Estate planning

Influential billionaire says he’s done his best work after 65

Jun 18, 2017

T. Boone Pickens says the best is yet to come. Pic source: Twitter: T.Boone Pickens

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens recently posted a moving letter on his own website entitled “The Old Man Makes a Comeback”.

In it, the 89-year-old mused that despite being 24 years beyond “traditional retirement age”, his post-65 era had been the most productive years of his life.

He revealed he didn’t make his first billion until he was 70 and said the secret to longevity in terms of success was to never, ever, give up.

Despite suffering mini-strokes in December last year, Pickens is still going strong and said in his post that “age is meaningless in some instances”.

Pickens also wrote that he hoped to be a role model for others for how to live in the fourth quarter of life.

“The rewards are beyond anything I experienced as a ‘young man’,” he wrote before admitting that a part of what drives him was fear.

“I want no part of becoming a FOFWAW — a Fine Old Fart With A Watch. Too many of my friends reached 65, retired, and then spent their days unengaged, unmotivated, and unenthused. Much too quickly, those days were done for them.

“I’ve lived by a watch that tells time a bit differently. I embrace change. Those facing retirement age don’t need a new watch but rather a different outlet. You can stay around as long as you stay active — and, of course as I’ve mentioned time and again — you have a plan.”

Pickens went on to write that he thought in terms of “resurgence” rather than retirement and said one of his longtime associates liked to say he had “been in the prime of his life three times”.

“I have learned that if you never give up, if you push through the resistance and keep driving for what you want, you will ultimately achieve rewards beyond any you had hoped for. Because deep down, just beyond the hard, tough spot we all have found ourselves in, there awaits the opportunity to become stronger, more successful, and more fulfilled than you ever imagined. You just can never, ever, give up.”