Start -> Again
Start Up after 40
It all began with saying “yes” to volunteering my cute sausage dog Mobile -their words- to visit retirement homes and hospitals. This is something that would have never happened had I not decided in fall of 2016 to adopt a pet and take care of something other than myself. The visits took me to a range of “senior” facilities, from the hospital with people in more intensive care to semi-independent living locations. These visits allowed me to rediscover the incredible fulfillment of volunteering - something I had not done in a years and a subject will touch upon a lot - but more importantly and the biggest revelation, was being exposed to the realities of aging. Nearing my 40s I started to come to terms with the fact that I was no longer part of the “young” set, being confronted with the elderly no longer seemed like a very distant future but more like something that I was half way over to, and let me make it very clear that I did not like the direction I was heading. Something about the general set up of how we end our days seemed dated and outdated. Here I was in one of the richest places in the Western world (Monaco) and yet the retirement home model was just as drab as it looked in all the stereotypes in movies. I thought to myself, these people once had dreams, adventures, ambitions, and this is how it ends (?!)
Without criticizing the hard work the caregivers are doing, because it is hard work, there seemed to be a lack evidence of any of the “innovation” and “disruption” explosion going on in the world. There were juicers being made that you could control with an app but we had not figured out how to age better. The more I talked to these people in retirement homes and the more I observed something something struck as a key aspect of the inertia of these places : the longing for home. Research led me to think that a potential problem in the current model of aging is firstly that aging has to be rebranded, and secondly that there are not enough enticing alternatives for the elderly that focus on what they might want - instead of what as a society think is best for them.
This is why MYKIGAI was born.