There aren’t many people who can turn their back on applause.
In our society, those who can walk away from the equivalent of 1,500 rushing yards in a season or a 70 percent approval rating in the polls would seem to possess a rare gene.
Peter Lynch, former manager of the wildly lucrative Fidelity Magellan Fund, walked away at age 46. So did former major league baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, whom team owners urged to stay on. Greta Garbo mysteriously departed from the public eye in her prime. And Bill Bradley, the New Jersey Democrat, retired from the U.S. Senate last year despite his tremendous effectiveness.
Michael Jordan tried to walk away. And Ryne Sandberg, 37, announced this month he was retiring for the second time.
Indeed, few people do what Gov. Jim Edgar did Wednesday, choosing to retire while still “on top.”
Far more of us, untold numbers, in fact, probably should put down the golf club or veto pen, perform a farewell concert or give up the corner office–but we just can’t let go.
“I always thought, `I’m going out on top,’ ” Edgar said. “Some people in politics stay too long, and sometimes if you don’t go out on top, they throw you out.”
But those who have had the wits to leave their posts in peak form, whether a CEO or former sales manager, say Edgar won’t regret his move.
Leaving while you’re still effective, able, loved or rich, preserves a career’s accomplishments. Early exits tend to create legacies, not has-beens.
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On the other hand, a few people defy the notion of getting out while the getting’s good. By sheer magnetic appeal, Frank Sinatra maintains fans despite a fading croon. And the Rolling Stones appear to have overstayed their visit long enough that audiences are welcoming them again.
“I saw some of my colleagues staying on too long,” said popular former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who surprised many when he retired from his post last year after serving since 1984. “You can see it in somebody else; will you see it in yourself?”
Loads of people can’t–or won’t–say psychologists. How does one measure the trajectory of a career to know when they’ve lived through the best and it’s downhill the rest of the way?
“These really successful people, they are used to ignoring negative feedback,” said Dr. Robert Hogan, who studies career success as McFarlin Professor of Psychology at the University of Tulsa. “They say, `I can do it, I can do it.’ There are huge individual differences in how people evaluate themselves. It’s a sign of real maturity to pull out early.”
Lots of folks think their bosses have hung on too long. Chicago aldermen seem to get indicted before they can voluntarily step down. While others may have dreams of exiting while the limelight is still bright, who’ll pay the bills come next month?
Former Sears, Roebuck and Co. chairman and CEO Edward A. Brennan said executives often don’t know when to turn over the reins.
But after leaving the chairmanship two years ago, the 63-year-old Brennan says he’d make the same decision again. “We had great management in charge of the company,” said Brennan, who continues to serve on numerous boards. “They didn’t need someone looking over their shoulder.”
Some professionals say they’re leaving but can’t seem to say goodbye. Operatic divas are legendary for just one more farewell performance. Boxers can’t resist a comeback bout. After 17 months of retirement from basketball, Michael Jordan said simply, “I’m back.” And he proved, with a 5th NBA championship, that he was hardly ready to hang it up.
Some fields are so physically demanding that they necessitate calling it quits at an early age.
“I still had a few years to go. I really, for a period of time, was considered the best male dancer in Chicago,” said former ballet dancer Greg Begley, now 42. But, Begley said, “I don’t want to be a has-been.”
Begley retired from full-time performing in 1984 at age 30.
“There are dancers who continue on, and while you’re watching them perform, you think, `They should stop.’ The majority of performers as they get older question, `Should I be stopping? I don’t want to look old,’ ” said Begley. He quit performing and switched to a business in, of all things, emergency lights and sirens, which he recently left to purchase a dance apparel retail store.
Plenty of people don’t retire; they segue. After years in the same profession, they’re ready for something new while they still have the energy to do it.
That was one reason former Gov. Jim Thompson choose not to run for a fifth term in 1990, even though he had strong support.
“I said to myself, `Myself, I said, do you want to be governor for life?’ Of course not. I wanted to have another career. I wanted to do the one thing in law I’ve never done, and that is to be in a law firm and hopefully . . . repair my sorry state of finances,” said Thompson, speaking from his offices at the well-heeled Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn. “I said, `You better do it before you’re tripping over your beard.’ “
Increasingly, our society, so focused on instant gratification, demands that people leave before they show even a hint of getting stale.
Peter Ueberroth said he “made the absolute right decision” to only serve one term as baseball commissioner, a tenure in which he says he helped bring 21 of the 26 money-losing teams to profitability.
“You don’t have regrets if it’s a decision you made on the way in,” said Ueberroth, who vowed to stay only one term.
Today, Ueberroth has amassed great wealth as co-chairman of the board for the Doubletree Hotels Corp. and chairman of the travel firm Ambassadors International Inc.
“I will have been a businessman, at the end of 1999, for 10 years, and I’ll probably look for something different at that point, good Lord willing,” said Ueberroth, who lives in Orange County and was the head of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee from 1979-1984.
But for many in the spotlight, today’s media so bombards audiences with their images and goings-on that they really do seem like old news after just 15 minutes of fame.
“To drop out of celebrity in our society is a form of purgatory,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Stephen Hess. “When the cheering stops, it’s very hard for these people to want to step down.”
For Peter Lynch, who built the Fidelity Magellan fund into the world’s most successful and largest stock mutual fund, forgoing the powerful position was about family–and mortality.
Lynch, who retired from the position at age 46, said he was haunted by thoughts of the brevity of life, since his father had died at 46. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and three children. Now, he has a much lower-profile job as vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Company.
It’s not always the millionaires and politicians who get to quit a decent job mid-career, however.
Last fall, at age 49, David Ryan quit his job as the sales manager for a Chicago-based software company. His wife, Claudia, quit her job as an officer in trust operations at a major Chicago bank.
With investments to cover their living expenses, the couple set out to complete a list of activities ranging from hiking the Appalachian Trail to visiting every major league baseball park (they have two more to go).
“So many people define their whole existence by their work,” said Ryan, reached during a brief visit to his in-laws in Tennessee. “But there’s been many things I’ve wanted to do all my life.”
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For politicians, leaving at the right time may be harder, those in the game say.
In politics more than other fields, the measures of performance can be harder to find. Athletes have statistics galore to prove their waxing and waning. CEOs have salary and stock options. Actors have lead roles and box office sales.
Though almost comical, the rule of thumb for politicians is if they lose an election, they’ve stayed too long, says Charlie Wheeler, director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. President Clinton, of course, defied that adage after losing the Arkansas governorship.
Most elected officials, said Wheeler, enter politics because they feel they can make a contribution. Once they’ve enjoyed the perks of the position, however, it becomes harder to give it up.
“I think I made the right decision,” said former Sen. Simon, who, in addition to writing, now teaches courses in the legislative process as well as non-fiction writing at the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.
Not long ago, while still struggling to make a decision on his political future, Edgar asked Simon to meet with him. While the two politicians talked privately for an hour, their wives also held a confab. Then the four had lunch together.
“There comes a time when you ought to move on,” said Simon. “Jim Edgar will not regret the decision.”