The 100-Year Life - by Lynda Gratton & Andrew J Scott (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What will your 100-year life look like?
A new edition of the international bestseller, featuring a new preface

'Brilliant, timely, original, well written and utterly terrifying' Niall Ferguson

Does the thought of working for 60 or 70 years fill you with dread? Or can you see the potential for a more stimulating future as a result of having so much extra time?

Many of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work and then retirement. But this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse - life expectancy is rising, final-salary pensions are vanishing, and increasing numbers of people are juggling multiple careers. Whether you are 18, 45 or 60, you will need to do things very differently from previous generations and learn to structure your life in completely new ways.

The 100-Year Life is here to help.

Drawing on the unique pairing of their experience in psychology and economics, Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott offer a broad-ranging analysis as well as a raft of solutions, showing how to rethink your finances, your education, your career and your relationships and create a fulfilling 100-year life.

- How can you fashion a career and life path that defines you and your values and creates a shifting balance between work and leisure?

- What are the most effective ways of boosting your physical and mental health over a longer and more dynamic lifespan?

- How can you make the most of your intangible assets - such as family and friends - as you build a productive, longer life?

- In a multiple-stage life how can you learn to make the transitions that will be so crucial and experiment with new ways of living, working and learning?

Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and featuring a new preface, The 100-Year Life is a wake-up call that describes what to expect and considers the choices and options that you will face. It is also fundamentally a call to action for individuals, politicians, firms and governments and offers the clearest demonstration that a 100-year life can be a wonderful and inspiring one.

Review Quotes

"Brilliant, timely, original, well written and utterly terrifying" --Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University

"A fascinating and thought-provoking book ... a brilliant read for individuals, but should be mandatory reading for our politicians" --Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Society for Public Health

"This timely, important, easy-to-read and intriguing book will make you pause and think, as well as better plan your life ... Gratton and Scott's book is a wake-up call for individuals, organizations, governments and societies" --Boris Groysberg, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"The authors understand implicitly that not only is the world as we know it changing beyond all recognition, but the way we lead our lives too. This book could not be more timely or necessary" --Julia Hobsbawm, Founder and CEO, Editorial Intelligence Ltd, and Honorary Visiting professor in Networking, Cass Business School

"This playfully original book ... makes a compelling case that as our lives become longer and healthier, the future might just be very, very different from what we have known until now" --Daron Acemoglu, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"[This] wonderful new book prepares us for the possibilities of this brave new world of longevity, and teaches us what it will take to thrive in it." --Professor Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD

"Too many books bemoan the economic problems facing ageing societies. This splendid book is quite different ... it should be read by anyone who wants to understand how life chances and choices will be transformed in a world where living beyond 100 will become the norm" --Lord Adair Turner, Senior research Fellow of the Institute for new Economic Thinking, and previously Chairman of the UK Pensions Commission

"To understand how and why things might change, there can be nowhere better to start than with the fascinating The 100-Year Life" --Baronness Alison Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King's College, London

About the Author

Lynda Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School where she teaches an elective on the Future of Work and directs an executive program on Human Resource Strategy. Lynda is a fellow of the World Economic Forum, is ranked by Business Thinkers in the top 15 in the world, and was named the best teacher at London Business School in 2015.

Andrew J. Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School, a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University and the Centre for Economic Policy Research having previously taught at Harvard and London School of Economics. He has served as an advisor on macroeconomics to a range of governments and central banks and was Non-Executive Director on the UK's Financial Services Authority.