My Own Personal Case Studies
Case Study #1: My Twenty-One-Year-Old Son
“You have to apply to college!” I sighed. “I told you. I am not going to college!” my son, a senior in high school, at the time, growled back at me.
He’s twenty-one now, living on his own (mostly), and while still not sure where life will take him (but then, I’m not sure where life is taking me either!), he is still absolutely, positively, 100% sure he does not need college to get there.
And perhaps he is correct.[1]
And, if he isn’t, well, he’ll probably live until 100-ish years old and will have time to go to college and completely reinvent himself if that is what he decides to do, at least according to authors, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott.[2]
The 100 Year Life
The 100 Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott is a hopeful book, especially for mothers worried about their twenty-one-year-old sons who choose not to attend college. It is also a hopeful book for those at any stage of their careers: those who are just starting out and those who have been working for years and feel a bit stuck. Gratton and Scott claim, we, along with millions of other people, can look forward to a long life, perhaps even one-hundred years. This longevity will create pressure on how we live and how society and businesses operate.[3] The hopeful part is a “three-stage life with education first, employment second and then retirement” will no longer be the “only way” or even the norm.[4] Instead, transitions, mulit-generational work places and homes, and much experimentation will become normal as people what will work best for them and support their 100-year life.[5] In other words, we will live long enough to be able to change directions, reinvent ourselves, and try new things. But, to do so will require taking care of our bodies, minds, finances, relationships, and skill development.
Case Study #2: My Fifty-One-Year-Old Husband
Recently my 51-year-old husband decided to start his own business. Having worked as a high school teacher and coach, an insurance salesman, a church educator, and in development for a non-profit, he was tired of working for someone else, so, he decided to reinvent himself as a business owner. Several folks have commented that he is “brave” to do this at his age or that it is “never too late” to start something new. And, while that is true, resiliency, creativity, compassion, and entrepreneurship have always been “threads that connect the many transitions” he has gone through.[6] His transition from various professional roles to entrepreneurship demonstrates how increased life expectancy enables mid-life career pivots and the pursuit of new ventures.
Lifelong Learning and Identity Formation Throughout the Life Span
In Eve Poole’s “Leadersmithing,” she emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and skill development for leaders.[7] The concept of a 100-year life, as described by Gratton and Scott, aligns with Poole’s perspective on leadership as a craft that requires ongoing refinement and adaptation. Both, my son and my husband are embracing this kind of lifelong learning. While not following the traditional “three-stage life” route, my son is embarking on teaching himself to be an animator and video editor, working with a mentor in the field, and honing his skills through creating his own portfolio and collaborating with others online. He continually seeks out new ways of learning, albeit, not the methods his mother suggests. In many ways he is leading me, teaching me to let go, and to look toward what the future holds for his generation. For my husband, this whole career path is new to him. He’s learning to use Quickbooks, to train caregivers, to understand the needs of the aging population, to write policies and procedures, and to get the state of Oregon to license his business. He is learning all the detailed work it requires to be a business owner!
Gratton and Scott point out that “issues of identity, choice and risk become central to questions of navigating a long life…the longer your life, the more your identity reflects what you craft.”[8] In his book, The Sound of Leadership, Jules Glanzer, writes, “Leadership is being that results in doing. Who you are determines how you lead. How you lead flows from who you are.”[9] My son says he wants to “help people and to make them laugh” with the videos he creates. My husband wants to compassionately care for those who are aging while helping to support our family. Both are leaders in their arenas, and their “identities,” while not the same, are similar. Caring, supporting, wanting to make the world a better place are phrases that come to mind when I think of their identities.
Conclusion
As one who defaults to worrying about those she loves, Gratton and Scott’s work on the 100-Year Life gives me hope as I watch my young adult son begin his hopefully long, winding, creative life and my husband reinvent himself mid-way through his what we both hope will be his 100-year life.
[1] Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, The One Hundred Year Life Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, Bloomsbury Business, London, Oxford, New York New Delhi, Sydney, 2017, 340.
[2] Ibid, 339.
[3] Ibid, 2.
[4] Ibid, 11.
[5] Ibid, 16.
[6] Ibid, 20.
[7] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership, Bloomsbury Business, London, Oxford, New York New Delhi, Sydney, 2017.
[8] Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, The One Hundred Year Life Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, Bloomsbury Business, London, Oxford, New York New Delhi, Sydney, 2017, 20.
[9] Jules Glazner, The Sound of Leadership, Invite Press (2023), 101, (Scribd).
About the Author
Kally Elliott
Mom of four. Wanna-be Broadway star. PC(USA) pastor. Wife. Friend. Sometimes a hot mess. Sometimes somewhat together. Is this supposed to be a professional bio?6 responses to “My Own Personal Case Studies”
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Hi Kally,
You wrote, “As one who defaults to worrying about those she loves, Gratton and Scott’s work on the 100-Year Life gives me hope as I watch my young adult son begin his hopefully long, winding, creative life and my husband reinvent himself mid-way through his what we both hope will be his 100-year life.”
Amen. I just got of the phone with my 24 year old daughter who has discovered the cost of medical insurance ($300.00 a month). She now has Medicaid, which will hopefully cover her costs.
Having left the house (and sadly the church), I can only pray that the Lord protects her until the 100 year warranty clocks out.
Shalom…
Russ, I may come to you to figure out the Medicaid situation! Our denomination is changing our insurance and I may need to put my older kids on something like Medicaid. Thankfully, because they are only in the first quarter of their 100 year life, they are pretty healthy!
Oh I like this! What a fun exercise in considering the freedom we have to reinvent ourselves throughout life and how it can end up reshaping our decisions like college and career transactions.
What would life be like if we truly embraced that flexibility!!!!
Right?!?
I want to think that at age 55 I can decide I’m on to the next thing…that I can reinvent myself, acquire new skills and use them, move to Tahiti and set up shop there. I don’t know – I just want to think that there are so many possibilities.
Kally,
Love the way you share real life wrestlings in your posts. We have only known life in stages that were predictable but for our kids it is a different world. I find the challenge is knowing when what I have to say is wise and helpful or when it is simply out of date. Parenting even with adult children is not for the faint of heart. Guess it keeps us on our knees.
Reading your post made me think about Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward, where we spend the first half of our lives in pursuit and find a time where we reverse and realize it’s not about the pursuit. Horrible summary, but we all wake up to that chasing at different times. Its kind of like the saying “youth is waste don the young!”.