This chapter focused on longevity in relation to career success and satisfaction. The book debunks the common exhortations of “relax”, “avoid stress”, “don’t work too hard”, and instead says that the a sense of mastery and accomplishment buoyed by one’s career successes is linked to health and longevity. I thought it was interesting how the Terman participants were sorted out into six types of individuals based on their occupation: artistic, realistic, investigative, social, enterprising, and conventional. I thought it was intriguing that for most categories except social, matching participants’ interests with their occupation actually served as a health risk factor, when one would normally think the opposite. This is must be comforting to some level, especially to college students who don’t know what they will do after graduation. Nowadays, many students worry about career choices after receiving their education, and if they will survive in the real world outside of college. This book focuses on perseverance and feeling a sense of accomplishment, which I personally admire, especially in a world that focuses on external accomplishment and how successful you appear to be.
I’m also glad that the study took into account that women didn’t have as many career opportunities as men did, but still managed to succeed on their own terms, which led to longevity. This makes me wonder how the results would differ if the study was done again, but in the 21st century.