Two Years Into My Second Curve
A look back, and a look forward
My good friend Barney was the first person that I connected with after being laid off (two years ago yesterday), meeting with him for coffee the Wednesday after my last day at Microsoft. I was deliberate about starting with Barney, as he is a fresh start SME, having intentionally constructed a career of serially working himself out of a job. The key line from our meeting was him saying, “Don’t just jump in the next thing that looks comfortable or familiar. Instead, enjoy this in between time. And just stay open … to anything.” A few weeks after our meeting, Barney sent me a link to an episode of the Good Life Project podcast called, “How To Love Midlife: 12 Ways Life Gets Better with Age“1, which featured Chip Conley.
The podcast episode began with some statistics clearly designed to elicit a key moment of insight2: 50 years old is actually the middle of your life. So when you’re in the retirement age range of 55-65, there are actually far more years ahead than you realize. The central topic of the episode was The Modern Elder Academy (MEA). The mission of MEA is, “We believe midlife isn’t a crisis – it’s a calling. Thanks to advancements in health and quality of life, midlife now lasts decades longer than it did a century ago. Our mission is to disrupt societal beliefs around aging and help people in the second half of their lives create the exciting, fulfilling, purpose-driven lives they crave.” Chip sums it up perfectly as, “Midlife isn’t a crisis, it’s a chrysalis.” Midlife is the transition between the caterpillar that consumes and the butterfly that pollinates. MEA recognizes that a meaningful role for people in the latter half of their life is spreading wisdom.
Two months after my Barney meeting, my sister Ann sent me a book as a gift: Arthur C. Brooks’ “From Strength to Strength”3. This book also stressed how long we have, and detailed the two important phases of life: the first phase of fluid intelligence, and the second phase of crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is all about you learning, and organizing and reorganizing your knowledge. Crystallized intelligence is when you reach the point of having enough depth and structure to your knowledge that you have wisdom to share. And in the final chapter of that book, Arthur also calls out the Modern Elder Academy.
Two completely separate resources that led to the exact same conclusion: recognize and celebrate the transition from chiefly growing to chiefly sharing. In your first career, your focus is on the growing. Then, for your second career, or as Arthur calls it your second curve, your focus is on sharing. This was the right frame of mind to get into after my exit from Microsoft. That set in motion a very deliberate two year journey, that brings us to today, the start of my third year of my second curve. Here’s a look back at the last two years, and then a look forward at the year ahead.
Looking back
Year One: Play the Pause
Year Two: Establish my Second Curve
Looking ahead
Year Three: Uplevel my sharing
