Chip Conley

Recently, I was listening to Michael Meade’s “Living Myth” podcast called "The Pearl Within the Soul," during which he said the seven words that make up the title of today’s post.

Tomorrow’s my birthday (62) so a good time to ponder how wise humans before me have contemplated adding a year to their age. Prolific writer Henry Miller penned a book by the name of today’s post and only printed 200 copies, all numbered and signed by the author. The last time I checked on Amazon, this limited edition was priced at $1,500 per copy.

If you answered yes to that question, you’re like 80% of Americans who feel the same way. Additionally, 61% of us are cautious about sharing our age in the U.S. because we fear being judged.

One of the living humans I most admire is Dr. Atul Gawande, who graduated from Stanford five years after me. This prominent surgeon, Harvard professor, humanist and healthcare expert wrote the New York Times bestseller “Being Mortal” and was the commencement speaker to Stanford graduate students, where he uttered the sentence that is the title of today’s blog.

Born before the Great Depression and living until just four years ago, Roger Bannister didn’t quite make it to the 100-year mark of his life. But he will forever be remembered as the first human being to run a four-minute mile.

The cultural symbolism of a potluck isn’t lost on organizational psychologists. We want to create workplaces where everyone symbolically brings what they cook best to the table, and we all are better off for it.

I’m sad I’m missing my 40th college reunion this week because I’m teaching in Baja. It’s only in the past ten years that I’ve started to appreciate the formative relationships and deep emotional bonds I forged with my Stanford friends, which began in the era when Jimmy Carter was President.

When I hear the word “mantra,” I typically think of a word or phrase that one silently repeats to aid their concentration during meditation. Sounds quite liberating, right?

Occasionally, someone approaches me after a speech and asks why MEA is exclusively for men. Of course, knowing that almost ⅔ of our MEA alums are women, I sprout a quizzical look on my face and then learn that this person thinks that only men can be an “elder.” Thank God that’s not the case.