Two weeks after I blogged, I got a response from Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures. He said, "We’re doing the same thing, and we have a book out called Prime Time that you should read." I read the book, which is everything I believe in: that this is the prime time of your life; that you have an opportunity to grow and evolve; that you’re going to want to give back, and we want to put you back in the work force, on a voluntary basis, to help make the world a better place. Seventy-six million baby boomers are turning 60 this year. When you reach that point in life, you start to think about what’s important. They want to give back; they want to feel relevant.

So we formed a partnership. I’m now on the board of Civic Ventures. We’re organizing a 10-year campaign to put people back to work in a voluntary way.

You are hoping this not only inspires older adults, but changes the way society views them.

Yes, because 60 isn’t 60 anymore. Look at what even 70 is today; it’s not what it was when my parents were that age. The baby boomers reinvented the world once. They’re not going to go off quietly playing 18 holes of golf every day, though we aren’t taking their balls away from them.

And this led you to create a prize.

Yes, we’re launching this movement with the Purpose Prize. The prize is for anyone over 60, who in that time of their life did something to make the world a better place. We’re giving five people $100,000 each to help their work and 15 people $10,000 each. We had thousands of applicants.

Did you hear from affluent people?

We heard from people of all backgrounds. The 20 finalists will make you cry. There are high-net-worth people and corporate heads, but there are also folks like a Connecticut man who started a program for the physically and mentally handicapped in high schools. He hooks them up with businesses and corporations that are giving them internships, so that when they graduate high school, they have jobs.

Another finalist is Judea Pearl, father of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Judea, a Jew, is going around the world, city by city, college by college, with a Palestinian man to help create an Arab-Jewish dialogue. They are two grandfathers talking about the differences. Pearl says this is his "vengeance" for his son’s death. This is the caliber of people we’re seeing.

They, in turn, also instruct you.

It humbles me. It inspires me. It makes me think that there really is an amazing group of people out there who need to be heard. It was the hardest thing to pick the winners. It made me believe in the potential—even with all the ugliness going on in the world—of the human spirit. It made me know that this third chapter is the best chapter of all.