This is a story of two men named Ken who took different approaches to retirement. Both were friends of mine. I frequently reminisce about one, the other, or both.
Kenny #1
Kenny T lived in central Florida at a very fortunate time. A California company was looking to expand and needed to acquire a whole lot of dirt in order to execute their dramatic strategic plan to build the most visited entertainment complex in the world.
The Walt Disney World Resort covers 30,080 acres — roughly 47 square miles — and Kenny T owned a small parcel in an area Disney wanted. He had little choice but to sell and did. When the check cleared Kenny pocketed a nice chunk of cash and mulled over what to do with it. While the land was being cleared a couple years before the resort opened on October 1, 1971, Kenny T pondered a move to suburban Atlanta and a new career as an executive recruiter.
Rather than making those moves, Kenny T made a very unconventional decision. In his mid-thirties he retired.
“I was single,” he told me. “Young and healthy enough to do what I wanted. So I retired. I figured if I waited ’til I got old I might not be healthy enough to do the kinds of things I really liked to do. No guarantees, right?”
But retirement was never intended to be permanent. Kenny T planned on “unretiring” when the time was right.
“The way I figured it,” he said, “by retiring young I would never be cheated out of it. So I retired when I sold the land and had the chance and did what I wanted to do.
“Ten years later the money ran out and I went back to work.”
When I asked Kenny T if he regretted scarfing down his nest egg or if he would do the same thing again he replied, “Absolutely I’d do it again. Retiring when I did was the smartest decision I ever made. Freed me up to live my life to the fullest.”
True to his plan, after he “unretired” and returned to work, Kenny T built a successful fee-based headhunting practice. He enjoyed the work and aged gracefully, content in knowing he had already experienced the joys of a fulfilling retirement many would never have.
Kenny #2
Kenny L was a buddy I met at Xerox. He was a bubbly, charismatic little fellow who collected friends like a magnet does iron shavings. Kenny L had carved out a long and wonderful career thanks to his upbeat, charismatic persona and skill as a man who knew how to put big win/win business deals together. His customers loved him just as much as his co-workers.
Kenny’s retirement dream was to buy and restore a home in the waterfront community of Birch Bay, a small northwest Washington community where he grew up. Birch Bay is about two hours north of Seattle, about two-thirds of they way to Vancouver.
He began executing his plan when turned sixty, buying a small outdated beachfront home in need of updating. Kenny L wanted to revitalize it nicer than new with meticulous restoration, love, and sweat equity. The prospect of realizing his dream — going “full circle” so to speak — brought Kenny great joy. He never saw the old property how it was, only as how it would be.
Kenny was a generation older than me but I loved the way he lived his life with infectious, childlike enthusiasm. He was a creature of habit in some ways but always found joy and appreciation in the smallest of things.
Although Kenny L was set financially he kept working past his 65th birthday because he enjoyed his work, his income, and always figured he’d have time to retire later — when he “got old.”
But life threw Kenny L a curveball. A stubborn, pesky fever was found to be root-caused in terminal cancer. The diagnosis was sure, the prognosis grim. In one doctor’s visit everything changed.
Kenny L’s life was on the clock and he knew it, the endless happy days he took for granted now finite and counting down.
Optimism is admirable but cannot defeat mortality. While Kenny L did his best to will himself to victory, his foe was inevitable and undefeated. Soon the game would end.
Kenny tried to remodel his house faster. But weak from illness, easy became difficult and progress slowed.
I spoke to him about hiring help to get it done, saying, “Regret will not come from not doing it yourself. Regret will come from never sleeping in your home the way you see it.”
We engaged in verbal volleyball for a bit about value versus cost and eventually agreed to redefine what success would look like. The prognosis made the situation different, as were the variables. Kenny L had a choice to make and made it: He hired help.
The workers knew Kenny was sick and hustled to do good work quickly. They too wanted to help him achieve his dream.
I visited Kenny L at his lovely little bayfront Birch Bay home shortly before he died. He was as proud as could be to show it to me. His dream was fulfilled. The home was beautifully restored. Kenny was very weak and near the end but happy and content.
The Tale of Two Kennys challenges us to ponder two things:
- Perhaps retirement is more a state of mind more than a state of being. If it’s in reach, seize it and enjoy it. If it’s out of reach, seize it in pieces.
- It is important to cherish some portion of every day. Happiness is where we find it. Let’s be grateful for what we have and worry less about what we don’t — and the inner fuel that comes from that will put a smile on our face day after day.
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
Cras nimium comprehenderent. Seize tomorrow too.