Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life

273 Pages·2008·1.01 MB·English

by  Marc Freedman

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PRAISE FOR ENCORE
“Mr. Freedman, founder and chief executive of Civic Ventures, a San
Francisco nonprofit, writes about ‘encore careers’—jobs in later life that
involve ‘continued income, new meaning, and [a] significant contribu-
tion to the greater good.’ The five ‘mini’ autobiographies of people who
have embraced such careers are alone worth the price of admission.”
—Wall Street Journal
“Freedman provides concrete steps to finding a meaningful new job,
and he profiles people who have succeeded in their second acts.”
—Best Books, Planning a Second Career,
U.S. News and World Report
“Another book by Freedman in 2002 . . . foresaw many of the trends
others regurgitate now. His latest work may be just as visionary.”
—Tribune Media Services
“Read it: Take the weekend to consider what you want to do in the
second half of your life.” —Arizona Republic
“Through his thoughtful and undeniable thesis, Freedman constructs
a utopian working life filled with possibility. . . . I give the book four
full cups of fair trade, organic coffee.”
—Training and Development Magazine
“Freedman persuasively argues that later years can offer freedom to
work in more flexible, meaningful ways, rather than only a time to be
free from work.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“In this timely and important book, Marc Freedman overturns the
conventional wisdom about work, retirement, and even the American
Dream. If you’re a boomer—especially if you’re a boomer running for
president—put Encoreat the top of your reading pile. This is the rare
book that can change the national conversation.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind
and Free Agent Nation
“Many millions of maturing baby boomers will thank Marc Freed-
man for this warm, wise, compelling, and hopeful book. Encore
contains both eye-opening stories and important guidance for
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policymakers, to ensure that people can continue to make meaning-
ful contributions throughout their longer lifetimes.”
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, and
best-selling author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks
and Losing Streaks Begin and End
“Sixty-four million baby boomers—40 percent of the current Ameri-
can work force—will reach retirement age by 2010. They will be the
largest, healthiest, longest-living, and best-educated generation in
American history—to do what? Golf? Soldier on in old jobs? Or,
adopting Freedman’s inspirational idea, use their gifts and experience
to build a better world through an ‘encore career.’ Featuring a series
of moving life stories, Freedman makes a convincing case for a bril-
liant idea whose time has come.”
—Arlie Hochschild, University of California, Berkeley,
and author of The Time Bind: When Work Is Home and
Home Is Workand The Commercialization of Intimate Life
“Marc Freedman is a plausible candidate for secular sainthood. For
more than a decade this gifted social activist has worked toward an
America in which aging boomers help themselves and their commu-
nities through community service—what he calls ‘the encore society.’
This well-crafted book spells out the latest development of his thesis
and illustrates it with compelling personal stories.”
—Robert D. Putnam, Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, and author of Bowling Alone:
The Collapse and Revival of American Community
“Every movement needs a visionary, and baby boomers eager for
meaningful second acts are lucky to have Marc Freedman. This
remarkable book is as inspiring as it is important, as compelling for
individuals as it is for society.”
—Sherry Lansing, CEO, Sherry Lansing Foundation,
former chairman of Paramount Pictures
“In Encore, Marc Freedman provocatively confronts the impact baby
boomers will have on society as they age. This is a very important
book for the public, for program planners, and for policymakers alike.”
—Gene D. Cohen, MD, PhD, George Washington
University, and author of The Mature Mind:
The Positive Power of the Aging Brain
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Encore
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also by marc freedman
Prime Time:How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize
Retirement and Transform America
The Kindness ofStrangers:Adult Mentors,
Urban Youth,and the New Voluntarism
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Encore
•
Finding Work That Matters
in the
Second Half of Life
•
MARC FREEDMAN
with Photographs by Alex Harris
PUBLICAFFAIRS
New York
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Copyright © 2007 by Marc Freedman.
Photographs © 2007 by Alex Harris.
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a member of the Perseus Books Group.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without writ-
ten permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite
1321, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for
bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations.
For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the
Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call
[phone], extension 5000, or e-mail [email protected].
Text design and composition by Jenny Dossin
A cataloging-in-publication record for this book is available
from The Library of Congress.
HC: isbn-13: 978-1-58648-483-5; isbn-10: 1-58648-483-4
PB: isbn-13: 978-1-58648-634-1
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Leslie, Gabriel, and Levi,
with love and appreciation
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CONTENTS
1 THE FREEDOM TO WORK 1
Velma Simpson 27
2 INVENTING THE GOLDEN YEARS 34
Robert Chambers 57
3 THE PERFECT STORM 67
Jacqueline Khan 89
4 A FRESH MAP OF LIFE 98
Ed Speedling 123
5 CONTESTED TERRAIN 131
Sally Bingham 159
6 THE ENCORE SOCIETY 166
Appendix:Your Encore 201
Notes 223
Further Reading 239
Acknowledgments 243
Index 247
vii