Second Turns

A gold watch, a pension and the promise of R&R are perks often associated with the end of a fruitful career. And when the job is over, Southwest Florida is a great place to settle.

But some people aren't satisfied with reaching that milestone. Instead, they begin new endeavors, sometimes reinventing their professional identities, and climbing up the ladder of success again.

These people take a leap of faith, often using the wisdom and experience they've accumulated in their previous jobs. And they're not that unusual: The average person will change careers-not just jobs-more than three times in his or her lifetime, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In these parts, many fit that statistic.

Here are four go-getters who show that Southwest Florida not only is a place to retire-it's a place to start your working life all over again.

John M. Eikenberg had already retired from a long and successful career when he embarked upon his second one. The former COO of Cuisinart and president and CEO of Mr. Coffee left the boardrooms of big business in 1990.

But the active Eikenberg found he didn't have it in him to simply take it easy. "You've got to have a reason to get up and shave and get dressed every morning," he explains. So he turned to the thing he knew best-how to run a company-and began a consulting service with his wife, Joyce, to help other businesses succeed.

Eikenberg Management Services began in Pittsburgh in 1994, moving its home base to Naples when the Eikenbergs relocated in 2000. The company has had up to 76 clients at any one time since its inception, and Eikenberg uses not only his own 40 years' experience in the housewares industry, but also the knowledge of the "over-the-hill gang," as he jokingly terms them, of retired and semi-retired professionals whom he hires on a contract basis to help consult.

In addition to advising on the business side of business, Eikenberg offers another service he calls "Quiet Assistance," a "highly personal, been-there-done-that, totally objective, nonpolitical activity," as he describes it. In situations of a more delicate nature-a partner suspected of cheating, for example-Eikenberg helps shed light on ways to handle certain problems.

"You really are all alone," he says of heading up a company. "Just to have that outlet is worth a great deal-I wish I'd had that."

In addition to his professional pursuits, Eikenberg is active in the Lee County public-school system, the Smart Growth Commission of Lee County and Lee Memorial Hospital, and has served on the editorial review board for the News-Press.

"You do it because it's something you get fun out of," he says of his and Joyce's many activities. And it has another benefit: "We probably won't go to seed just yet."

Trudi Williams responds well to negative reinforcement. After beginning her career as a physician's assistant in general practice and cardiology, she went back to school to become a doctor herself. But when her engineering-major boyfriend told her she didn't have the brains to handle his field of study, she abruptly changed track.

"I guess it's a character flaw I have," she says. "If someone tells me I can't do something, I have to do it."

After proving her boyfriend wrong by earning a degree in civil engineering, Williams worked for seven years for a Fort Myers-based engineering firm, then, after she was passed over for partnership, decided to start her own company. Once again, the naysayers fueled her fire. When she told her husband, Don (the former boyfriend who had provoked her into an engineering career change), he asked her, "Have you been drinking?" Williams relates with a laugh.

That was 16 years ago. Today TKW Consulting has 50 employees and offices in Fort Myers and Orlando, and a client list that includes Florida Gulf Coast University, Orlando International Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport. Don may have finally come around: "He seems to be a pretty good cheerleader now," says Williams.

She credits the years she spent working in her first love, medicine, with helping her succeed as a business owner and manager. "It makes you a real people person," she says. Although she admits to missing her work in the medical field, Williams is contributing to medicine after all: Her daughter plans to go to medical school.

Williams operates now mostly in a managerial capacity at her firm, handling marketing and other "big-picture" operations, as she puts it. And the overachieving entrepreneur is running for Florida House Seat 75 after five years serving on the South Florida Water Management District governing board.

"If you aim at nothing, you hit it every time," she says.

Dr. Peter Rosko was a dentist for nearly 26 years, but he laid the groundwork for his second career at the age of two when his grandfather first took him fishing. "That was it. He got me hooked," Rosko says.

While operating his dental practice in Washington state, Rosko indulged his lifelong hobby and began running fishing charters, eventually getting to the point where for two years, "the only day I did not spend on the water was Christmas Day." He even started using the tools of his trade, like the molding materials used to take dental impressions, to create realistic-looking and -acting lures.

The lures were so effective that he obtained the proper patents and trademarks and put them on the market. Now three different companies carry more than a dozen of his designs.

After retiring from dentistry in 1989 and moving with his wife, Judi, to Naples, Rosko continued his charter business until he developed complications from a marine-related infection and had to retire once again. But the fish-mad former dentist couldn't stay away from his first love, and couldn't stay idle: In January he opened his own bait shop in the Port-O-Call Marina complex, Cap'n Pete's Bait & Tackle.

Though his dawn-to-dark fishing excursions are now in the past, Rosko says of his latest endeavor, "I live vicariously through the other charter captains" who come into his shop for supplies.

Even though he's landlocked, he still can't pull himself away from the world of fishing: "I come home at 10 o'clock at night and my wife says, 'Why are you home so early?'" he says with a laugh.

Jan Kantor was an early bloomer, professionally, beginning his career in radio at the age of 14, when he became his high school's correspondent for WQAM in Miami. That led to a part-time, on-air position-and the inspiration to pursue a broadcast journalism degree at the University of Miami. Afterward, still with the same station, he went full time, eventually moving into administration.

Kantor used his extensive radio experience to buy two stations of his own in Fort Myers in 1974: an AM country-western format and an FM rock station. When he sold them nine years later, he found that he could retire at 34. "I thought I'd play golf and go to the beach every day," he says, "but it got a little boring after a while."

A scant year later, Kantor began his current endeavor: his Naples-based company Success Systems offers business-consulting services and executive coaching.

Kantor laid the groundwork for his second career when he was running his radio stations. "I was very young at the time and I didn't know much about managing," he says. A consultant from Chicago helped him turn the stations into a success and taught Kantor the foundations of business management, which he now passes on to other entrepreneurs.

"All management and leadership are transferable," he explains. "How you run a business is how you run a business." His client list includes the Barron Collier Company and the Bonita Bay Group. Over the years he has shared his expertise in regular articles in the Naples Daily News, the News-Press and Gulfshore Business, and in his book, Inspiring People in the Workplace.

"Your own self-confidence and believing in yourself is what makes it work," he counsels those considering a career change. "It's a bigger risk in the beginning, but the opportunities could be endless."

Kantor passes along what he calls "lessons of leadership" as facilitator for the Naples Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Institute. He's been deeply involved in the leadership organizations of Lee, Southwest Florida and Bonita since 1985.

Kantor attributes part of his business success to his 20-year radio career. "That's what set the tone and the foundation for my helping others," he explains. "It was a terrific foundation."