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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
America Style." You can catch him there today on WNZK
Radio (690 AM), every other Tuesday, from 8:00 am to 8:30 am, 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
Tuesdays, from 8:30 am to 9:00 am 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 | 
