Englishman Andrew Scott, 58, is an international bestseller, which has not yet been published in Brazil. The London Business School professor is co-author of “The 100-year life – living and working in an age of longevity”, from 2016, a book that sold a million copies and elevated him to the category of guru on longevity, called to speak at events around the world.
In April, Scott returned to the topic with “The longevity imperative: How to Build a Healthier and More Productive Society to Support Our Longer Lives”, a book that deals with the individual, social, political, economic and cultural changes necessary for all of us, regardless of At the age we are today, we can live longer in a healthy, happy and productive way.
At the beginning of this month, Scott spoke about his latest book during a live broadcast organized by the Longevity Book Club, linked to the Stanford Center on Longevity, and, among the many statements, one caught my attention: for the first time in history, we can have the expectation of getting old. A child born today in the United Kingdom has a 50% chance of living to 95 years old and a 16% chance of reaching 100. And we who are 50, 60 years old can prepare ourselves to live for many more years – to Therefore, he recommends: “stay healthy for as long as you can.”
Longevity is great news, right? Yes, with reservations, as living longer costs more. When he teaches about the aging society to MBA students at LBS, he usually reinforces that we have to prepare ourselves to be more productive for longer. “There is no other way to live anymore; we have to create resources, and that requires new ways of seeing and doing things. It’s a cultural change,” he said. The purpose may be to earn money and a sense of belonging, one or the other, or both together. Scott reinforces that he is not just referring to paid work, although a large percentage of people (including Americans and English) still reach this stage of life without savings, needing to work to pay the bills.
We cannot wait to get old to prepare for old age, not in health, financial or relationship matters. We need to start now, whether you are 20 or 50. “Aging is a process that begins when you are young,” says the professor, who is also an expert in macroeconomics. According to him, longevity is a macrotrend with repercussions throughout society, an unprecedented historical moment (read here the column about the Casa Firjan Trends Lab report, which also places the aging of the population as one of the three macrotrends that have already are impacting business).
In addition to preparing his students for aging, Scott says he also hopes to awaken young executives’ interest in creating businesses aimed at meeting the demands of this new society. “It is often said that a population is aging when there are a lot of people over 65. I think that is when we have a greater number of people who will live beyond 65,” he says.
*Maria Tereza Gomes is a journalist, master in business administration from FEA-USP, CEO of Jabuticaba Conteúdo and mediator of the podcast “Mulheres de 50”
