When does the second half of life start?

When I launched onCOREventures three years ago, I wanted to work with people in the second half of life.  For someone in their sixties like me, it is readily apparent that they are in the second half of life.  But, I had forgotten that when I turned thirty, I also thought that I was in the second half of life.  At that point, I was no longer a child, I also no longer had the swagger of my twenties.  For many of the earliest millennials, those people born between 1982 and 1985 after the “new mini-baby boom” (as it was called in 1982), as they turn thirty, it seems to them that they are in the second half of life.

The parallels between the boomers of the sixties who had to endure the absolutely absurd decide of the seventies as they came of age, today’s generation had to endure the absolutely absurd first decade of this century.  In the seventies we had the elimination of the gold standard, the final end of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the first and second oil embargo, the Iran Hostage crisis, runaway inflation, 20% home mortgage rates, the invention of the personal computer by Apple and really bad polyester clothing and hair styles.  This century we had 9-11, two major economic downturns, dysfunctional government, imaginary weapons of mass destruction, terror alerts on TV for years on end, our own personal cable hate channels, the invention of the personal hand held computer (iPhone) by Apple and constant interruptions so we are all busy all of the time.

In both cases as people turned thirty, they seem to realize that it is time to take control of the little bit of life that we can control, and that includes how we put food on the table and what food we choose to eat.  Today, more and more of my clients are in their thirties and they have no intention of doing what my generation did.  Our generation went to sleep, we sold out, bought consumer goods, big houses and absurd amounts of junk food.  We have ruined the environment, our own waist lines, our sense of self worth and our personal integrity.  Some of us are waking up.  But much fewer than I hoped for. Three years ago, I thought that most of us would wake up.  Today, I realize that most of my generation is fat, sick and living in a past that never existed in the first place. In fact, it turns out that twenty percent of them are being supported by their millennial and Gen-X “children” according to TD Ameritrade.

So, perhaps it is fortunate that the current “booming” generation now entering their thirties seems to have no such inclination to go to sleep.  The fifty and sixty somethings that stood by and helped this country become a debtor nation with crumbling infrastructure and bulging waste lines might be able to tread water until they die, but our children and grandchildren clearly cannot. And frankly, I am enjoying working with these people who have been called entitled and spoiled by the most narcissistic, spoiled generation in the history of the planet (that would be the baby boomers).  Todays thirty somethings know that corporate America will spit them out when the hit fifty five just like they are doing with the Pepsi generation, so why buy into it to begin with?  Why not build something that only you control and do it in such a way that you rely on a like minded community of people that want to help you do the same?

That is why I created onCOREventures.  I once asked another coach – do you define the market or does the market define you?  I suspected that it was the later, and in my case it turns out that it is.  So, if the second half of life starts when you hit twenty-eight to thirty and you realize that you are not a kid and that the only one who can make your life successful are you and your small circle of friends, then so be it. As Steve Jobs asked John Scully back in the eighties “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world? If you want to change the world, I want to help you regardless of your physical age.

But I have a challenge for boomers.  Wake up, find something that you are passionate about, support yourselves into your eighties and spend the next twenty years cleaning up the planet, reversing your self imposed diseases like type two diabetes and give back some of the wisdom that we have collected.  People like Steve Jobs and Princess Diana – people who truly gave to the world are dead and you are here – do something with what you have left of your life instead of going to Panera every morning and complaining about the Republicans who are running for president or the “socialist” in the White House.

In the meantime, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, I will gladly work with the people who self qualify as wanting to create onCOREventures. Whether you are thirty or sixty, there is time to create sustainable businesses or a life focus that helps to change the world into a better place to live that is in harmony with your values. I want to help you do it.

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