Things I Know Now I'm 70

What do you know at seventy that you didn’t know at sixteen?

Michael Forty has spent seventy years finding out.

After a lifetime of work, business, family, successes, mistakes, laughter, loss and starting again, Things I Know Now I’m 70 looks back at some of the simple lessons that survived the journey.

This isn't a manual for life, and it isn't written by somebody claiming to have all the answers. It is one man's honest reflection on the things that gradually became clearer with age.

Why getting out of bed matters. Why having a plan is better than waiting for motivation. Why being useful gives life purpose. Why turning up can matter more than talent. Why people become more important as the years pass. Why money matters — but isn't the score. Why mistakes don't have to define you. And why becoming older doesn't mean becoming finished.

There is humour here, alongside regret, experience and the occasional uncomfortable truth. There is also a refusal to accept that reaching seventy means sitting quietly on the sidelines.

There are still things to learn.
There are still things to make.
There are still people to love.
And there is still a road ahead.

Things I Know Now I’m 70 is not twelve rules for everybody else to follow.

It is simply seventy years of finding out.