If You Want to Live to 100, Being Stubborn Helps
Living to 100 takes more than good genes—researchers say grit, a positive mindset, and a little stubbornness might be just as important as diet and exercise.
4 min
Want to up your odds of living to 100?
Stay active and eat a diet full of whole foods and vegetables. Have strong connections with family and friends. Work hard. But the most underappreciated quality may be a spry and determined mind-set.
These are the findings of the Cilento Initiative on Aging Outcomes on nonagenarians and centenarians conducted by the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and University of Rome La Sapienza. The team of researchers interviewed 29 individuals 90 and over and their family members living in the Cilento region of Italy, among the places with the highest number of 100-year-olds in the world.
About 200 centenarians open their eyes each morning to the stunning beauty of the Lucan Apennines hills in southwestern Italy. They spend their days playing with their great-grandchildren, and going on slow-paced strolls while making visits to longtime friends along the route. But it’s more than their idyllic environment that’s leading to their long lives.
They have an accepting attitude toward life’s challenges, determination to move forward, and a positive outlook on life. In other words, a healthy mind-set matters just like eating right and exercising.
One participant told the study: “There is always a solution in life. This is what my father had taught me: To always face difficulties and hope for the best.” This particular person had had surgery to fix a heart problem but never gave up.
The wisdom of the old takes on growing importance in an aging world. Currently, 722,000 people are centenarians globally. That figure is estimated to reach almost four million by 2054, says the United Nations. The number of American centenarians, currently 108,000, is expected to more than quadruple.
Scientists believe genetics accounts for at most 25% in how long we live. Mental outlook and lifestyle are more important, though genetics play a growing role in those living extremely long lives.
“It’s never too late to adopt a positive mental attitude and this will have benefits,” says Nicholas Schork, professor of psychiatry and biostatistics at UCSD School of Medicine, who co-wrote the Cilento study. Schork, 62 himself, notes that even someone his age or older who adopts a healthy mind-frame can extend his or her life.
Here are four things you can do to increase your chances of a long, healthy life.
Accept Setbacks
Bad things can happen to anyone. But people who made it to the 90-year-old mark demonstrated grit to work through it and accept the worst—even the loss of a spouse.
The same participant in the Cilento study who had heart surgery said: “I lost my beloved wife and I am very sad for this. We were married for 70 years. I was close to her during all her illness and I have felt very empty after her loss. But thanks to my sons I am recovering and feeling much better.”
In a 20-year-long study published by professors at Yale University and the National University of Singapore, they found acceptance of oneself, positive attributes and imperfections alike, decreased mortality risk by 19% and added three years of life. Whereas before this study, experts considered several factors as part of long-term well-being, this research drilled deep to point out the most relevant one for longevity: acceptance.
The bottom line is we need to stay resilient and keep remaking our lives, even when fate deals us a tough hand.
Don’t Give Up
Interestingly, there was a sense of stubbornness common among the folks in the Cilento study.
“They are telling me not to go to the land anymore. The land is my life.” said one participant in the study. “They say I am ill but they don’t know that I become ill if they do not allow me to work my land.”
Another participant told how her mother-in-law, while pleasant, always insisted on doing things her way. Stubbornness isn’t always viewed kindly, but it can be a life extender for the elderly.
Work Hard
Most of the participants in the Cilento study had a robust work ethic during their life and continued to help out in old age. One family member in the Cilento study exclaims about an older participant, “I am always careful about [her] because she is so active that if you do not pay attention, she does things she mustn’t do like hanging linen!”
In Okinawa, the elderly women weave delicate clothing made up of banana trees, which is then sold in the marketplace. Likewise, in other Blue Zones, town elders keep busy, whether that means going to a family gathering or taking care of their great-grandchildren. All that gives them a sense of purpose.
In the industrial West, studies have found that people who retire later have lower rates of dementia. Spending retirement kicking back might seem appealing, but it isn’t the best approach when it comes to longevity.
Maintain Strong Connections
The participants in the Cilento study had ties to their family, their religion and to the region where they live. “We were a close family of five children,” said one participant. “We loved each other a lot and helped each other.” This fosters a sense of belonging and purpose.
Having strong relationships increases the likelihood of living longer by up to 50%, according to a study at Brigham Young University involving over 300,000 individuals. Dr. Brenda Matti-Orozco, chief of palliative medicine at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, says social connections can serve as a buffer against stress, reducing the body’s production of stress hormones like cortisol, which are linked to health problems and inflammation.
The same connection with family and faith holds true for Loma Linda, Calif. where members of the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church live long lives. Or Okinawa, Japan. Both areas are so-called “Blue Zones” with a high number of centenarians.
Most of us, of course, won’t get to spend our entire lives in such tight communities. But we can still do our best to maintain connections with friends and family; we can participate in religious organizations or social groups; we can volunteer in our communities.
A study by the University of Glasgow analyzing nearly half a million people found visits with family and friends at least monthly can help you live longer. The stronger the social connection, like an endearing friend or a loving family member, the better the health outcomes, they found.
For folks with a youthful spirit, the chances of making it across the 100-line look better than ever.
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
Set on one of the city’s last absolute riverfront sites, The Riversdale by Mosaic combines irreplaceable waterfront ownership with one of Brisbane’s most significant residential opportunities.
Margot Robbie may have travelled from a Queensland farm to the highest reaches of Hollywood, but a reported $28 million property deal suggests the Gold Coast has never lost its hold on her. The Australian actor and producer is believed to be the mystery buyer of Redwood, a seven-acre Currumbin Valley estate transformed into the …
Continue reading “Margot Robbie Reportedly Behind $28 Million Currumbin Valley Homecoming”
Artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to build a business without building a team. As AI takes over coding, customer support, marketing, administration, and other day-to-day tasks, a growing number of solo founders are scaling startups to millions in revenue with few—or even no—employees. While the trend is lowering barriers to entrepreneurship, it is also reshaping hiring, raising questions about the future of work and how businesses will grow in the AI era.
5 min
Ben Broca launched a company last December that offers AI tools to entrepreneurs. He’s already added 10,000 paying customers and is on track to bring in $10 million in revenue this year.
One thing he hasn’t added: any other employees.
The 40-year-old is part of a class of entrepreneurs who are launching, and then often running, new companies on their own. Artificial intelligence tools answer Broca’s emails, help write and debug code, field requests from customers, sign up new subscribers and grant refunds when issues arise.
Broca relishes his ability to make whatever decisions he wants on his own, often from his sun-drenched Sausalito, Calif., living room. “I think compromises make lukewarm results,” he said.
Once upon a time, running a business of a certain size required a team. AI is turning that assumption upside down, and more aspiring entrepreneurs are going it alone.
An analysis by the payments company Stripe shows there are thousands of solo operators on the company’s platform that are generating over $1 million in revenue, with their ranks doubling between 2023 and 2025. The number of solo operators crossing the $10 million threshold nearly tripled in that same span.
In the past, people without business contacts or particular savvy might not have known how to get their ideas off the ground, said Ernie Tedeschi, Stripe’s chief economist. “Now, AI can be a built-in business partner,” he said.
AI’s ability to handle various administrative tasks makes it potentially useful for launching solo businesses in many fields. But the technology’s ability to also handle key tasks in tech, like coding, make that field a particular hot spot.
Analyzing Census Bureau data, Bank of America Institute economist Taylor Bowley found that among all industries, new business applications in the information sector have seen the biggest percentage increase—nearly 45%—over the past year. At the same time, the rate of information-sector applicants saying they plan to hire workers has experienced the sharpest decline of any measured industry.
This Census dataset doesn’t track solo-operated businesses. But the numbers broadly show—in tech and beyond—that applications are flat among businesses likely to hire workers, but generally rising elsewhere. Economists say that’s a strong sign that solo operators are on the upswing.
“The bar for getting started has never been lower,” said Julian Weisser, who runs a San Francisco-based accelerator for solo founders working in tech. The accelerator—which offers founders seed money and mentorship in exchange for an equity stake—attracted 4,500 applicants for 10 slots made available in its most recent cycle, nearly five times the number it drew when it launched last May.
Going it alone with AI can still be surprisingly expensive. Broca said he was losing money on many customers’ accounts while paying to access Anthropic’s Claude to run his clients’ requests—that AI company, as well as others, charges based on usage. He has since switched to free open-source AI models from China.
Broca said he has raised $30 million from investors and, at the same time, has saved millions in salary since he hasn’t needed a team of software engineers.
Another risk: If it’s easy for one entrepreneur to launch an AI-assisted business, copying them can be easy, too. This creates anxiety for founders like Troy Johnston, who runs an AI-assisted business alone in Orlando, Fla.
“Everybody has the sword and we all have the ability to unsheathe Excalibur now,” said Johnston, 40, who used AI to code an app that helps people get the most out of credit card benefits. The company makes around $3,000 a month in profit, with no employees, and is continuing to grow.
What one-person businesses will mean for the labor market remains to be seen. Polling has shown Americans are worried that AI will replace jobs, and top economists are wrestling with that possibility, too. But AI is also creating lots of new jobs, and the go-it-alone entrepreneurs show how the technology can both open doors and limit employment opportunities.
“If everyone’s hiring less, but you get four times more firms, what does that do to head count?” said Rembrand Koning, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who studies entrepreneurship. He co-authored a recent study that found that among 50,000 startups the researchers examined, those focused on AI tended to operate with 25% fewer employees.
Koning also believes a soft hiring environment that’s left some people mired in long job searches has encouraged more to try their hand at launching businesses.
Some founders cite different motives. “It’s a perfect storm of post-pandemic burnout and a re-evaluation of one’s priorities, and also booming AI and a sense of what’s possible,” said Samir Ahmad, 39, who lives in Breinigsville, Pa.
Two years ago, Ahmad decided to leave the corporate job he had worked at Verizon for almost two decades to start a solo coaching and consulting business. He had been seeing social-media posts touting the ease and virtues of AI, which he used to chart a business plan and help with marketing. “It was like my chief of staff, a second in command,” he said.
The business ultimately petered out within months, though, and Ahmad is now back to a full-time corporate role with a utility company.
For Claire Vo, 41, AI helped her turn a passing impulse into a business. She was working full-time as a tech executive when she tapped AI in late 2023 to help code an app that would help her manage documentation and design for new products, with customers ranging from financial services to healthcare firms.
“I was copying and pasting from ChatGPT,” said Vo, who lives in San Francisco.
She put the app online for $1 a month, and within weeks people downloaded it thousands of times. Nearly three years later, Vo’s company—which she ran solo for nine months before hiring an engineer—now has 100,000 users and is on track to make seven figures in profit this year. AI handles the company’s marketing, sales and customer support.
While AI is a shortcut, Vo said her network and credibility in the industry were key. “I think people over-index on how easy AI is and under-index on how much I did to get to this point,” she said.
A haven for hedge-fund titans and Hollywood grandees, Greenwich is one of the world’s most expensive residential enclaves, where eye-watering prices meet unapologetic grandeur.
A record-breaking $11 million sale at The Centennial Collection has set a new benchmark for luxury apartment living in Bondi Junction.
