You’ve Earned It places the spotlight on pensioner businesses
– #support pensioner
Henry Spencer is a self-confessed activist
with a passion for writing and research
Let’s meet him…
Meet Henry Spencer, Author, public speaker, gerontologist and consultant on retirement matters. Even though Henry is of retirement age, he still works in the retirement and health care industry. He even sleeps it – his sleeping patterns are erratic but this is what works for this “Duracell Battery” self-driven entrepreneur. Every day in the early hours of the morning, he writes newsletters, writes up his minutes of meeting and reads. He then intersperses his work with 15 and 45 minute naps and terms it his polyphasic sleep pattern (had to google that one!).
Henry started life as your “average” guy. When he started work, he hadn’t completed Std 10, but still went on to do extraordinary things in life. He believes now that he should have started his own business much earlier, but his successful business career included working for over 30 different employers including work as a rock sampler on a gold mine. Henry went on to study and obtain a BA in Psychology plus an MPhil in Applied Ethics. He attained his degrees at the age of 55 and 59, showing that “it’s never too late”. And that was just to satisfy his curiosity. When he tired of realizing that the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side, he worked internationally for an apparel company for six years, and then settled down to work for TAFTA, a large NPO in Durban for 9 years. Working as CEO for TAFTA, Henry realized his interest in the elderly and vulnerable, and now as a retiree, still works in the retirement field, his primary interests being accommodation and care. He is a Consultant on retirement matters, has written several books and is a member of the British Gerontological Society.
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It’s fascinating to read that Henry has worked in five countries, held over 26 jobs, and his nearest and dearest wife, Ruth, has lived in as many homes! As he says: “I have few regrets as my background has provided me with a vast field of experience on which to draw”.
Over time, Henry has become a self-confessed activist against social justice and his absolute passion is writing. Henry says he is “driven to write and wants to create awareness about issues in the retirement field”. On the relaxation side, he and his wife also love camping in the Southern African bush.
Henry’s advice to budding entrepreneurs are the three P’s:
- Passion – Find your true passion. Someone once said “If you enjoy the job that you are employed in, then you have never worked a day in your life!”
- Persistence – Winston Churchill once said “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts”.
- Pride – Take pride in what you do, or what you produce. That will make you pay attention to the detail. It will make you value attributes like accuracy, punctuality and reliability.And never use the term, I have been so busy – -it’s just a lame excuse for your not responding to emails or phone calls. As my mother used to say “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”.
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YEI asked Henry if he would ever fully knock off and retire. His response was “Only when I get to Heaven. I have it on good authority that all the golf clubs are free, that the holes on the greens are 3’ wide and slope towards the hole, and in the rough, all the trees have Mars bars hanging from them! And the drinks at the 19th hole are also free!” Sounds good to us! See you there, Henry!
If you would like to contact Henry, here are his contact details:
Henry Spencer
Contact details:
Mobile – 072-514 0913
E-mail – halfmens@telkomsa.net
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/henry.spencer.3133
Website: www.henryspencerauthor.com
