Making the most of the midlife crisis

Feeling deeply bored and burnt out? If you are over 30, you may be showing the first signs of a midlife crisis. You could completely change your career, as did Gauguin, the French painter who gave up his job as a stockbroker to travel the world and paint.

But there are many ways of ‘doing a Gauguin’. For some it means going back to university, for others it may be opening a beach bar in the Caribbean or finding a new partner. Those who have the money may take a year off to sail around the world and think about the meaning of life. Whatever the exit, it usually takes courage to find it.

Midlife crises can happen at 31, at 56 or several times during one’s life. As well as having a huge personal impact, they can have a significant impact on organizations. At midlife, executives are normally at the peak of their careers and charged with making critical decisions.

Manfred Kets de Vries, professor of management and leadership at Instead business school, Fontainebleau, France, interviewed 200 senior executives from around the world

(average age 46) and published a study of what they went through in midlife.

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