I got fired, canned, dismissed, pink-slipped and put out to pasture at age 50.

There, I just said it publicly, calling it what it really was.

My employer called it a “reorganization.” I was “laid off.”

Truth: The guy with greying hair was the only one reorganized. Let me repeat so Google’s crawlers can index my shame for anyone who searches for my name: I was fired at age 50.

I thought it was the end of my career. Instead, it was a new beginning.

If you are over 50 and out of work, I urge you to fight despair. It’s hard to believe it now, but this may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

This is a great time to choose the career and life you actually love But you can’t recover alone. To take control of your career, you need faith and others to help you on your journey to a more satisfying and prosperous place.

The odds are high

Once you start getting bombarded with direct mail to join AARP, you have reached a milestone. My young son made a birthday card for me with a drawing of a stick-man person just over the peak of a hill under a “you are here” headline.

Hah! Good one! He didn’t intend to shoot an arrow of fear into my fragile confidence. Funny thing is, data backs him up.

A government study shows more than half of Americans are pushed out of a job, one way or another, after age 50. Of those given the heave-ho, only 1 out of 10 regain the annual income they had.

That can really mess up those 401(k) calculations, can it not?

I don’t recall my financial planner warning me about this in my 40s and suggesting steps to mitigate my risks.

There is good news. I’m living proof you CAN beat the odds.

How and why I chose journalism

In college, I tried broadcast journalism until I learned I had a good voice for newspapers. It was love at first write.

I found my “calling,” to shine the light of truth using words. I turned down admission to law school to work for United Press International (UPI). The slogan was “a deadline every minute.”

I thrived on the fast pace covering the news.

For two decades, I made deadlines, working my way up the newspaper and news service ladder like a minor league baseball player dragging his family from city to city, waiting for a call from the Big League. I won a bunch of awards and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

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