Goodbye 30-Year Retirements, Hello Encore Years

02/03/2012 - 02:20:13pm

We need a new map of life.

We've been making do with one that was fashioned for an expected longevity of threescore and 10. We shouldn't knock that legacy. At one time, that constituted progress.

But we can't stuff a 21st century life span into a life course designed for the 20th century – or stretch the old model so that it accommodates a task well beyond its intended capacity. The story starts with the numbers, but it is really about the nature of lives.

What Is Retirement, Anyway?

10/07/2011 - 10:56:15am

That’s the question NPR asked a few days ago, in the final segment of a series they called Life in Retirement: The Not-So-Golden Years.

Steve Jobs' Message for Boomers

10/07/2011 - 09:58:44am

I will remember Steve Jobs not for product design, but for life design.

In the commencement address Jobs gave to Stanford undergraduates in 2005, he recounts reading a quote at 17 that said if you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll almost certainly be correct.

These People Are Changing the World

11/09/2010 - 09:36:36pm

In some ways, five years doesn’t seem like such a long time. And yet, in the past five years, so much has changed, economically, politically, even demographically, as the first wave of baby boomers moved into their 60s.

With many of those changes in mind, two foundations – The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation – joined forces with Civic Ventures to launch The Purpose Prize^®. In just five years, we’ve named 307 Purpose Prize winners and fellows – the most inspiring crowd one could ever hope to meet.

In Memoriam: Henry Liu, 2009 Purpose Prize Winner

12/02/2009 - 10:00:00pm

On behalf of Civic Ventures' staff and board, I want to express deep sadness over the death of 2009 Purpose Prize winner Henry Liu, who was killed in a car accident on Tuesday. Our condolences go out to Professor Liu's family and to his colleagues.

It is especially sad to lose an extraordinary person, at the peak of his creative powers, in the midst of making some of his greatest contributions to humanity. As his son Jerry commented recently, his father was working harder today that at any point in his life: "He's always wanted to change the world. Success to my dad isn't about making money. It's about leaving the world a better place." Teacher, mentor, inventor and social entrepreneur Henry Liu has left the world a better place at many levels and in so many ways.

Marc Freedman, Founder/CEO, Civic Ventures

Marc Freedman: How to Move Beyond the DIY Transition to Encore Careers

11/16/2009 - 10:43:21am

Editor's note: This column appeared in BusinessWeek's special report, "The Case Against Retirement."

After 25 years of climbing her first ladder at Hewlett-Packard, Gina Cassinelli knew it was time for a change. "All of a sudden, you wake up and you say…I can't believe I've been here 20 or 25 years," she recalls. "I loved what I did, but I don't want to do it for 20 more."

Cassinelli took early retirement, then tried to open a new career door with few guides and little help. "You get to a point in your life where you have to feel like what you're doing matters," Cassinelli says. "But how to do it? That's hard."

The road used to be much easier. For 50 years, the average fiftysomething American was headed inexorably toward a clear-cut career and life transition: the transition to a leisure-based retirement.

Marc Freedman: Rosabeth Kanter Calls for Social Logic in 'SuperCorp'

10/27/2009 - 10:55:41am

Last week I spent the evening at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, listening to Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter talk about her new book, SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, and field questions from a packed audience.

Join Marc Freedman for 'An Introduction to Encore Careers' online

09/30/2009 - 11:55:31am

People who come to Civic Ventures’ events or read about Encore Careers in the media often ask for a way to take the next step. This online course is designed to be that next step, regardless of where you are located.

Together with The New York Times and Washington University in St. Louis, we will host four one-hour sessions aimed at helping individuals interested in Encore Careers go from Then to Now.

“An Introduction to Encore Careers” will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Central Time on Wednesdays from October 7 to 28. You can sign up here. The cost is $125.

Generation E: Marc Freedman on the Boomers' Legacy

09/21/2009 - 12:15:00pm

Sarah Kershaw of The New York Times called me recently to ask about the impact on the psyche of baby boomers of all the celebrity deaths of the past few months. From Michael Jackson (50) and Farah Fawcett (62), through Patrick Swayze (56) and Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul, and Mary, 72), to icons of our boomer childhoods like Walter Cronkite (92) and Edward M. Kennedy (77) – where have all the flowers gone?