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Business Billionaires
Tycoons Still Working It Past 90
Sara Peck, 08.05.10, 03:00 PM EDT
Was Sidney Harman crazy to buy ''Newsweek''? A
surprising number of moguls in their 90s keep going and
going.
In Pictures: Billionaires In Their 90s And Still Going
Why on earth would Sidney Harman, who just turned 92, try to
revive the all-but-deadNewsweek? Because, he deadpanned, "I should
stop misspending my youth." The stereoequipment magnate went on to
add, "I look forward to this great journalistic, business
andtechnological challenge." Challenge indeed: The buck he paid the
Washington Post Co. buyshim close to $70 million in debt and a
nearly insoluble problem of how to reposition the oncethriving
newsweekly.
Harman, who only relinquished his role as chief executive
ofHarman International Industries( HAR- news -people ) four years
ago, may be crazy for taking on a lost cause. But he certainlyisn't
gaga. People are living longer and keeping more active lives,
mentally as well as physically.Seventeen members of the Forbes
Billionaires List are 90 and older, and many still play hands-on
roles in their businesses and investments, including casino mogul
Kirk Kerkorian, oil and gasdriller Bill "Tex" Moncrief Jr. and Topa
Equities' John Anderson.
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In Pictures: Billionaires In Their 90s And Still Going
Key, of course: Staying fit and healthy. A study last year by
the Technological Institute of
Athens suggests that people who are adaptable and responsive to
change throughout their lives--read: risk-takers and
entrepreneurs--tend to live longer. A study released this week from
theUniversity of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy, finds that people
who continue to use cognitivestrategies--such as reading
literature, doing crossword puzzles, learning a new
language,traveling to a foreign destination, varying social
routines--can lead productive lives into their100s.
"I think these unique individuals either have genetic profiles
that are exceptionally well suitedfor long-term avoidance of
chronic, age-related problems, or have been raised and lived
inconditions offered by the upper class, including optimal
childhood nutrition and, subsequently,physical development,
followed by optimal conditions for health promotion and
maintenance,including opportunities for intellectual engagement,"
opines Ross Andel, an associate professorin the School of Aging
Studies at the University of South Florida.
For those born without gold-plated genes or privileges of
wealth, there's always physical rigor.John Walsh, a professor of
gerontology at USC, studies the effect of intense exercise on
braindevelopment. At a certain sustained heart rate, he says, the
brain releases a growth hormone thatrepairs and stimulates cerebral
health. In one experiment Walsh and his team injected mice witha
toxin, called MPTP, that induces Parkinson's disease by killing off
dopaminergic neurons.When those mice ran five miles a day, the
exercise slowed the progression of Parkinson's. Walshalso says that
the "rush" from learning a new activity or taking a risk "does
wonders for thebrain." Something, perhaps, akin to
buyingNewsweek.
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"I've been in some things 10 years before they flourish
commercially," John Kluge, the soon-to-be-96-year-old Metromedia
pioneer, told the Washington Postin 2001. When an investmentpays
off, he added, "I'm not interested anymore; there's no longer the
challenge."
John Sperling, a mere 89 years old, is doing what he can to make
it into the healthy nonagenarianclub. Since 1998 the guy who is
widely credited with founding the for-profit educationmovement with
Apollo Group ( APOL - news -people )-owned University of Phoenix,
haspoured more than $45 million into anti-aging research, some of
it through his Scottsdale, Ariz.,clinic Kronos. (For those who may
not remember their Greek mythology, Kronos was the titanwho
overthrew his father and ate his own children.) Patients there pay
$4,500 for 150 tests thatgive them a full assessment of their
health--and a costly regimen of drugs, supplements, mealplans and
exercise to live well as long as they can.
Sperling himself acts like a much younger man--he rises at 5:30
a.m. daily to lift weights, hikeand jog. "People who live to be
really old age uniformly, and then at some point their whole
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