Life After 65: Be Who You Really Are!

My Friend Stopped Practicing Law at Age 65; “The Real Lawyers Practice ’til They Die,” He Said.

by Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — Ben Louis Day has been a prominent attorney in Baton Rouge for 40 years, but he recently turned 65 and promptly retired.

I saw Ben Louis eating a hamburger at Dearman’s Tuesday, and he said he is as happy as a lark.

“Of course, the real lawyers practice until they die!” he laughed.

“But that’s not me.  I was always good at practicing law, but, on the inside, that’s not who I really was.  It was a good way to make a living, but I didn’t have the passion for it.  So I’m retired!”

Ben Louis was an outstanding student at Istrouma High School, Class of 1964, and prominent in the Key Club.  He was outstanding at LSU and the LSU Law School.

Ben’s dad, Norman Day, coached basketball at Central High School in the 1930’s and later served as principal at Prescott Jr. High.

We talked about some of our classmates and whether their professions reflected who they really were on the inside.  We considered Bobby Dardenne, the student council president in the Class of 1964.  He was the editor of the Mexico City News for years and now teaches journalism at the University of South Florida.  We agreed Bobby was always meant to be a professor.

I thought of my friend Bob Tinney.  He was a great artist, even in high school.  He studied art at Louisiana Tech.  He and I started an editorial cartoon service, conceiving and drawing editorial cartoons for nearly 100 newspapers around the country.

Over the past 40 years, Bob has illustrated the covers of hundreds of national magazines.  He changed with the times, moving from pen and ink to oils and, for the past 30 years, to computer illustration.

I believe Bob Tinney will be an artist until the day he dies.  It makes me happy to realize that everyday he gets to do what he loves.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could do what he loves to do?

When I was a teenager, my dad told me, “Son, be in business for yourself.  That will give you freedom.  Then do what you love, and find a way to make a living doing it.”

I followed his advice and now, nearly 50 years later, would give the same advice to any young man or woman coming up.

Of course, the “freedom” that comes from being in business for yourself carries with it an 80- to 100-hour work week and no guarantee of success.  And most businesses go out of business in the first five years.

Yet, most businessmen and women wouldn’t think of anything else.  The rewards are too great.

One small businessman told me recently that “I risk everything every month for the chance to be free to set my own course and chart my own destiny.”

Research shows that salaried employees have much the same standards for happiness as business owners.  From their work, they seek self-esteem, a feeling of competency, and a feeling that they are in control of their circumstances.

Ben Louis Day got all of those things from his work — self-esteem, a feeling of competency, and a feeling of being in control.  Yet, he just didn’t want to continue it.

What is your work?  Are you a carpenter, a mason, a school teacher, a secretary, a lawyer, a doctor?

Is that who you really are, or is that just what you do to pay the bills?

The ability to retire is determined primarily by money.  Whether we have the option to retire or not is mainly about the money we have available to fund our retirement.

But if a person has the resources to retire, the decision to retire is a very different question.  It’s more about who you really are inside.

You may say, “I’ve worked hard all my life.  What I want to do now is spend time with my spouse and my grandchildren.”

I say fine, do it!

Or you may say, “At heart, I am truly a beach bum!  I want nothing more than to sit at the cabana bar on the beach with my margarita and watch the girls go by!”

I applaud that view too.  If that is you, why not find a way to do it?

Or you may say, “Beach bums disgust me.  I want to be productive.  I want to go back to teaching!”

I say fine — find a way to do it.

People today are living longer.  We can’t all retire.  There are too many Baby Boomers in the pipeline.  If a lot of us don’t keep working, the system will collapse.

So if you love what you’re doing now, why not keep doing it?  If not, why not find something that you do love to do?

After all, if you’re 65, you may live another 40 years!

That’s a whole other lifetime!

For the years that are left, why not find a way to be who you are and do what you love to do?