Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?

Grow old on purpose. This book invites readers to navigate a purposeful path from adulthood to elderhood with choice, curiosity, and courage.


None of us know for sure what will happen as we age. What Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro do know, however, is that a purposeful mindset is a fundamental component of a life well-lived. What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? invites readers into the experience of two lifelong friends taking on the courageous conversation of aging well with honesty and purpose. In the first half of the book, readers are introduced to a framework for looking back over their lives and examining how they've arrived at the place they have. In the second half, readers are invited to look forward to purposeful aging with courage, compassion, and curiosity.

In their bestseller Repacking Your Bags, Leider and Shapiro defined the good life as “living in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose.” This book argues that aging well can be similarly defined as “aging in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right ‘work,' on purpose.”