It was a Friday afternoon in December 2009 – just a few days before Christmas. Paul Tasner’s boss asked him “Hey, can you jump into a quick meeting with me before you take off for the weekend?”

“So I followed him into a room and there in the room was our Director of Human Resources, which still kinda confused me for a moment. The faces turned somber, the voice became, you know, sort of monotone and I realized what was happening to me.”

Paul Tasner was being fired at the age of 64. He went to dinner with his wife and another couple that night. And they proceeded to get “silly drunk.”

Two years later, he launched a company called PulpWorks. Built on his growing concern for the environment, it was a firm that designed and manufactured biodegradable packaging from waste, replacing the toxic, disposable plastic packaging is commonplace today.

And so now at the age of 66, with 40 years of experience in the packaging sector, Paul Tasner became an entrepreneur for the very first time.

Second Act Stories is a podcast that shares the stories of people who have made major career changes to pursue more rewarding lives in a second act. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlus or wherever you get your podcasts.