Wisdom, community and coming of age

Chip Conley took a single motel and built a hotel empire in California.

Celebrities and business moguls (including Seth Godin, Chip’s MBA schoolmate) have been staying at his properties since long before boutique hotels popped up on every street corner. After more than 24 years as a hospitality giant, he accepted an invitation to join Airbnb. In his fifth book, Wisdom @Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, Chip chronicles how he became a strategic advisor to Airbnb’s CEO and learned the power in being a modern elder.

Last year, Chip was in Toronto for just one day to give a book talk at the Toronto Board of Trade. My own book, The Talent Revolution: Longevity and the Future of Work, was about to launch; it also focuses on how the wisdom of experienced workers can be transformative inside organizations. So, with a deep breath, I sent Chip a note on LinkedIn to connect and see if he might meet with me. I wanted to know what he had learned from publishing five best-selling business books and, most recently, what the reaction to his latest book had been.

Thankfully, Chip responded to me within minutes.

Given our tight schedules, we agreed to meet for coffee at First Canadian Place, a Toronto office tower that houses the Board of Trade. I bought him a Tim Horton’s coffee and we talked for an hour at a sticky food court table. Some of that discussion was about our work and books. Most of it was a more general conversation that left me feeling like I really could know Chip – and like him. I hope the feeling was mutual.

Before we parted ways, Chip invited me to co-lead a workshop with him at his newly launched Modern Elder Academy in El Pescadero, Mexico. How could I say no? And so, from April 19-26, Chip and I will facilitate a week-long workshop helping other modern elders forge a path for their futures, balancing what it means to be both successful and satisfied at work and in life.

I can’t wait.

Want to come hang out with me and my friend Chip? Applications and scholarship requests close on February 16, 2020.