David Corbett
For too many professionals, careers end in a sprint off a cliff, from a life overfull with work to a retirement bereft of meaningful activity, significant relationships and full financial security.
David Corbett puts forward an alternative, a method of carefully preparing a portfolio of skills for one's later years, so that all spheres of life can be brought into balance through productive activities, some for financial gain, others not.
In his book Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose and Passion After 50, Corbett, with coauthor Richard Higgins, lays out a path to a future that most baby boomers' parents could never have imagined.
Here are highlights from a recent conversation with Corbett, founder and director of New Directions, a Boston firm that advises executives on how to make transitions in later life.
When you're in your 20s or 30s, it's relatively easy to branch out in your professional activities to prepare a portfolio of skills for later life. But what about when you're in your 50s, which is when many folks get started on this?
For sure, it's hard for older workers. The younger generations, X'ers and Y'ers, are more apt to move in and out of careers. A kid coming out of college should at least be thinking about portfolios. But even if you're older, it's not too late. The notion of a portfolio doesn't have a shelf life; it's ageless.
You say that a person assembling a life portfolio should create a personal board of advisors. How does this help the process?
It's good to form a board of advisors - mentors, former bosses, clergy, and so on - who can help you look at your own life. It's really hard to do that solo, but looking way back in your life is a great way to find clues to your future. You can ask your advisors, "What was I doing when I did my best? What was I known for?"
Don't people have to be very outgoing to make this life portfolio process work? What about us shy people?
It is hard if you're not naturally a salesperson. But if an individual goes through our self-assessment and latches onto some parts of their lives where they had passion, they're going to talk about it, and then they'll be able to sell it. It's about finding those drivers that motivated you at certain times in your life.
How do people working 50- to 60-hour weeks find time to transition to a portfolio life?
It's a matter of learning that you've got to find the time, and then exercising discipline. Someday you may lose your job and you'll have to do something about it, and it's so much better to get started on it now. You can bring your spouse or kids in on the process. Ask them, "Where should the ideal world take us?"
Isn't creating alternatives to the work-life routine even more difficult for those of us in the sandwich generation who are responsible for both young children and elderly parents?
Well, yes, as a practical matter, caring for aging parents and kids and paying the bills is a 24-7 lifestyle. But we think longer-term now. With extended middle age, the ultimate goal is to develop a portfolio of skills and activities that will take you into your 90s. Eventually your responsibilities for family will diminish and you'll have a new portfolio goal around values and lifestyle.
Whatever their stage in life, goal-less people don't do well. If you can create a goal for a future life, even if it's vague and fuzzy, it will get you through these times when you have no time for a portfolio.
In order to allocate more time to outside activities, many of us would like to put in fewer hours of work while not sacrificing earnings. Is that achievable, say, by moving from a full-time professional career to independent consulting?
That's probably the hardest fork in the road. One side of you says, "I want to scale back," but the other side says, "I need the dough." To charge a couple hundred dollars an hour, you've got to both have valuable expertise and be a rainmaker, to bring the business in. Will that give you enough room to fit in all the other things you want in your life? You won't know until you try.
