The seniors shall inherit the earth

Can one grow old and young at the same time?

Some people, a small minority, do it. They mature like old whisky and still remain young, challenging common wisdom that old dogs can not pick up new tricks. New findings suggest the opposite

For some seniors growing old and growing young are parallel processes.  

They challenge their brain with continual learning. The result, plasticity of the brain improves. Intelligence too has the same character.  It improves if one keeps challenging it against problems. When the brain remains young and one is driven by work that is motivating on its own merit, the body grows young renewing itself continually like a river which is not blocked from renewal by our ecological footprints. One grows old and young at the same time.

Olive Riley, the world's oldest blogger, passed away at 108. She must have picked up blogging when quite old by our usual standards. I also know some very smart, much younger people who boast of not using the internet or the computer claiming that they are against too much of technology. I am afraid it is a camouflage to cover up the resistance to embrace the new.  In my search for the old and young on this site, I met Joseph Smith. http://inlink.gaia.com/.  He has weathered many a storm - literally and figuratively on the high seas and on land for 82 years and graduated from the school of hard knocks. He is both old and young, more active  and concerned than most of us about the way the system works or does not

The ‘old and young' need closer attention because they are travelling a different road which is likely to be a mega trend, gathering momentum.

Elsewhere there is a conversation going on the future of social enterprise http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/conversation/futureofsocialenterprise/. I am convinced that the future of business is in the enhancement of community, global and local.   I spent four years as a student in two B-schools. Both claimed to be teaching management but proved to be just business schools. Some of them have an identity crisis like many of their clients. I would prefer to  believe that every business, including the business of religion and non- profits, is about creating community within to connect to the community outside and business performance ought to be measured by the enhancement of community or net value addition to the community capital. Many of them very successful by conventional norms could be destroying community. They survive and grow by reinforcing the business of Shadows and Substitutes

Established religions have stood the test of time, but have a shadow side to their existence. They appear to be more successful than most business organizations in promising the most intangible with the lowest cost of production, manipulating masses on the fear of death and retribution in next life. Priests and politicians play god and peddle dependence. Many of them love to be worshipped and are on a drive to fulfill their own power drive distortions.

Will insurance companies   have any business if   people have no fear of death or the future?

If people are anchored to their true SELVES how would the fashion and cosmetics business respond which often assumes that the cosmetic is more important than the content? 

Would there be a fall in demand for big screen heroes if we reframe our notions of the hero to the real meaning of the term, conquering one's own fear?  

If people redefine work as self expression, will they continue to suffer from boredom and consequently will the market shrink for entertainment products and services?

The entertainment industry stretches itself to keep boredom at bay. The demand is a derived one from the inability to find a purpose in life and work that is motivating by itself. 

How would lotteries and the stock market fare if more people put an end to the wait for a better day game and start living in the present?

Would sex and porn continue to drive the economy if we connect better to the spirituality of sex?

What would be role of charity, other than as a measure of guilt associated with wealth when every business redefines its mission as enhancing global community?

These are  landscapes   that one might come  across on the two roads, one by design and one by default.

One can go on ad nauseum about the shadow side of every business profit or non profit. I believe more than the religious, business will take the road to spirituality. I have experienced better community in business than in religious organizations. Business will be more pressed to reinvent itself as enhancing community within to connect better to the external community locally and globally in a   borderless world.

It is neither easy for business or for individuals to walk out of the shadows, because we will have to turn against our own vested interests, the shadow side.

But the ‘young and old, might show the way. The most successful of them have no learning plateaus since they take their positions very early in life and they quit only when their mission is fulfilled. The others have successfully negotiated the learning plateaus at different stages of their life
 http://firstdiscipline.gaia.com/blog/2008/6/blue_ocean_people_bop. They   live a life of their own design, their own heroes. They are frank and forthright. They earn credibility with their life and walk the talk. They are not looking for a secure tenure   or driven by the need to perform in the marketplace where your future is as volatile as the stock market, where in the first 15 years of your career your fate is almost sealed whether you belong to the top of the pyramid material or not.  Even Nietzsche fails my criteria since he died very young. The walk and the talk went in different directions.