Refirement

Refirement by Warren Black

Prior to his refirement, Warren Black, was a  Marketing Manager for CSR, General Manager of Hans Smallgoods and business strategy consultant to Logan City Council. He has mentored more than 700 startups and small businesses in Logan City and beyond.

Is it payback or payforward? I don’t know, but whatever it is, most of us get a stirring in our lives when we want to get off the busy-at-work roundabout and do something that makes the world a better place. That clearly happened to me in 1995 when God spoke to me to resign from my corporate job and start a new career based on this vision or purpose: “Enrich the lives of others by the richness of my own”. That spoke to me that I needed to use the skills, wisdom, and business knowledge that I had experienced over the previous 30 years and payback/payforward for the benefit of the lives of others.

That started my personal “refirement”. I started a new career of enriching (enriching: improving or enhancing the quality or value of) the personal and business lives of others. Some of that work earnt an income, some of it didn’t. It didn’t matter as I was fulfilling a God-given purpose, so He looked after the income our family needed. I did whatever came my way, mostly business mentoring and management consulting and strategies, as well as pastoral care: working with men to strengthen their spiritual and emotional lives.

You know the saying “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life”. Well, I was loving what I was doing as it had a purpose, and many times I could see the changes in peoples’ lives.

Over time, I did less work for an income and more for volunteering. After 20 odd years of pursuing the vision, I became fully “refired”, but still pursued the 1995 vision. Now I volunteer in both the business world and as an aged care worker, befriending men who need a friend at a lonely time in their life.

If you are looking for refirement, the key is to find a good purpose: one that enriches the lives of others and leaves the world a better place.

Leave a Reply