Choosing good work instead of good exits from work

We're used to a familiar path of life. You get educated. You work. And by the time you enter mid-life you probably juggle a few things. You still work. Maybe you have a family. You take care of your aging parents. At some point, you retire. And then what? Years ago, when retirement was pegged at 65, retirement consisted of a decade or so of idle recreation. But now if you retired at 65, your retirement years might last another twenty-five years.

But what if that were all flipped on its head? What if, instead, you studied throughout your life and only settled into your true career somewhere around midlife? And what if it was considered normal to work into your 80s instead of into your 60s?

Laura L. Carstensen, a Stanford professor and the author of A Long Bright Future offered these provocations during a panel at a conference last weekend in Palo Alto celebrating the Purpose Prize awards, cash prizes totaling $750,000 to social innovators over the age of 60. The awards are given by Civic Ventures, a nonprofit that spawned the term "encore careers" to describe a new stage of work that combines continued income, personal meaning, and social impact. And the big idea is that these encore careers will be a replacement for retirement, a concept that may be nearing its own retirement. (Disclosure: I was recently hired by Civic Ventures to help advance the encore careers campaign.)

One of this year's $50,000 prize winners was James Smallwood, 62, who overcame homelessness and drug addiction and now runs a program that trains ex-convicts and former addicts in the construction trades.

Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor on the panel shed light on how ordinary heroes like James Smallwood do this kind of work, and why the tidal wave of aging baby boomers are ideally situated to create legacies in their later lives. Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor best known for his work on how people do horrible things (he conducted the Stanford prison study and served as an expert witness at Abu Ghraib) is now turning his attention to the positive in people. In his research on heroes, he has discovered that those who do heroic acts have often overcome a trauma earlier in their lives. His words put Smallwood's story into context. He also pointed out the importance of intergenerational connections, using examples like the musician Ravi Shankar who has continued to innovate musically late in his life, often performing alongside the younger musicians with whom he collaborates.

William Damon, an education professor on the panel, said that as people age they often ask the question, "Is this all there is?" and with that encounter a feeling of emptiness He added that hard economic times create an opportunity to celebrate the higher values in life and make a contribution.

Questions from the audience showed that not everyone is ready for a lifetime of work. One woman asked: "What about those people for whom work is punching a clock and not a career. Before we fall in love with working forever, have we thought about those for whom work has been torture for 40 years."

Carstensen had some answers. "We need to change the nature of work. And we have time to do it. We added 30 years to life expectancy, but somehow only retirement got longer. People should have sabbaticals every few years and go back to community college to retool."

When Smallwood accepted his award, he said: "Today I awoke in a comfortable bed. Twenty-five years ago I awoke with no hope, no home, and no reason to go on living. Twenty-five years ago I was a begging for nickels and dimes. Today I'm still a beggar but now it's for thousands of dollars from companies and foundations." After hearing the words like that, it's hard to imagine a better way to spend one's later career than helping fix the world's biggest problems.