Reflections on a birthday memorialized by The Beatles - Updated

An update as I approach my 69th birthday

This article was written five years ago, after I had been retired from Deloitte for about a year. It is hard to believe that six years have passed since I left Deloitte because of mandatory retirement. I do believe, however, that my 38 years with the firm prepared me for my new adventures.

The past five years have been remarkable in many ways - with many highs and one significant low. As my journey continued, I became a full-time professor at St. ?John’s University as well as the head of Tobin College of Business's executive education division. During the summer of 2020, without seeking it out, I was given the opportunity to join Marks Paneth LLP, a midsize accounting firm in the New York region as a senior director in its Professional Standards Group, a group charged with technical consultations and maintaining audit quality.?It was quite the experience, starting a new position with a new firm during the pandemic. I was fortunate that this is a firm with a caring and welcoming culture.

The journey continued into the new year, 2021, albeit on a much sadder road. ?As I previously wrote [On the Loss of a Son | LinkedIn], Heidi and I lost our son Brad on January 2. There is not much more I can say about this low point, but it is just another piece of evidence about how one must appreciate every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, and every year as time passes by. (Thank god for our 3 1/2 year old granddaughter, Mia.) One cannot look ahead as to what one should be doing or could be doing in the future, but rather, must appreciate events and people on a daily basis – never knowing what the future will bring.

And so my journey continues, a little older, but wiser - and ready to experience new adventures and experiences. I wish you all health and happiness...and love and joy.

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“When I get older losing my hair

Many years from now

Will you still be sending me a valentine

Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

…

Will you still need me, will you still feed me

When I'm sixty-four?”

(Lennon-McCartney)

Well…today I turn 64.?

Paul McCartney wrote this song at the age the ripe old age of 16 as a “proposal” by a young man for a lifetime of happiness with his sweetheart – looking towards a time when he turned 64 (and when she would be “older too”).?It struck me, today, on my 64th birthday, that I have reached that age – an age Sir Paul defined as “many years from now.”

But the characteristics and expectations of this age are not what they were when the song was written (1966, released in 1967 on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”).?People are generally living longer and often extending their careers either for economic, intellectual or motivational reasons.?

These “encore careers” can be, broadly, extensions of prior work lives, new ventures or employment, or involvement in worthy not-for-profit organizations.?Mine has been a combination of the three.?I have started my own consulting/advisory firm to capitalize on the experience and training I received from my 38 years at Deloitte.?I continue to expand my involvement in the academic profession – as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University and instructor at NYU, and as a committee member and journal reviewer in the professional organization of accounting professors, the American Accounting Association. And, finally, I have taken on additional responsibilities in the not-for-profit world, as a Trustee and Treasurer of my prep school, The Kew-Forest School (in Forest Hills, NY).

So Sir Paul’s vision of life at 64 is very different than the life that I (and many others) are leading now – for whatever reason.?There is much to be said for having “Vera, Chuck and Dave” on your knee in a life of retirement and leisure (coupled perhaps with a continuing career, of course).?But for me, my life more closely resembles (at least in title) Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business.”?(Its actual lyrics reflect the singer’s “working at nothing all day.”)

I look forward to this age and future years with excitement and enthusiasm as the next stages of my professional life take shape and crystallize – always changing and evolving.?As I have been telling people who have been kind enough to wish me well and ask me how it feels to be 64, age is just a number – the trick is just to continue to have it go up.?64, 74, 84, whatever…?As long as you have your health, loved ones and friends, the digit is irrelevant. New challenges and fun await.