GRAND Magazine - November/December 2018 Subscribe Today! - 11

the future of aging
What I truly needed when I joined Airbnb was a
"consciousness raising" manifesto to help me understand the new rules of the road, and workplace.

"I am convinced that many
corporate blunders and wellintentioned mis-directions
could be avoided if there
were a better blend of the
energy and ambition of
youth and the vision and
seasoned experience of age."
Ken Dychtwald

So, rather than stick my head in the sand or
spout millennial stereotype slurs (I heard a few
from my boomer friends when I joined Airbnb), I'm
now offering the manifesto that I wish I'd had. And
along the way, I'm introducing a new framework for
wisdom at work and in life, one that's particularly
relevant to those in the second half of their life. But
Since 1986, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has been the founding President and
this book isn't just for those pushing fifty or older;
CEO of Age Wave He is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling
it's valuable for those in their twenties, and thirties,
author of 16 books on aging-related issues He has emerged as North
and forties who want both a road map for their
America's foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle,
future as well as a better sense of how they can tap
marketing, health care, and workforce implications of the age wave.
into the wisdom of those who are a generation or
on the longevity revolution, wrote a book in 1989 in which he
two older than them.
suggested of the future workplace: "mature men and women
As deeply divided as we are politically and culturally today,
who will be retained and whose compensation will be based not
the eventual arrival of elderhood is a condition that unites us
on the number of hours they work but on their experience, conall. If you're thirty and reading this, it applies to you, too, as
tacts and wisdom." He called these people "wisdom workers,"
elderhood is the only demographic that all of us-if we are
and went on to say, ". . . I am convinced that many corporate
lucky-shift into someday. My friend Ken Dychtwald, founder
blunders and well-intentioned mis-directions could be avoided
and CEO of Age Wave and one of the nation's leading experts
if there were a better blend of the energy and ambition of youth
11 GRAND

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2018

and the vision and seasoned experience of age."
Thirty years later, maybe it's finally time for us to be more
intentional about our "wisdom worker" status. Maybe it's
time to distinguish and define the era between "middle
aged" and "elderly" as one of mature idealism. For many of
us, the baseball game of our career will likely go into extra
innings. So maybe it's time to get excited about the fact that
most sporting matches get more interesting in their last half
or quarter. By the same token, theatergoers sit on the edge
of their seat during the last act of a play when everything
finally starts to make sense.
And marathon runners get
an endorphin high as they
reach the final miles of their
event. Could it be that life
gets more interesting, not
less, closer to the end?
As Ken recently suggested to me, "If you can
cause maturity to become
aspirational again, you've
changed the world."
Excerpted from
Wisdom@ Work - The
making of a modern
elder

New York Times bestselling author Chip Conley is a rare
entrepreneur who has disrupted his favorite industry...twice.
At age 26, the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality took an
inner city motel and turned it into the 2nd largest boutique
hotel brand in America. Inspired by the work of famed
psychologists Maslow and Frankl, Chip's books, "PEAK" and
"Emotional Equations," share his theories on transformation
and meaning in business and life. His new book, "Wisdom@
Work: The Making of a Modern Elder," was inspired by his post-50-year-old
experiences as both a mentor and unexpected intern at Airbnb.

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