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Bill Novelli is CEO of AARP, a membership organization of 40 million people age 50 and older, half of whom remain actively employed. AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality[…]
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Bill believes in the love of family and country, and independence.

Question: Do you have a personal philosophy?

Transcript: I don’t have a . . . a set of deep, formalized, religious convictions. I think a lot about the big existential questions – you know why are we here, what are we doing and so on and so forth. You know I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that story about Gertrude Stein. She was on her deathbed, and she said . . . she said, “What is the answer?” And she was told there wasn’t any answer, and she said, “Well in that case, what is the question?” And I think we ought to ask ourselves, “What’s the question? What’s the answer?” and so forth. And as best I can tell, the answer is family. The answer is love. The answer is love of country, love of family, all the things that really make our lives worthwhile. And what are we gonna leave behind? What is our legacy going to be? You know there’s a phrase that I like a lot: What did you do with the dash? So you know on your tombstone it’s going to have your birth date and your date of death, and in between there’s going to be a dash. And the question is what did you do with that time in between? What did you do with that dash? I think that’s the big question.


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