Hardy Korver, 54, Netherlands

When I hear the term Age Esteem I think of you, Bonnie Fatio! (laughter)  What made me think about it even before my wife put your book AgeEsteem in front of me was the economic crisis.  I thought, “We’re throwing away a lot of experienced good people because of age.”  You see that the other generations that are now a bit more elderly didn’t screw up as much as mine.  It’s a good mix.  We should use the mix.  Mix high and low in both ages and experience.  Use them both.  We need both.  We need those people yet we’ve let them go way too soon and we haven’t really given them the respect and responsibility that they should still have.

I’m becoming a dinosaur myself.  In fact Age Esteem is written about me.  It effects my life too.  I am a dinosaur in my firm.  There are only three guys older than I am and I’m only 54, and feel like 45.  As juniors we ran to the older guys, but there aren’t any older guys left. Your wings are clipped when you’re older.  I don’t think I can do as much.  Or I can, but I’m not supposed to.  That is the problem where Age Esteem comes in.  You may live alone, but surely you are surrounded by others saying, “You can’t do that anymore.”

Hardy’s tips: Know the relativity of everything. Don’t dig yourself in too much to what you are doing at present because there is much more around you.

Get balance in your life.  Work is very important.  You get a lot out of it but grave yards are full of those people who couldn’t be missed.  I keep that in mind. Work hard and play hard.  At least if you play hard you enjoy other things.   I still have people around me who take four weeks holiday and the rest of the year they’re 100 km and hour, always.  I can’t believe that that’s good.  No one ever died from working hard.  They die because they don’t take a rest.  Relax some of the time.

It is more than just reloading the battery. I think that’s a poor description of just survival.  It’s getting inspiration, not only charging the battery but getting new ideas.  You don’t have the same energy as when you started out, so you have to grow.  It’s inspiration and that can only happen if you look around you in a different way.   I have gotten the nicest inspirations from very unexpected things that I see.  Like in Africa or my home, too.

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Susan Barber 65

Esteem means to honor and so I’ve always esteemed age.  My grandfather was mayor in Birmingham and he was my great model.  Three of my dearest friends, my dad, a friend in India and another in New York all lived into their 90s.  And I held the hands of two of them as they passed on, which I understand is a great gift because it means that they chose you to be the passage to heaven.

I’ve never been very involved in age because I’ve always felt I was very old, even when I was five.  I’ve never understood people who say what number of years people are because you can find 35 year old people who are seemingly dead to living and some friends 89 I know are very active.  AgeEsteem seems to bring great respect.  This seems to be something that is not very strong in America.  I was admiring Madonna the other day because she’s doing a book now because she’s 50.  She’s saying that Americans don’t think there’s life thereafter.

Susan’s tips:  The people I know who are in their 90s and very alive and very active love this life.  They love young people; they love to learn; and they all have religion as a very integral part of their being, Christianity, but it could be any religion.  So those are the inspirations for me every day.  What I can learn in life and who I can learn from.  Who I enjoy as people.  I think we have to live with society.  Of course we all wish for good health because that is a pathway to aging well.

Susan Barber who resides in New York specializes in marketing European hotels.

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