Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007 - (Page 9)

Introduction BOOMER LEGACY If you’re 50, half of your adult life is in front of you. What will you do? by William D. Novelli I have always had a deep interest in making a contribution to solving major social problems and creating positive social change. Early in my career, I was working for a hot New York ad agency marketing hair cream, pet foods and kid’s cereal. I was feeling somewhat disillusioned that something was missing in my career. en I was assigned a new client, the Public Broadcasting Service. It was the ﬁrst time PBS had used an ad agency to build viewership for public television. One of my ﬁrst tasks was to attend a press conference that featured Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the creators of Sesame Street. I was fascinated by Cooney herself and by the Sesame Street approach to learning. e thought struck me that marketing tools and practices could be applied to ideas, issues and causes just as eﬀectively as to the products I had been promoting. I thought this was relevant and socially important. I wanted to try it. My opportunity came when I read an article in e New York Times that said the Peace Corps wanted to reposition itself, to attract more volunteers with job experience and work skills that were in demand among developing countries. ey were looking for a marketing person, and I landed the job. It was a truly rewarding experience; one that I treasure to this day. Early on I was intrigued to learn that a huge number of Americans claimed to know a current or former Peace Corps volunteer. But that was hardly possible at the time given the then relatively small number who had served. I concluded that Peace Corps volunteers had become folk heroes. People wanted to know them–even felt they did know them–because they admired those willing to give part of their lives to a good cause. I also discovered that many Peace Corps volunteers shared a strong desire, not just to make the world better, but to leave a lasting legacy. ey also shared a common fear–that time and events would erase any evidence of the good they had done in the countries in which they had served. I realized then that all of us carry a strong desire to leave a legacy, to feel that we have made a diﬀerence in other people’s lives. Both of these ideas have continued to inﬂuence me throughout my career. Today, I am the chief executive oﬃcer of AARP, an organization that represents the needs and interests of more than 38 million people aged 50 and older. We are an organization–like the Peace Corps–committed to positive social change. And also like the Peace Corps, we rely very heavily on volunteers to carry out our service to our members and 50-plus America. I have found in leading AARP that today’s 50-plus population–and those boomers who are approaching 50–share many of the same values held by the Peace Corps volunteers I had met many years ago. ey, too, want to leave a lasting legacy and make a diﬀerence in other people’s lives. Author and entrepreneur Bob Buford says this is because many people, when they hit middle age, begin a journey from success to signiﬁcance. Most people approaching the age of 45 or 50, he explains, want to move from a time when they had to prove themselves to a time when they can begin to give back and make a diﬀerence. What they need are role models, because the opportunity didn’t exist for most of our parents and grandparents. Just think about that for a moment. In 1900, average life expectancy was 47, M by 1950 it had reached 68. And today, it’s 78 at birth, 83 at age 65, and if you make it to age 75, you can expect to live about 12 more years. If you’re 50 years old, you have half of your adult life in front of you. We have a tremendous opportunity that most of our ancestors never had. We have a “longevity bonus” of years–most of them spent in relatively good health–to enjoy life, to help our families and others, to pursue a cause or a purpose that we believe in, to make our country–and our world–better for everyone. It’s a great gift … a tremendous opportunity. Combine that with the power of numbers–the 78 million boomer generation now ranges in age from 43 to 61–with more than half of them being over 50–and that gives us real power to make things happen. All we have to do is seize the opportunities to do it. any boomers are seizing those opportunities and leaving lasting legacies. Last fall, my ﬁrst book was released, 50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America. e book is ﬁlled with stories of people who are making a diﬀerence in other people’s lives and making the world a better place for all of us. One of them is Mike Mulligan of Annapolis, Maryland. Mike loves to ﬂy helicopters. He did so well running MapQuest that he retired at 50 and took to the air. But he was grounded shortly afterward when he learned he had prostate cancer. “ at,” he says, “made me wake up and think about what I was doing with the rest of my life.” A year later, after successful surgery, he joined Angel Flight, a group of WorldView 9

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

Worldview - Fall 2007 Contents Presiden'ts Note Lafayette Park Introduction Interview Commentary Editor's Note Letter from Rumbek, Sudan Listings Letter from Yekaterinburg, Russia Letter from Codaesti, Romania Letter from Catia La Mar, Venezuela Letter from Gumare, Botswana Letter from Ridder, Kazakhstan Letter from Rincon, Cape Verde Letter from Port Au Prince Another Country Community News Giving Back Opinion

Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

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