Chip Conley

As I mentioned before when I riffed on Wisdom Well with my friend Seth Godin for a week, my number one piece of advice for cultivating and harvesting wisdom is very simple. Take an empty diary or journal, write “My Wisdom Book” on the front or inside the cover and every weekend create a few bullet points of what you learned that week and how it might serve you in the future.

Yesterday, on my way out to a 10+ mile walk around Lady Bird Lake, I shared the 25-floor elevator ride down with a neighbor I’d never seen before who I think lives in one of the penthouses. I was wearing a mask and a Golden Gate Bridge t-shirt. He donned no mask and a bit of a scowl.

Five innings. Psychologically speaking, that’s about how long most people think their life will last. No seventh-inning stretch. No bottom of the ninth. No extra innings. No walk-off home run.

Chip: Separated at birth. That’s all I can say about me and Shelley Paxton. As former Chief Marketing Officer of Harley-Davidson, she knew how to make her way around a pretty macho culture and, of course, she learned how to ride a hog.

Pill. Grim. Age. As people arrive in midlife and beyond, they often pop pills to take the edge off the grim news they’re aging.

Rituals are important, especially when it comes to the pivotal moments in our lives. They provide a “rest stop for the soul” and a community-sanctioned show of support for those in transition. It’s interesting that high school graduation is crowned by a “commencement speech,” which serves as both an ending and a beginning.

I’m in Texas’ capital city, Austin. A place where the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, said on the eve of his 70th birthday six months ago, “As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren? And if that is the exchange, I'm all in.”

The words “encore” and “mentor” sound alike. I was 52 years old in early 2013 and had no idea what was next for me. In the movie “The Intern,” Robert DeNiro says, “Musicians don’t retire. They quit when there’s no more music inside of them.” I know I still had music to share, but I wasn’t sure with whom to share it.

I love basketball and have suggested this sport can influence how we see our lives (here’s a recent blog post). Before 1954 in the National Basketball Association and 1985 in the NCAA, there was an expression of “running out the clock” with a “four corners offense” meant to stall when you’re winning the game. Some pundits have suggested the Biden campaign has been “running out the clock.” Not a good idea.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Philosophers focus on wisdom. The rest of us trade in knowledge. My favorite modern-day philosopher is my friend Alain de Botton who started the School of Life.