Introducing SecondAct

Welcome to SecondAct.com, the place to plan your financial independence, imagine your new career, and find your next adventure, from running that first marathon to becoming a top chef.

Our mantra: Everyone deserves the chance to chase new dreams. Your first 40 years may have been successful. Your next  40 can be even better.

This site is geared toward readers hitting middle age, including America's more than 77 million baby boomers, the healthiest, best-educated and most affluent generation in history. The boomers started exceeding expectations the moment they were born, and SecondAct is all about helping them continue to surprise the world--and themselves--with their talent, passion and potential. This is the generation that is eagerly ditching the midlife crisis in favor of an energized encore.

I'm excited to be the editor of Entrepreneur Media's new online destination, which is unlike any other, an exploration of the limitless potential of men and women less interested in retirement than in reinvention. My own views about the possibilities of a second act were inspired by my father, who worked most of his adult life with the New York City Building Department. Instead of retiring to the golf course, he found his dream job as a wildlife warden. My dad joyfully went to work every morning in his boat, spending his days watching over the birds and other creatures in Florida's Rookery Bay Sanctuary. In his early 60s, he had found his calling -- his second act.

Then, two years ago, my eyes were truly opened while working on a book, The Wonder Years, about the vibrant world of senior athletes. I met swimmers, surfers, triathletes, hurdlers and body builders, many of whom had never done serious training before age 50. For these extraordinary, record-setting athletes, age was not a barrier. It meant they finally had the time and opportunity to blaze new trails.

In the summer of 2008, the sports network naysayers shook their heads in disbelief when Dara Torres came out of retirement to qualify for the U.S. Olympic swim team at age 41, two years after having her first child. Torres, of course, answered the doubters when she brought home three silver medals from Beijing.

I watched the cynical pre-Olympics coverage of Torres with dismay and wondered: When did our youth-obsessed culture collectively decide that our expectation for greatness fade by 40? Or 50? Or even 80? SecondAct is here to say it does not.

Every day, SecondAct delivers a wealth of news, features, financial pointers and profiles of successful "second-acters," ordinary people who reinvent themselves in extraordinary ways and show the rest of us how to do it, too.

Yes, we're all growing older. Our goal here at SecondAct is to inspire you to keep growing and going strong at every age. 

I hope you'll stop by often, and I invite you to share your ideas and your own second act stories.