Livestream: Checking into business at the age of 64

Paul Tasner’s Ted Talk is one that gives hope to all those late bloomers among us. The gentleman, who had a rich 40-year experience as an engineer in manufacturing and packaging, found himself in the firing line one fine day at the age of 64.

Just before Christmas in 2009, Tasner was fired from his job, as part of a downsizing exercise. Having moved on to consulting jobs devoid of passion, Tasner knew he had to do something that would appeal to his cerebral side, while benefiting society at large. The answer came in a clean tech venture that he would go on to be the founder of. He says, “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.”

Tasner goes on to tell us about the hurdles of trying to seek funding in the SFO area – where most of the young entrepreneurs are from hot off the oven tech industries. And there are so many reasons when one could throw in the towel. Thankfully, his business bloomed big time and revenues doubled every year, even as he garnered marquee clients and had patents registered in his company’s name. He says, “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.”

He also tells us about how the Small Business Administration in the US reported that 64 percent of new jobs created in the private sector in the US are thanks to small businesses like Tasner’s. And the Census Bureau says that by 2050, there will be 84 million seniors in this US. Tasner winds up saying, 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.”