Insights

The Boss. A lifetime of passion, rock, and longevity

03 March 2017

I recently had the good fortune to go to the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert.

I am not particularly a fan, but acknowledge ‘The Boss’ as one of the great rockstars of my lifetime and wanted to learn more.

Well, what an experience and a great insight on life.

The show was best introduced by Nic Cester of Jet, who were supporting. After belting out Are You Gonna Be My Girl? Nic left the stage saying: “The Boss will be out soon…and when he gets on the stage he does not get off.”  

And that is exactly what happened. 

Bruce & the E Street Band played one set of almost 3 hours without a break. He’s well-known for these epics. As one song ended, rather than take the applause and adulation that many performers seek, The Boss would say: “and a 1, 2, 3” and get on with the next song. 

This is a band where almost all of them are well into their 60s (Bruce himself is 67). Imagine playing drums non-stop for 3 hours! My daughter, who’s really fit, is learning drums and she is tired after a couple of songs. The E Street Band’s drummer ‘Mighty Max’ Weinberg (65) did it without seeming to sweat.

As I was sitting there I asked myself: “Where do these people – which in a corporate context many would think were too old – get their energy?”

This train of thought took me to a book I recently enjoyed called The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. They posit that many of our children will live to over 100. On this basis, the traditional model of getting educated, getting a job, working hard, then retiring at 60 will not really work for us for many reasons. 

For example, most of us will not have enough money to fund 30-40 years of retirement. And for those who do they are going to get bored, lonely or worse.

To some, a long life span is an opportunity, but to others could it be a burden, or even a nightmare?

What is the solution? 

The 100-Year Life has many ways of looking at this complex problem and provides interesting scenarios and case studies through a range of perspectives, solutions and actions. If I was going to summarise it I would suggest we start following our interests and passions (and turn recreation time into re-creation time - more on this another time!).

This is what I saw on the stage – 11 musicians loving what they were doing and a crowd coming along for the ride.

What are your interests and passions? What will fuel you for the next stage of your life? What do you need to start to re-create?

About Ross Bell

Ross Bell is a Director and Founder of Influence for Change, a specialist Organisation Development consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia.