sam puno ljudi, imao dobar ugled, mislio sam da će sve biti dobro. Bio sam inženjer u proizvodnji i ambalaži. Imao sam prijašnjeg iskustva. Umirovljenje za mene, kao i za mnoge druge, jednostavno nije dolazilo u obzir. Stoga sam se sljedećih nekoliko godina okrenuo savjetovanju bez apsolutno ikakve strasti.
And then an idea began to take root, born from my concern for our environment. I wanted to build my own business, designing and manufacturing biodegradable packaging from waste -- paper, agricultural, even textile waste -- replacing the toxic, disposable plastic packaging to which we've all become addicted. This is called clean technology, and it felt really meaningful to me. A venture that could help to reduce the billions of pounds of single-use plastic packaging dumped each year, and polluting our land, our rivers and our oceans, and left for future generations to resolve -- our grandchildren, my grandchildren.
A tada se počela rađati ideja, kao rezultat moje brige za okoliš. Htio sam izgraditi vlastiti posao, dizajnirajući i proizvodeći biorazgradivu ambalažu od otpada - papira, poljoprivrednog, čak i tekstilnog otpada, zamjenjujući toksičnu, jednokratnu plastičnu ambalažu, o kojoj smo svi postali ovisni. To se zove čista tehnologija i zaista mi je imala smisla. Pothvat koji je mogao smanjiti milijune tona jednokratne plastične ambalaže koja se baci godišnje zagađujući naše tlo, rijeke i oceane, ostavljene na brigu budućim naraštajima, našim unucima, mojim unucima.
And so now at the age of 66, with 40 years of experience, I became an entrepreneur for the very first time.
I tako sam u 66. godini života i 40-ogodišnjim iskustvom, po prvi puta postao poduzetnik.
(Cheers)
(Klicanje)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thank you. But there's more.
Hvala vam. Ima još.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Lots of issues to deal with: manufacturing, outsourcing, job creation, patents, partnerships, funding -- these are all typical issues for a start-up, but hardly typical for me. And a word about funding. I live and work in San Francisco, and if you're looking for funding, you are typically going to compete with some very young people from the high-tech industry, and it can be very discouraging and intimidating. I have shoes older than most of these people.
Mnogo je tu stvari koje morate riješiti: proizvodnja, vanjski suradnici, otvaranje radnih mjesta, patenti, partnerstva, financiranje, sve su to tipični izazovi za start-up, ali nikako tipični za mene. Par riječi i o financiranju. Živim i radim u San Franciscu i ako tražite izvore financiranja, obično se natječete s vrlo mladim ljudima iz tehnološke industrije, što može biti vrlo obeshrabrujuće i zastrašujuće. Imam cipele koje su starije od većine tih ljudi.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I do.
Zaista.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But five years later, I'm thrilled and proud to share with you that our revenues have doubled every year, we have no debt, we have several marquee clients, our patent was issued, I have a wonderful partner who's been with me right from the beginning, and we've won more than 20 awards for the work that we've done. But best of all, we've made a small dent -- a very small dent -- in the worldwide plastic pollution crisis.
No, pet godina kasnije, ushićen sam i ponosan što s vama mogu podijeliti da se naši prihodi udvostručuju svake godine, nemamo dugova, imamo uglednih klijenata, naš patent je izdan, imam sjajnog partnera koji je sa mnom od samog početka i osvojili smo više od 20 nagrada za svoj rad. No, najbolje od svega, ostavili smo mali trag, vrlo maleni trag u rješavanju svjetske krize zagađenja plastikom.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
And I am doing the most rewarding and meaningful work of my life right now. I can tell you there's lots of resources available to entrepreneurs of all ages, but what I really yearned for five years ago was to find other first-time entrepreneurs who were my age. I wanted to connect with them. I had no role models, absolutely none. That 20-something app developer from Silicon Valley was not my role model.
I upravo sada radim najispunjeniji i najsmisleniji posao svog života. Mnogo je dostupnih izvora za poduzetnike svih dobi, no, za čime sam zaista čeznuo prije pet godina, bilo je naći i druge nove poduzetnike moje dobi. Htio sam se povezati s njima. Nisam imao niti jedan jedini uzor. Onaj 20-ogodišnji programer aplikacija iz Silicijske doline nije bio moj uzor.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I'm sure he was very clever --
Sigurno je jako pametan.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I want to do something about that, and I want all of us to do something about that. I want us to start talking more about people who don't become entrepreneurs until they are seniors. Talking about these bold men and women who are checking in when their peers, in essence, are checking out. And then connecting all these people across industries, across regions, across countries -- building a community.
Želim tu poduzeti nešto i želim da svi poduzmemo nešto. Želim da više razgovaramo o ljudima koji postaju poduzetnici tek u starijoj dobi. Pričati o tim hrabrim muškarcima i ženama koji se uključuju, dok se njihovi vršnjaci, u biti, isključuju. A zatim povezivanje svih tih ljudi kroz razne industrije, regije, države, stvarajući zajednicu.
You know, the Small Business Administration tells us that 64 percent of new jobs created in the private sector in the USA are thanks to small businesses like mine. And who's to say that we'll stay forever small? We have an interesting culture that really expects when you reach a certain age, you're going to be golfing, or playing checkers, or babysitting the grandkids all of the time. And I adore my grandchildren --
Ljudi u administraciji za male tvrtke govore nam da je 64% novih radnih mjesta u privatnom sektoru SAD-a stvoreno zahvaljujući malim tvrtkama poput moje. A tko kaže da ćemo zauvijek i ostati mali? Imamo zanimljivu kulturu koja zaista očekuje da kada ste određene dobi, samo igrate golf ili društvene igre, ili čuvate unuke cijelo vrijeme. Ja obožavam svoje unuke...
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
and I'm also passionate about doing something meaningful in the global marketplace.
ali isto tako obožavam raditi nešto što ima smisla na globalnom tržištu.
And I'm going to have lots of company. The Census Bureau says that by 2050, there will be 84 million seniors in this country. That's an amazing number. That's almost twice as many as we have today. Can you imagine how many first-time entrepreneurs there will be among 84 million people? And they'll all have four decades of experience.
I imat ću mnogo društva za druženje. Ured za popis stanovništva kaže da će do 2050. godine u ovoj zemlji biti 84 milijuna ljudi starije dobi. To je nevjerojatan broj. To je gotovo dvostruko više nego danas. Možete li zamisliti koliko će biti novih poduzetnika među tih 84 milijuna ljudi? I svi će imati četiri desetljeća iskustva.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So when I say, "Let's start talking more about these wonderful entrepreneurs," I mean, let's talk about their ventures, just as we do the ventures of their much younger counterparts. The older entrepreneurs in this country have a 70 percent success rate starting new ventures. 70 percent success rate. We're like the Golden State Warriors of entrepreneurs --
I kada kažem da počnemo više govoriti o tim predivnim poduzetnicima, mislim da pričamo o njihovim poduhvatima, kao što pričamo i o poduhvatima onih mnogo mlađih od njih. Stariji poduzetnici u ovoj zemlji imaju stopu uspjeha od 70% u novom poslovnom poduhvatu. Stopa uspjeha od 70%. Pa mi smo poput Golden State Warriorsa među poduzetnicima.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
And that number plummets to 28 percent for younger entrepreneurs. This is according to a UK-based group called CMI.
A ova brojka pada na samo 28% za mlade poduzetnike. Ovo je prema podacima britanske grupacije CMI.
Aren't the accomplishments of a 70-year-old entrepreneur every bit as meaningful, every bit as newsworthy, as the accomplishments of a 30-year-old entrepreneur? Of course they are. That's why I'd like to make the phrase "70 over 70" just as --
Jesu li postignuća 70-ogodišnjeg poduzetnika jednako značajna, jednako vrijedna objave, kao postignuća nekog 30-ogodišnjeg poduzetnika? Naravno da jesu. Zato bih se izrazio, "70 iznad 70"
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
just as commonplace as the phrase "30 under 30."
uobičajeno je kao i izraz "30 ispod 30".
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Cheers)
(Klicanje)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)