Reboot!: What to do when your career is over but your life isn't - Paperback

by Phil Burgess (Author)

About Reboot
"Reboot to work; retirement is a disease."

"It's better to wear out than rust out." That is the message of Reboot While American culture glamorizes the "Golden Years" of endless leisure and amusement, Phil Burgess rejects retirement, as he makes the case for returning to work in the post-career years, a time he calls later life. Based on solid research from the social and medical sciences, the author says, "It is better to die with your boots on, fully engaged in helping others and repairing the world."

Reboot is partly autobiographical. Indeed, the author is working well into his own post-career years, following two failed retirements. He is also convincing in his eye-opening, historically rooted, and hope-filled arguments for engaging in life-long work that is productive and satisfying.

Reboot identifies five different types of work: in-kind, volunteer, Samaritan, enrichment, and paid work. Booters who incorporate one or more of these types of work into their post-career lifestyle will, according to Burgess, live longer, live better, and die faster - avoiding boredom, aimless busy-ness, diminished self-worth and the anguish (and cost) of lingering death.

With America's 78 million boomers turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day for the next 18 years, Reboot provides a timely and provocative alternative to the conventional idea of retirement. With the promises of Social Security and Medicare about to be broken, Reboot provides an upbeat and constructive way to deal with new financial realities.

For men and women navigating life's transitions, striving to finish well, Reboot provides a roadmap for living a life of meaning, challenging the reader to be a booter, not a retiree. Burgess boldly asserts that retirement is a deadly disease, and that work after a life of work is the best option for post-career years that are meaningful, productive, healthy, and satisfying. See www.BooterNation.com

Excerpts:

On retirement: "Not all ideas are good ideas. Some are bad ideas. Retirement is one of those bad ideas - it makes no sense...Retirement is not natural. It is not historic. It is not healthy. It is not, for most people, fulfilling. For many, retirement is a widow maker."

On the value of work: "The social engagement and satisfaction that come from working in later life are keys to successful aging...There is much work to do in this world where we are but temporary inhabitants. We should find it and do it...at least for as long as we're able. In many ways, our life depends on it."

On work and money: "Work is not only about money. Even if you don't need the money and your financial situation is stable and comfortable, returning to work in your post-career life is the smart thing to do - at least until sidelined by frailty or disability. It's smart because good health and satisfaction in later-life are most likely to come from working."

On different types of work: "For most of us, post-career work will be tailored work, work customized to reflect our needs, our deepest desires, and the highest and best use of our gifts - especially time, talent, and treasure. Work tailored to our gifts will be productive and satisfying."...