Why Am I Doing This, Part 2
This week is the second of two posts describing why I developed Afterburner Success Partners, why I post these weekly blogs, and why I wrote my book. Yes, all for you!
Introduction
Last week, I started to tell you why I am doing what I am doing with Afterburner Success Partners. Why I went to the effort of writing a book, and then why, during this fall season of my life, I continue to write three blogs a week. In short, it’s for you. Yes, I guess you could say it’s all about you! Well, you probably know that I don’t care for that attitude, “It’s all about me,” but I think you get the point I’m trying to make here: I’m doing this to help you get what you want out of your life. I want to give back. Just like others have helped me through the years.
A resource to help you
Afterburner Success Partners (ASP) was established as a resource to help you define and achieve your dreams so you can live your best life. If you are a little skeptical about why I would choose to spend time and effort on this, I can understand, and I would suggest you please read on; that’s the purpose of this week’s post!
This will be the last post of “laying the groundwork” before we get into the meat of things next week. Yes, I know you are anxious to learn how you can develop and achieve your own dream plan!
There is so much disinformation and people trying to take advantage of others that I feel it’s important to establish my credibility with you before I try to teach you anything. I admire and follow Jim Stovall, a fellow Tulsan, and he says you should never accept advice from someone who does not have what you want. If you are not following Jim, you should be; he is loaded with good advice. And talk about overcoming the odds and succeeding? His story is inspirational! Follow him, read his books, and watch his movies; they are inspiring and reinforce what we are trying to do at ASP. You can find him at https://www.jimstovall.com
We don’t always get what we want
Last week, I provided you with a rough outline of my journey from an E-1 enlistee in the Air Force at 20 years old to a retired Fortune 500 executive. Let me build on that a bit for you. In 2015, after almost 8 years in the Air Force and 27 years with American Airlines, I “retired” at age 56, having reached the position of Managing Director at age 47. One of the key concepts we will learn in these blogs and in the course in any of its forms is that we don’t always get what we want when we want it, and we need to plan for when things do not go our way. Then again, sometimes it does go your way, and sometimes even better than you could have imagined.
I have long known this and, over the years, prepared myself for that possibility. The fact is, somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of men in their 50s do not leave their career positions on their own terms. That’s right, a large percentage of males are involuntarily pushed into unemployment or early retirement before they are financially able to. You can Google it to see for yourself what I am telling you is true, but it’s a pretty unhappy story for a lot of people. Because I volunteer with a group called Overcoming Job Transition in Tulsa (https://ojttulsa.org), I meet many of these folks who enter job transition involuntarily. We help those folks get back on their feet, and over the 17 years the organization has been around, it has had a very high success rate, thanks to dedicated, selfless volunteers. I’m a bit of a newcomer, about three years, but I am proud to be associated with them, nonetheless. I’m happy when I can encourage someone.
Opportunities abound
And so it was with me. In 2014, American Airlines and USAirways completed their merger, and as often happens in mergers, things changed. For me, my position was moved to Dallas-Ft. Worth, and I was offered an opportunity to retire. If you had told me 5 years before that I would be retiring at age 56, I would not have believed you. Even though I had always dreamed of retiring at age 55. How ironic is that?
Fortunately, all the years of planning paid off, and I was financially able to take this step. It took a little while to sink in that I had actually completed the journey I had set out on so many years before. But when I got there, it just did not feel right, so I elected to continue working for almost 5 more years. I mean, heck, who retires at 56 anyway? This brought me to October 2019, when I decided to leave the full-time workforce for good. I had accomplished, exceeded, actually, all of my financial and professional goals. My personal goals were, and still are, a work in progress. As you will see later, even when we enter “retirement”, er, not going to work every day, we still have things we want to do! This means we need to plan for them, so we can.
To continue with my story about being prepared, we need to digress a bit. When I was in my early 20s in the Air Force during the late 1970s and 1980s, I knew I needed to complete my formal education if I was ever going to do the things I wanted and provide for my family the way I wanted. As a result, I spent seven of my eight years in the Air Force in college, earning three associate degrees, a bachelor's degree, and a master’s degree. All this was done in the evenings and weekends while I worked full-time, was married, and had children. Yes, these are the sacrifices we sometimes must make to get ahead. Fast forward to 2011, and I had advanced quite nicely through the organization, but American entered bankruptcy. Expecting the worst, I decided to upgrade my skills by obtaining two professional certifications from the American Society for Quality. This took almost a year of intense study and the sacrifice of a lot of fun time on the weekends. I would tell you it was well worth it. The knowledge, and indeed the certifications themselves, have paid dividends ever since.
Entering Halftime
After leaving full-time work in October 2019, I entered Halftime (Note 1), where I decided it was time to give back to others. Because I enjoy learning and teaching, I developed a course in setting and achieving goals so that others could learn to make their dreams come true and live their best life. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, life got busy, and other things, such as writing my cookbook (Note 3), came up. While I was able to offer the course through a local adult education program and help a few people, it was just not the right forum for this program to help people on a larger scale.
So that brings us to today, 2026. I have completed my cookbook and a second book (Note 4). I substitute teach at Tulsa Technology Center, volunteer at OJT, and enjoy traveling and spending time with others. In 2024, I established this website to make these resources and me available to all of you. This includes the full course that is available to you online to take in 11 roughly 20 minute segments.
I hope I have established that what I want to teach you is something you, too, can do, and I have provided an example from my own life so you can be confident that if you follow the steps I am laying out, you, too, can achieve your dreams and live your best life! What are you waiting for? To quote Jim Stovall, “Today’s the day!”
That’s all for this week!
Let’s help our friends and loved ones, shall we?
If you find the information in this post useful or enjoyable, please forward it to those you care about.
Then, simply say, “Search the internet for Afterburner Success Partners
to learn how to achieve your dreams and live your best life!”
What’s in it for Me
I have developed a proven, very low-cost way to set you on a path to achieve your dreams and live your best life for you and your family. I’m not aware of any other place you can get so much for so little. Consider that this is about you and your best life, so think hard about this opportunity. Remember what they say, opportunity only knocks once!
Call to Action
Take the online class today. Ponder: What if I lost my job today? Could I recover? What if, at a future date, I am forced into retirement before I am ready? Visit Jim Stovall at https://www.jimstovall.com and sign up for his weekly blog.
Recommended Resources
Purchase and read as many of Jim Stovall’s books as you can. Purchase or watch as many of his movies as you are able. Everything Jim produces is not only educational but often entertaining and will help you on your journey to living your best life. These resources will not only educate you but also encourage you on your journey to living your dreams. And in case you are wondering, I’m not getting paid to recommend Jim; I just think that highly of him and want you to benefit from his knowledge and wisdom.
What’s Up Next
The course agenda!
Notes
This is a re-post of the original blog post 4 of a 106-post series for the Afterburner Success Partners course, and numbered 4A for clarity, and may be updated with any new information. Original posts are available in full and in order of publication on the website under the Blog tab, starting with the oldest post.
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
1. Halftime is a book by Bob Buford. You can read and obtain it here: https://amzn.to/409XSeF
2. Jim Stovall.com: https://www.jimstovall.com
3. Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us, by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ
4. Achieve Your Dreams: A Complete Guide to Live Your Best Life by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/3IxEFgy