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June
16, 2004:
How Retirement Can Kill You,
Steven Berglas, Ph.D., author of
Reclaiming The Fire
Mike
Carruthers:
The dream of working hard, making lots of money and then retiring
to a stressless life of leisure seldom works.
Steven
Berglas :
The more successful you are and more active you are in
life, smelling the roses will kill you. If you retire to smelling
the roses you're digging your own grave.
Dr. Steven
Berglas author of the book: Reclaiming
The Fire has been studying the negative effects of success
for a long time. He says if you look at entrepreneurs for example....
They
suffer paradoxically when the business succeeds. Entrepreneurs
never complain about the struggle, they never complain about
building a business. What drives them crazy is the passivity
of success. And I identified a syndrome called entrepreneurial
arson where a business builder will create a problem in his
business at the moment he is scheduled to retire so he doesn't
have to be put out to pasture.
And there
are plenty of well known examples of entrepreneurial arson starting
with the chairman of General Electric.
Jack
Welch did it publically when he made the Honeywell acquisition
and wouldn't retire on schedule. George Eastman of Eastman Kodak
killed himself when he retired. He put a note on his desk, 'My
work is done, why wait," and he blew his brains out.
The people
who do best after retirement says Dr. Berglas,are the people
who stay involved.
You're
always being a mentor or teacher or role model. You're never
at a loss for both doing good and building self esteem.
Tomorrow,
the effects of being successful in a career you hate. At
somethingyoushouldknow.net,
I'm Mike Carruthers, and that's Something You Should Know.
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