Author Larry Jacobson Knows the Seas are Rough but Retirement Doesn’t Have to Be
[Originally published on Mango Publishing newsletter]
Larry Jacobson is a retirement expert, motivational speaker, personal success coach, and award winning author. After retiring from his position as a CEO, Jacobson embarked on a sailing journey that sparked his interest in writing. Recently named “Retirement Coach of the Year” by the Retirement Coaches Association, Jacobson dedicates himself to helping his clients find personal satisfaction at every stage of life. Your Ideal Retirement Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Retiring with Purpose and Fulfillment is his latest title.
By Giovanna Smith
1. You circumnavigated the world for 6 years after retiring from your job. What inspired you to take on such a massive trip?
Since I first taught myself to sail when I was 13 years old, I dreamed of achieving the ultimate challenge in sailing. I kept that dream alive for 33 years and when I saw the opportunity to attempt making my dream come true, I jumped at the chance. It was not, “Retire and then go sailing,” but rather it involved making a plan three years before leaving my work career for how I would make it happen. It was a huge project and involved leaving my life behind as I knew it. I left my:
Career
Income
Security
Home
and my Identity…see next question.
2. Your latest title, Your Ideal Retirement Workbook, addresses finding personal identity after retirement. How did you incorporate the lessons you learned from your time on the seas into this book?
When we retire from our work lives, in my case as a CEO of a successful company, we have to leave that identity behind us. When someone says, “I’m a retired (fill in the blank), it means they have not yet left that identity behind. It takes work and digging deep to find the strength to leave one’s identity behind. I went from CEO to sailor, quite a big change, and at times it was a struggle.
I learned so much at sea about myself. I felt like I was sailing around the world looking for something…I didn’t know what, but it was something that would make me happy. I learned happiness is a state of mind, not caused by any one thing, but by one’s attitude about what we see in the world. I saw the happiest people imaginable in Vanuatu and they had the least possessions of anyone I had ever met. Upon my return is when I realized what I had been looking for all along was already inside of me, in my heart with my love for friends, family, and our amazing lives.
Interacting with other sailors who were “out there” cruising, taught great lessons. There is an unspoken rule of the cruising world that you don’t talk about or ask about: “what did you do before going sailing?” Out there, everyone is equal and it didn’t matter if you were a CEO, a judge, teacher, whatever, we all just looked out for each other. This taught me how unimportant my old identity was, and how I needed to find a new identity.
3. Why do you think it’s important for new retirees to have a guidebook to help them navigate this new era of their lives?
When I returned from my sailing journey after six years, I knew I wanted to write a book about the journey. I did that and The Boy Behind the Gate was a number one on Amazon and won six literary awards. After that though, I was like a round peg trying to fit into a square hole. I wandered and searched for my future, but spent more time than necessary because I didn’t have any sort of guide to how to find my new identity. I got into coaching retirees by sheer accident and by being open to those knocks on the door. A friend of mine from my former business career, and also a CEO, called me asking for advice. When I offered advice on personnel, finance, etc., he scoffed and said, “No, I want to know how you did it—how did you get out? How did you leave your identity behind?” So I thought maybe I was onto something and took a full year reverse-engineering my thoughts, feelings, and actions that took me to being able to leave my life behind. Then I created the first online interactive video training course for non-financial retirement planning. Sail Into Retirement was a hit and is the basis for my new book, Your Ideal Retirement Workbook.
It makes the process of transitioning from your work career to what’s next for you, your Encore, so much easier. It’s the book I would have liked to read when I was making the same transition.
4. Not only are you an author and speaker, but you’re also a life coach as well. Though your purpose is to teach clients about certain topics, what are some things your clients have taught you?
I continuously learn from my clients. Whatever they are thinking or feeling, these are valid and important. Not everyone wants to sail around the world, but someone’s more modest goals are just as important to them as mine was to me.
I am reminded often the importance of being able to break a big dream down into smaller goals, which are more tangible and easier to accomplish. A big dream is sometimes so big that it’s hard to grasp, but most people can handle the smaller goals one at a time. When we put them all together, they make up the big dream.
In coaching, just because someone says they are fine and don’t need coaching, they don’t always mean it. It is my job as a coach to keep digging, keep asking, and help them discover the answer to questions they didn’t even know they had. My clients have taught me the importance of the “pause” in conversation, and questions like, “Can you tell me more about that?”
And my clients have taught me the importance of Active Listening. That is the art of spending as much time listening as we do talking, and often with more intent. Additionally, there is a lot of information I can garner from listening to what someone isn’t saying.
5. You’ve lived a very accomplished life so far, having dabbled in all sorts of personal and professional pursuits. What’s next for you? Do you have a specific goal you’d like to meet in the upcoming year?
Many retirees want to become entrepreneurs, and in fact most new companies are started by those over 50 years old. I have been coaching entrepreneurship for years and can help someone get their company off the ground because I’ve “been there and done that.” And I also have found many retirees would like to present their ideas through public speaking but have never had any public speaking training. As a certified World Class Speaking Coach, I can help them hone their skills so they can present their ideas to investors or give a TED talk.
My goal this year is to build my speaking coaching practice to a point where I am filling my calendar with students. It’s one of the biggest ways I can affect someone’s life for the better. When we communicate well, it opens all sorts of doors and I love helping open those doors for my clients.
You can buy Your Ideal Retirement Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Retiring with Purpose and Fulfillment here.
Follow & Connect with Larry on LinkedIn – Click Here!
