What is the lifelong potential of the human mind? Might I have talents or brainpower that I'm unaware of? Can I make money and a difference doing something I love? Is there some science to this or just luck?
Millions of us in our 40's, 50's and 60's face career, financial and personal challenges beyond anything we anticipated--we're filled with fresh uncertainties.
We've seen careers derailed and investments devastated by economic chaos. Some of us have grown restless or burned out in our businesses or professions. Others have unexpectedly 'flunked retirement,' finding the so-called 'golden years' mind-numbingly boring. However we've come to it, the challenge is the same:What Now?
Personally driven by this question, Peabody award-winning journalist and Fortune 100 leadership consultant Mark S. Walton set out on his most fascinating assignment yet. Crisscrossing America to meet with remarkably re-inventive people, and researching the latest breakthroughs in brain science, psychology, creativity and happiness, he made three life-altering discoveries:
State-of-the-art neuroscience has revealed that we are hard-wired for reinvention through the emergence of extraordinary new brainpowers in life's second half. A growing number of men and women are learning to leverage this inborn potential. In midlife, they're raising the bar--inventing profitable new careers, businesses, and avenues for social impact that extend well into their 70's, 80's, even 90's. Longevity experts are increasingly convinced that doing work that 'pays it forward' to future generations pays us back in personal long-term health and happiness. What unrealized possibilities exist for each of us in midlife and beyond?How do we find and unlock our unique talents and capabilities?What kinds of people have accomplished this? What can we learn from their experiences?
In Boundless Potential Walton shares his surprising and encouraging findings, weaving first-hand accounts, cutting edge research, and practical lessons into an actionable blueprint for redesigning our lives and work. Entertaining, informative, and empowering, this groundbreaking book delivers overwhelming evidence that we were never meant to downgrade our ambitions or goals, but to continually reinvent them.
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"A wonderful guide. Boundless Potential explores the science of lifelong potential and explains how individuals can create work they love. An inspiring read." -The Wall Street Journal
"A great book. The mix of history, psychology, neuroscience and profiles of successful re-inventers will hit home with intelligent men and women contemplating their next steps." -Elizabeth Pope, The New York Times
"A terrific book. Boundless Potential provides clear and practical advice on how to navigate the transition from work to good work; and if that isn't enough, Mark Walton is a master storyteller." -Suzanne Braun Levine, Founding Editor, Ms. Magazine
"No greater challenge faces millions of us than how to create a meaningful, successful second half of life. Mark Walton shows us how to reinvent our 'game' with a practical framework, inspiring examples, and new insights from neuroscience.I recommend it highly!" -William Ury Ph.D., International Bestselling Coauthor, 'Getting to Yes,'
"Brilliant, provocative, highly practical. Mark Walton has punctured the myths of life's second half to reveal our true human potential: how we are hardwired for continual reinvention, personal achievement and contribution to others." -Michael Murphy, Co-Founder, Esalen Institute, Best Selling Author, 'Golf in the Kingdom.'
"Boundless Potential is must reading. Mark Walton tackles one of the most important issues of our time with thoughtfulness, intelligence and careful analysis: how to harness the talents and energy of the largest generation in American history." -Mark Miller, Nationally Syndicated Columnist: Tribune Media Services, CBS Moneywatch
From the Author
This book's pages contain the real-life experiences and pragmatic wisdom of uncommon men and women--people who have led the second half of their lives in an extraordinary way.
Each made a conscious choice to raise the bar, rather than lower his or her expectations. They decided to keep "going for the gold" in their way of living--to design and play a different game.
In midlife and beyond, they set out to reinvent their earlier success by creating a new kind of work they could truly love. And in doing so, they built a rich livelihood and legacy based on their full lifetime potential, not just the choices and necessities of earlier years.
As I encountered such people in the process of my research, I came to describe them as reinventive, and, by extension, to label the nature of their pursuits reinventive work.
"Why live on just one cylinder," one reinventive woman asked me, "never experiencing the joy and power of the rest?"
Meeting such individuals and, in particular, conducting the in-depth personal interviews that are an integral part of this book, has been a profoundly awakening experience for me, as I intend that reading Boundless Potential will be for you.
Be assured, this is no volume of theory or chicken soup for growing older.
It is a practical inquiry into the challenges of today and tomorrow, an intelligent person's guide to a fundamentally new--a twenty-first-century--redefinition of the word success.
Mark S. Walton is Chairman of the Center for Leadership Communication, an education and communication enterprise with a focus on leadership and exceptional achievement at every stage of life. The Center's website location is: www.leadercommunication.com. Mark can be reached via email at info@leadercommunication.com.
Mark is an internationally distinguished leadership educator, management advisor and Peabody award-winning journalist whose work at the highest levels of business, government, the military and the media has spanned nearly four decades.
His most recent book is "Boundless Potential: Transform Your Brain, Unleash Your Talents, Reinvent Your Work in Midlife and Beyond" (McGraw Hill, 2012).
His previous book was "Generating Buy-In: Mastering the Language of Leadership," a landmark examination of the dynamics of persuasive leadership, published by the American Management Association in 2004 and selected by Business Week as one of the Top 30 business books of the year.
Mark has been a Professor of Leadership in the U.S. Navy's Advanced Management Program as well as a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he taught leadership and strategic communication at the Senior Executive Institute and in the MBA and Executive MBA programs at the nationally top-ranked Kenan-Flagler Graduate Business School.
While on the Carolina faculty, Mark founded the Center for Leadership Communication, an education and communication enterprise with a focus on advanced leadership and executive development. As the Center's Chairman for the past 15 years, Mark has taught extensively in corporate universities and management development programs and worked individually with CEO's, Division Presidents and a wide range of other senior executives and professionals at many of the world's leading organizations, including: Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Dow Chemical Company, Duke Energy Corporation, General Electric Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, NASA, Toyota Motor Corporation and the United States Navy and Marine Corps.
Earlier in his career, Mark was an internationally-recognized network television news anchorman, correspondent and analyst, specializing in political leadership and national affairs. A founding correspondent of Cable News Network (CNN), he served as CNN's first Chief White House Correspondent and, later, as CNN's Senior Correspondent, traveling the nation and world from CNN headquarters in Atlanta. The book 'CNN: The Inside Story' characterizes him as "one of a small group of renegades who changed the face of TV News."
While at CNN, Mark was a recipient of broadcast journalism's premier honor, the coveted Peabody Award, for his role as Correspondent in CNN's live coverage, from Moscow, of the failed Soviet coup in 1991 and the subsequent fall of Communism. His reporting and writing have also been honored with The National Headliner Award, Ohio State Journalism Award, Cable Ace Award, the Gold Medal of the New York TV and Film Festival and the Silver Gavel of the American Bar Association.
What a powerful book. I was prepared to be depressed reading about brain research relating to midlife (me) and beyond. I was delightfully surprised to find myself uplifted and inspired. Mark Walton's book is very accessible for all readers. I found the case studies fascinating and I learned an enormous amount from the research. Did you know that starting in middle age, we use both sides of the brain at the same time unlike earlier in life when we favor one over the other. I certainly didn't. I can't wait to put the practical lessons of "Boundless Potential" to good use in my life. This book is a real gem- I highly recommend it.
Mark Walton's Boundless Potential is a must read for anyone forty years or older. Its conversational, easy-to-read style might make one believe it is a simple self-help guide, and it is helpful. But I found it to be much more than that. This book will help you not only evaluate what you want to do with the second half of your life, but also reveal ways you can discover your own passions, talents and principles. Walton writes with intelligence and insight, and the stories in this book will inspire you and remind you that it is never too late to do something worthwhile with your life. The stories certainly inspired me!
There are two growing trends in western society which will have a significant impact on our economy, the way we think about retirement and our lives.
The first trend is that we are living longer. Not only are we living longer, our productive years has been extended. A few years back when a worker reached 65 they were worn out. They were ready to kick back and spend the last few years on the golf course or out fishing. But as our health care and quality of life have improved, most people at 65 are still very active. They have plenty of productive years left.
The second trend is that companies are not eager to keep older workers on the payroll. For a variety of reasons, most companies still think that older workers are not as valuable - or perhaps are more expensive than younger ones.
This is creating a sizeable population of senior workers who are highly capable, have the desire and willingness to work but cannot find challenging/fulfilling work. As the author points out, recent discoveries in brain studies have shown that we do not lose intelligence as we grow older, the opposite is the case. The brain is very plastic and can continue to learn and adapt throughout life. Often older workers gain additional wisdom in part because the left and right hemispheres seem to work better with age.
The book does a wonderful job of discussing and highlighting the growing trends which the boomers are facing and the problems they are encountering in trying to cope with the desires to find meaningful purpose and engaging employment.
The author interviews many senior citizens who re-invented themselves - abandoning their primary career and finding new meaning/purpose in life.... One of the recurring themes of the book is that there is this vast talent pool going to waste and it is being overlooked by most businesses. If you fit into this group, you cannot or should not rely on others to solve the problem for you. Your best solution is to take control of your own situation. You will need to create your own solution.
The book is very conversational and easy to read. It does a very good job of pointing out the social problems created by these trends. While the advice is to take control of your own life and create your own solution, I feel that most people will need much more guidance than is given in this book. This is not a how-to manual. It is more a high level discussion of the problems and a look at how some others have re-invented their lives.
The Great Recession of 2008 really highlighted this problem. There is a real need for boomers to understand the value they can add to others and find a way to share their value.
Life is not over at 65. Most people still have a lot of positive value to add. This book will help you become aware of the possibilities that exist - that will allow people to achieve their full potential.Read more ›
Few of us of us ever fully develop the potentialities that we possess at birth and I agree with Mark Walton that most (not all) human limits are self-imposed. This is what Henry Ford had in min d years ago when observing, "Whether you think you can or think you can`t, you're probably right." So, the challenge is to develop a mindset that recognizes what is possible and a faith in what can be done with possibilities.
As Walton explains, "This book's pages contain the real life experiences and pragmatic wisdom of uncommon men and women - people who have led the second half of their lives in an extraordinary way." Each preferred to raise the bar rather than lower their expectations. Such people Walton "came to describe as [begin italics] reinventive [end italics], and, by extension, to label the nature of their pursuits [begin italics] reinventive work [end italics]."
Some of the most valuable material in the book is provided by five extraordinarily [begin italics] reinventive [end italics] people, their comments brilliantly framed by Walton, who generously share their thoughts and feelings about the rollercoaster life each seems to have lived. Sherwin B. ("Shep") Nuland, Horace Deets, Marion Rosen, Gil Garcetti, and Rita K. Spina are kindred spirits with the seniors that Warren Bennis and Bob Thomas discuss in their book, Geeks and Geezers. "We believe that we have identified the process that allows an individual to undergo testing and to emerge, not just stronger, but better equipped with the tools he or she needs both to lead and to learn. It is a model that explains how individuals make meaning out of difficult events -- we call them crucibles [in italics] -- and how that process of 'meaning making' both galvanizes individuals and gives them their distinctive voice...."
Walton recommends a process by which to "transform your brain, unleash your talents, [and] reinvent your work in midlife and beyond." Make no mistake about how immensely complicated and frequently perilous this process is. That is why he provides a wealth of information, insights, and wisdom that, she fervently hopes, will help leaders and those aspiring to leaders to complete a transition from being limited by what James Collins characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom" to the fulfillment of what Walton views as "boundless potential."
Here are a few of the dozens of passages that caught my eye:
o "The years of midlife and beyond are simply a new developmental period. The key word here is 'developmental.'" Sherwin ("Shep") B. Nuland was a prominent surgeon and faculty member at Yale University Medical School and 64 when he wrote his first bestselling book, Pages 19-33 and 175-177 o "The Design of Reinvention," Figure 3-1, Page 40 o "We divide life into: you learn, you work, you do leisure. No overlap, please. Well, that's crap!" Horace Deets, Pages 66-70 and 92-94 o "Home Run in the Desert," Pages 90-92 o Marian Rosen's "Magic Touch," The Rosen Institute and the Rosen Method (pain reduction and management), Pages 97-112 o "New Powers Emerge," Pages 107-110 o "The Trilogy of Wisdom," 127-128 o "I was forced [at age 70] to reinvent myself." Gil Garcetti, former D.A. in Los Angeles (e.g. Simpson trial) who became a world-renowned photographer, Pages 146-156 o "The Eugeria Paradigm," Pages 168-170 [Note: The word eugeria means "a normal and happy old age."] o "For me, at any rate, I will just go on doing. Because I cannot imagine giving up on what's still in my heart and in my mind." Rita K. Spina, age 80. She earned BA, MA, and PhD degrees and retired from teaching (at age 77) to become a community activist to oppose uncontrolled growth., Pages 189-201
Walton concludes his book with several specific suggestions for his reader to consider. They are provided as "Lessons" and "Discoveries," and best revealed within the narrative, in context. With regard to the title for this commentary, I selected it because it supports Thomas Edison's observation, "Vision without execution is hallucination" and, more to the point, it also supports the values that Mark Walton and his senior collaborators affirm and exemplify throughout this book.Read more ›
Walton's book "Boundless Potential" was one of those hard to put down books. It is chockfull of example success stories of people who either retired or left work for another reason. Then instead of becoming bitter or bored, they choose to became successful at not only new careers but in some cases totally different types of jobs. Examples included both "for profit" businesses and non-profit social campaigns, by people from varying job markets. Executives became social workers, doctors became entrepreneurs or philanthropists, and a few became authors. Each story was inspiring.
From each story shared came nuggets of knowledge that the writer or the person being interviewed offered the reader. Challenges are also provided and how to overcome them explained. Helpful tips are given for service and success. Plus the psychology and brain are explored as to why people are actually "wiser" and often more effective in their later years.
This is information that flies in the face of the belief that people are no longer useful after 50 or 60, even though the life span for most has increased to well past 70. Pay attention business management, you may be shooting yourself in the foot by dismissing a valuable human resource too soon.
