My heroes don’t all look like cape-waving Supermen or sword-waving William Wallaces. One of them is a frail- looking white-haired woman named Anna Mary Moses. Better known as Grandma Moses, she was a renowned American folk artist. Moses began painting in her seventies after abandoning a career in embroidery because of arthritis. Now there’s a hero, a woman who started a career in her seventies! A great example of success at an advanced age. Retiring is for wimps (if retirement means laying on the couch watching Days of Our Lives).
Warren Buffet, at 77 years old, was asked what he would be doing 10 years later. He replied, “I’ll be doing exactly the same thing I’m doing today because I’m doing exactly what I love doing now.” I am amazed at these men and women who start the greatest years of their life work at what most consider time to retire and hang up the tools.
I found a great article about a retiree who is living his calling. Three things caught my attention about Don Johnson: first, his recognition that his life’s work as a professor of engineering led to his work today; second, his own amazement at doing the work he loves in retirement; and finally, his name is Don Johnson (my favorite 80′s Miami detective) Read about Don Johnson
So the next time you see a commercial with crews of happy white-haired men and women playing golf and riding tandem bikes down wildly-populated retirement community paths, consider this: maybe, just maybe, our ideas of retirement, work, and play, have gotten a little twisted?
Of course, there is another Don Johnson… the professional bowler! Most famous for his 299 game he shot on television during the 1974 Firestone Tournament of Champions.