Even if you believe that you are not close to the second half of life, sooner or later you will be in it. Stop for a moment and consider the words of Peter Drucker, perhaps the wisest management expert of the past hundred years, whose influence has only grown since his death at age 95 in 2005. "There is one requirement for managing the second half of one's life: to be creating it long before one enters it."
As he pointed out in the same Harvard Business Review article, titled “Managing Oneself,” published in 1999, just before he turned 90, “For the first time in human history, individuals can expect to outlive organizations. This creates a totally new challenge: What to do with the second half of one’s life?”
Drucker was the exemplar leading a meaningful and productive second half of life, a role model of productive longevity and positive aging. The majority of his 40-plus books were published after he turned 65. In a career spanning more than 70 years, he wrote, taught, and consulted until nearly the end of his life.
Not everyone will live to 95, and many people may not want to or be able to work or create in their 70s, 80s or 90s. Yet many are taking good care of themselves, paying attention to the mind-body connection, and living a good health well beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. By choice or necessity, more will be working/creating in some form during the second half of life, however you define when the period begins.
In her book In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work, workplace futurist Kerry Hannon identifies a variety of options for the second half of life changing jobs/careers; moving from full-time to part-time work or vice versa; switching from for-profit companies to nonprofits or vice versa; returning to the workforce after extended absence; fellowships; entrepreneurship; and more.
Author/entrepreneur Chip Conley, creator of the Modern Elder Academy/MEA, has written often about Drucker, particularly in Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. He notes Drucker’s knack for remaining relevant throughout life and that making the most of the second half can take such additional forms as volunteering, some form of retirement, mentoring, learning, teaching, or combinations of these pursuits.
Drucker surrounded himself with people who were themselves models of productive/positive aging: His wife of 68 years, Doris Drucker, was a writer, editor, registered patent agent, and entrepreneur who lived to be 103. A vibrant example of personal reinvention, she started her own company, RSQ, in her 80s and published a delightful memoir, Invent Radium or I’ll Pull Your Hair, in her early 90s.
For nearly the last 25 years of his life, Peter Drucker worked closely with another exemplar of aging well, Frances Hesselbein, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, who lived to 107. He began as a pro bono consultant to the Girl Scouts in the early 1980s. When she retired, at 75, in 1990, she co-founded the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now called the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum. Each was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor; Drucker at age 92, Hesselbein at 82.
Even for such enthusiastic and energetic people, some adjustments to age were eventually necessary. In the last decade of his life, Drucker stopped teaching full-time and largely restricted travel to Southern California, where he lived, although he did travel to Washington, D.C. to receive the Presidential Medal. Doris Drucker did not write a second book. Hesselbein, who died in 2022, also reined in her formidable travel schedule, and pivoted to doing webinars and other online presentations.
Increasingly, books, articles, classes, educational programs, webinars, podcasts, social media posts, organizations, conferences, online courses are paying attention to the longevity shift, and their offerings can help people engage in a meaningful second half of life. Many people discover talents they did not realize they had, particularly in learning new skills, engaging in artistic creation, and starting a new business or other type of organization.
Too, there are burgeoning possibilities for meeting and interacting/collaborating with people in similar circumstances, whether or not they live in the same geographical area.
Peter Drucker was driven in the second half of his life by his ongoing interest in learning and a desire to share his knowledge and wisdom to help individuals, organizations, and society to thrive. Our own motivations will vary, but we can all benefit from making time for reflection about redefining the second half of life. How can we use the precious, present moment to plan for and work toward a rewarding future?
References
Chip Conley: Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder (Portfolio Penguin, 2018)
Doris Drucker: Invent Radium or I’ll Pull Your Hair (The University of Chicago Press, 2004)
Peter F. Drucker: “Managing Oneself,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999
Kerry Hannon: In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work (McGraw Hill, 2022)
Frances Hesselbein: My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way (Jossey-Bass, 2011).
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