Meet the remarkable Edward Hechter, who has "unretired" multiple times. He was a highly successful exec in tech, another incarnation as an entrepreneur with his wife, a consultant who helps companies overcome challenges and even the CEO of the giant Pickleball Central. "I tend to stay involved helping people that I adore solving business puzzles."​

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Edward grew up in Southern California in a typical middle-class family. "People say I was overly verbose and precocious." In high school he became active in debate, skills he would use for the rest of his working life. It was during his junior year of high school that he became one of the best high school debaters in the country. Midway through his senior year, he transferred schools and the new school didn't give him credit for some of his earned coursework. He decided to leave.​

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Edward began working in 1981 at the age of 17 in a tech consulting firm. He applied for the "girl Friday" position and as the company grew, he advanced. The company built websites for businesses all over the country and when Edward took the helm as the EVP and GM, the company went from $8 million in revenue to $100 million. "I was the right guy in the right chair," he tells us.​

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In his first unretirement, Edward figured he'd focus on becoming a soccer dad, volunteering and skiing on weekends. But he missed the intellectual side of solving complicated business puzzles. So he and his wife went shopping for a "broken" business to rehabilitate. They found a family-friendly, fixer upper in PartyPail, an online party supplies company. Edward says they went from just two orders a day to exploding in volume in just 5 years with $5 million in revenues.​

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In his second unretirement, Edward still wanted to help companies so he became a consultant/investor/mentor to help businesses break through whatever was holding them back. He loves helping countless entrepreneurs solve real world puzzles. "My love language is service," he says. "So I have to do good things for others. And if it turns out to be a good thing for myself too, even better." He was asked to come on board as the CEO of burgeoning Pickleball Central in 2015. And eventually helped the founders sell the business. In 2017, Edward created the Hawaii Open Pickleball Championships, the first sanctioned Hawaiian pro pickleball event.​

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Now in his third unretirement at age 60, (we see a definite pattern here), Edward and his wife live in Hawaii and the state of Washington. Edward still consults as much as he wants to and plays pickleball 3-4x a week. He says he's focusing on pickleball, poke, people and peace.​

Edward Hechter's tips on life and work:​

• ​"Know thyself, and what lights your fire."​

• "It is often hard to tell what lit your fire until it's gone. Then you recognize you want it back."​ (Edward's example is his drive to help companies solve problems. He missed that.)​ 

• "Figure out what your love language is. It's about finding the one thing that brings you a feeling of love. Start from a premise of joy and everything is easier."​

• "Who do you want to share a foxhole with? That to me is the ultimate test."

• More about Edward Hechter

• Sponsored by Capital Advantage

• Sponsored by How to Retire and Not Die

• (Un)Retirement Travel with the Pro Allan Wright, Zephyr Adventures

• I Used to be Somebody World Tours -- Tuscany, Portugal, Pickleball Adventures

Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog

Tags:    Blog   Unretirement   Edward Hechter   Entrepreneurship   Consulting   Life Lessons   Personal Growth   Mentorship  

Carl interviews Brian Smith, the founder of the international brand UGG boots. Brian left his CPA career at age 29 and embarked on a wild ride into entrepreneurship. He's also had many other successful ventures and wrote a book, "Birth of a Brand." Brian has lived through the ups and downs of running businesses big and small. "I love the chaos and unpredictability of start-ups!" he tells us. His story is about perseverance, achievements, lucky breaks and near disasters.

Brian grew up in Canberra, Australia and eventually made his way to UCLA's Graduate School of Management. He was 29 and he says he went straight to Malibu and surfed, He wasn't so interested in becoming a career CPA. "I was looking for the next big thing in business," he says. While on the beach he noticed that no one had sheepskin boots. So my friend Doug and I bought 6 pairs from Australia as a test--UGG was born."

It was quite challenging in the beginning. "I registered UGG as the trademark and settled down to be an instant millionaire. What I didn't know is that Americans don't understand sheepskin the way Aussies do." The duo thought they'd target shoe stores and were told "No." Brian raised some capital and had a lot of boots to sell. His friend eventually got a job and Brian was about to give up when he started selling the boots out of the back of his van in beach parking lots. Sales increased. "I had a brand that was like the very first pop-up!" he tells us. Word-of-mouth sales spread.

As he started targeting surfers and surf shops, sales took off and the rest is history. You will have to listen to the interview to hear the super-crazy ups and downs Brian faced in keeping the company going for 17 years! (Being a surfer probably helped.) As sales reached $15 million, he sold the business to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. "I'm an entrepreneur, not a big corporate guy," Brian adds. The UGG brand has since exceeded $1 billion of international sales several times over. Always an entrepreneur, he has had other successful ventures as well.

At age 76, Brian is still going strong. He speaks about the principles in his book all over the world. He's also a mentor and advocate to business leaders and entrepreneurs, showing them how to find passion and follow it to a rewarding life. Still in Southern California, in his spare time Brian enjoys golf, yoga, meditation and traveling.

Brian Smith's Tips to (Un)retirement and Second Acts:

• "Combine truth, beauty and goodness into your daily life. You'll start living differently as you practice this. You will lead a more spiritual and energized life!"

• "Health is everything. We should be looking at it every single day. Exercising and eating less is what works for me."

• "Don't force a hobby for yourself. If you are not energized and inspired to get up every day and do it, it means you haven't found "it" yet. Don't give up looking!"

• More about Brian Smith

• Sponsored by Capital Advantage

• Sponsored by How to Retire and Not Die

Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the “I Used to Be Somebody” blog.

Tags:    blog   brian smith   ugg   unretirement   health   cpa   mentor   business