Petter Attia has introduced the concept of the “marginal decade”, the last ten years of your life, when your health is typically at its worst. All his longevity work is focused on improving the experience during that time.
A similar idea applies to work life. Being in my fifties I have been thinking a lot about how I want to spend the last ten years of my productive work life before retiring.
This profile of Nintendo in Bloomberg shows a lot of aspects of a company that is cool to work for. It draws the picture of a company that has a clear vision and focus and is careful in building up a cash war chest for tougher times. It has clear values and it has execs that don’t frantically react to all news stories or competitors’ announcements. I have worked at companies that were the exact opposite — every day was a frantic panic about changing product plans and marketing strategy — it was exhausting and ultimately not very successful.
Nintendo sounds like company that would be great to do cool work in your marginal decade. Try to find a place like that before retirement.
