Landing Your Perfect Job When You’re 77

Joe Biden is no kid. Born November 20, 1942, he will be 78 as he assumes the presidency of the United States and becomes the unofficial leader of the Free World.

Joseph Robinette Biden entered politics early– in fact, when he was first elected as a senator at 30, he was the sixth youngest in American history, and by then he’d already racked up several years in municipal politics.

Joe Biden ran for president twice unsuccessfully before finally landing the job in 2020. There’s much to be said for not quitting.

Longtime readers of the Friday Briefing will recall an article about Colonel Harland Sanders (https://mailchi.mp/13e40d9a8b79/resolution-for-2050409?e=[UNIQID]) who, at 74, finally made it as a business success. Although one might not intuitively place fried chicken and the leader of the free world in the same bucket, so to speak, there are lessons to be learned from the stories of the two men.

The first is obvious: you’re never too old to achieve your dreams. As long as you have your health and your wits, age is a problem only in someone else’s mind.

If you are prepared to follow your dreams throughout your lifetime, you can still achieve them long after “pensionable” age. Sixty and sixty-five are merely numbers, and don’t mean that you can no longer compete toe to toe with the best of them. The key is that you can’t let yourself quit.

But the next reason is more important: seniors actually have more to contribute than anyone else, and in the proper order of things, an obligation to do so. We have lived longer, done more, experienced more, loved more, lost more, failed more, fought more, discovered more, dreamed more, than any generation coming behind us. It’s not because we’re brighter or more gifted, it’s simply that we have more wear on our tires.

The most important thing in life is knowing what to do. The second most important thing in life is knowing what not to do. Even if all seniors have to offer (and it’s not) is how to avoid the stupid stuff we’ve already demonstrated doesn’t work, that alone is of enormous value.

Why this is important is two-fold. First, those of us who are “mature’ have more experiential knowledge to offer, both qualitatively and quantitatively. So much to give back. This is why I despair when I see brilliant friends and colleagues retire only to go home, watch TV, drink coffee, and die young. That’s not a waste, it’s a crime.

But the second part is that seniors are actually needed. There are thousands of township councils, planning boards, and hospital foundations which lack bench strength. There are tens of thousands of not-for-profit organisations lacking muscle and experience on their boards of directors. There are tens of millions of young professionals who would bloom under strong mentoring, and they go wanting.

Popular culture has created caricatures of seniors, doddery and simple, knitting mittens and feeding pigeons. Not that there’s anything wrong with mittens and pigeons! But these are cardboard cutout images. Try to make that image fit Queen Elizabeth, Warren Buffett, Bernie Sanders, or Pope Francis! I’m sure you get my point.

Just imagine if all the retired doctors and engineers and electricians and project managers made it their calling to share their hard-earned lessons and instincts with up and coming juniors. What medical discoveries, what legal breakthroughs, what project efficiencies could be realised in the energy created in these senior-junior partnerships?

And just suppose that hundreds of thousands of seniors around the planet threw themselves into reversing climate change? (After all, we did have a lot to do with creating it.)

Joe Biden, at 78, is pouring his decades of public service experience into a presidency to benefit his country. He gets to clean up the mess left after the four year tantrum of an elderly, self-centred, spoiled child who is the exception to prove the rule.

So, to get to my real point– you! Easily a third of the readers of this newsletter are seniors, mostly retired professionals. What a vast reservoir of talent, genius, and creativity! Many are already up to their neck in valuable community contribution, but I know there are others who wish they could do more, yet aren’t sure where to begin.

Here’s my offer: although my professional consulting practice is on a for-profit basis, I make an exception for good causes, and this is one of them. If you are retired and you think you have something to give back to your profession or your community, but can’t figure out what and how, give me a call. Let’s see if we can find ways.

And if someone in your life could use a gentle nudge, feel free to forward this to them. It shows you love and respect them.

You and I, my friend, can change the world.