Second Acts: Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire

279 Pages·2004·0.85 MB·English

by  Stephen M. Pollan

SSeeccoonndd AAccttss
Creating the Life
You Really Want,
Building the Career
You Truly Desire
STEPHEN M. POLLAN
and
MARK LEVINE
Dedication
To Robert Pollan and Freda Levine
whose Second Acts continue to inspire.
Contents
Acknowledgments v
How to Use this Book vii
Introduction to the Paperback Edition ix
PART 1: SETTING THE STAGE FOR YOUR
SECOND ACT 1
CHAPTER 1: You Can Lead the Life of
Your Dreams 3
CHAPTER 2: Putting Your Dream into Words 24
CHAPTER 3: Developing the Second Act Mindset 47
CHAPTER 4: Identifying Closed Doors 71
PART 2: OPENING THE DOORS TO YOUR
SECOND ACT 99
CHAPTER 5: Age: Perception versus Reality 101
CHAPTER 6: Money: A Question of Choice 128
CHAPTER 7: Duration: Helping Hands
and Shortcuts 172
CHAPTER 8: Physical Condition: Just Do It 188
CHAPTER 9: Consent and Support: Asking
Is Enough 198
CHAPTER 10: Education and Training:
What’s in a Name? 207
CHAPTER 11: Timing and Location: Take Charge
of Your Success 218
CHAPTER 12: Esteem, Fear of Success, Fear of Failure,
and Fatalism: Stop Being Your Own
Worst Enemy 228
PART 3: OPENING NIGHT 239
CHAPTER 13: Writing Your Second Act Script 241
CHAPTER 14: The Goal . . . or Another Beginning 247
Index 255
About the Authors
Other Books by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Acknowledgments
T
he authors would like to thank Ambrose Bierce, Tony Blair,
Kathleen A. Brehony, Lydia Bronte, Italo Calvino, Joseph
Campbell, Charles Horton Cooley, Calvin Coolidge, Aleister
Crowley, Benjamin Disraeli, Peter Drucker, David Elkind, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Benjamin Franklin, John Kenneth Galbraith, Shakti
Gawain, Mark Gerzon, Louise Hart, Hillel, John Lennon, Stella
Terrill Mann, Stephanie Marston, Groucho Marx, Ronald S.
Miller, Anais Nin, Alexandra Robbins, John C. Robinson, Seneca,
Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, Sophocles, Robert Louis Stevenson,
Henry David Thoreau, John Updike, Abby Wilner, Margaret
Young, and Rabbi Zusya of Hanipol whose words and writings
stirred our own thoughts and imaginations.
Thanks to Sherwood Anderson, Brigitte Bardot, Roseanne
Barr, Sonny Bono, Jimmy Carter, James Carville, Tom Clancy,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, George Foreman, Michael J. Fox, Paul
Gauguin, Ulysses S. Grant, Ron Howard, Glenda Jackson, Steve
Jobs, Michael Jordan, Jack Kemp, Ray Kroc, John le Carré, John
Mahoney, Jackie Mason, Melina Mercouri, Michael Milken,
Heather Mills, Grandma Moses, Ronald Reagan, J. K. Rowling,
Harlan Sanders, John Tesh, Harry S Truman, Steven Van Zandt,
and Jesse Ventura, whose very public Second Acts helped inspire
other, more private but no less remarkable Second Acts.
Thanks also to Marilyn Abraham, Betsy Berg, David Bowman,
Dr. Roger Brunswick, Sean Cassidy, Gina Garrubbo, John
Jacobsen, Dale Klamfoth, Erik Kolbell, Mitchell Kossof, Sandy
MacGregor, Jane Morrow, David Newman, Charles Sodikoff,
and Arthur Taylor for their advice and input.
Second Acts
Thanks to the clients of Stephen M. Pollan for letting us draw on
and share their thoughts, fears, problems, and triumphs.
Thanks to Dave Conti and Megan Newman of HarperCollins
for their enthusiasm and guidance in our own Second Act.
Thanks to our agent, Stuart Krichevsky, for his continued con-
fidence and support in helping us in our never-ending process of
reinvention.
Finally, thanks to our wives, Corky Pollan and Deirdre Martin
Levine, for being the real stars in our lives.
vi
How to Use This Book
T
his book is a guide to reinventing your life. Its goal is to help
you launch, what I call, your Second Act. That’s the life you’ve
always dreamed of leading, but until now have, for one reason or
another, been unable to achieve. It doesn’t matter whether your
Second Act involves a change of career, relocation, parenthood,
or entrepreneurship. The program I outline in these pages will
help you finally live out your dream.
The first part of the book should be read in its entirety. It briefly
explains my ideas about Second Acts and then quickly moves on
to help you develop the kind of attitude you’ll need to succeed.
Along the way, through the use of some simple exercises, it will
help you flesh out your ideas and make hopes and dreams real. It
will also help you determine the hurdles you may need to over-
come along the way.
Part 2 provides advice and techniques for overcoming each of
the 12 types of barriers you’re apt to uncover and encounter. Like
Part 1, it contains exercises designed to give you the tools you’ll
need to overcome any and every obstacle you’ll face. In this
instance, however, you’ll need to read only the chapters relevant to
your particular Second Act. Of course, reading them all wouldn’t
hurt and might even help.
Finally, Part 3 offers advice on pulling all the elements together
into a cohesive and comprehensive script for your Second Act; a
checklist that will take you step by step from where you are today
to the moment when you’re living the life of your dreams. It also
offers my thoughts about why reinventing your life need not be a
once in a lifetime process.
Second Acts
The journey on which you’re about to embark isn’t easy. You’ll
need to do some potentially painful self analysis and some time-
consuming research to reach your goal. But, climbing to a incred-
ible summit is always work. And I promise you, the pay off will
be transcendent. Self reinvention is a glorious and empowering
adventure. I envy you.
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