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Ike Engelbaum:
The Walking, Talking
"Bright Side of Aging"
"I guess I'd have to say I've
been selling since I was six years old...or persuading, or
motivating, or reaching out to people to try to make our lives
brighter! It saved my life then, and it is my life
now."
He looks you in the eye with a
sparkle in his own, and an unquenchable gleam of optimism.
That smile is easily shored up by years of wisdom; and the wonderful
gifts he offers are packaged in snippets of humor, like that
spoonful of sugar we've all heard sung about. As he approaches
to greet you, he firmly takes hold of your hand, and then maybe even
your shoulder, and, even on first meeting, you quickly begin to
think that this guy just might be the very best friend you're ever
going to meet in your lifetime. And you just might be
right. It seems he has that effect on everybody.
He's Ike Engelbaum, R.
Ph., and chances are pretty good you already know him. He's a
registered pharmacist - one of the "pill-ers of society, " as he
puts it, but he's also a radio show host, the publisher of the
American Senior Gazette newspaper, a guest lecturer at two different
business schools in the Detroit metro area, the founder of the
Entrepreneurs' Network of Michigan, a
full-fledged member of the Michigan chapter of the National Society
of Therapeutic Humor, and, according to his own business card, a
"Very Nice Boy According to His Mother." In Fact you can flip
that card over and find his very helpful listing of "Important Phone
Numbers of the World." There are four, apparently:
George W. Bush, Elizabeth II, Ike Engelbaum, R. Ph., and Jacques
Chirac. What could be more helpful?
Born to Jewish parents in
Europe in 1938, he was not even a year old when Germany invaded
Poland to begin WWII. While most of us spent our childhoods
playing with kids in the neighborhood, watching cartoons, and going
to school, Ike spent his early childhood years in a concentration
camp, separated from his father, learning to survive and trying to
help others to survive as well.
"I used to find different ways
to get my family assigned to the potato-picking duty on the camp
farm. That way we could grab a bite or two, and sometimes
sneak a few back for the others at the end of the day. I think
that's actually when my marketing career got started.
After the war, our family was
finally reunited, and somehow ended up in Czechoslovakia. From
as early as I can remember," he reminisces, "I always wanted to get
to America, the land of freedom and opportunity. My family
still reminds me how I used to tell my first cousin, Morris and
his parents, how, if I got to America first, I was going to send
money back to sponsor them, 'even if it costs me a hundred
pennies!'" Today, Cousin Morris is Ike's life-long friend
and business partner.
Once the family was again
reunited in the U.S., Ike set some big goals for himself, and then
set out to accomplish them. Graduating from Wayne State
University's School of Pharmacy, he began a pharmacy practice with
Morris and eventually accumulated a network of ten pharmacies.
"This is the greatest country in the world!" Ike says
repeatedly. "Anyone can be a business success if they're
willing to tap into their inner strengths and work
smart."
After helping to raise
two very independent, highly-spirited daughters with his wife and
best friend Judy, Ike eventually saw the wisdom of selling their
pharmacies to the various chain drug stores during their influx into
the the Detroit metro area in the nineties, after which he began
looking for ways to share his entrepreneurial wisdom with others who
had many of the same dreams that he did. From that ambition
spawned the idea of becoming a part-time instructor at the business
schools of both Oakland and Macomb Community Colleges, where he had
a captive, eager audience of ambitious new dreamers and seekers each
semester!
Ike felt he had to do
more. Searching for an ever-wider audience, he hit upon the
idea of inaugurating his own radio program especially dedicated to
entrepreneurs - "Entrepreneurship American Style." You can catch him there today on WNZK Radio (690 AM),
every other Friday, from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm, a show dedicated, as
he says, "to highlighting the spirit of entrepreneurship in
America."
Ike Engelbaum is not
just an astute, successful man of business. He's also a
pharmacist and keeps a steady dedication to the needs of older
Americans in his magnanimous heart, especially in matters of health
care. Not only has he founded House Calls on Wheels (HOW),
a consortium of health care suppliers providing everything from
bathing and grooming services to home call physician care, but he
also extended his radio outreach to help serve these needs.
You can now catch Ike on alternate Friday's, from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm
on WNZK (690 AM) for his program, "The
Bright Side of Aging - promoting health, wealth, wisdom and
humor." And that's just what he
does, interview all sorts of interesting guests who, as Ike puts it,
"have tips on how to live healthier, wealthier, longer and, if
you've inherited bad genes, how to outwit them with good
habits."
What is the bright side of
aging? Spend a day with Ike Engelbaum and
you'll know. You can't help but come away a richer,
more optimistic American.
American Senior
Gazette
6151 Cochise
West Bloomfield, MI
48322
Phone:(800) 686-3784 or (888)
489-8980
Fax: (248) 626-1215
Email: answers@seniorgazette.net | 
