So who is Warren Schmidt, you might ask. He is the title character in the movie About Schmidt, played by Jack Nicholson. The movie was directed by Alexander Payne and released in 2002. In the movie, Nicholson’s character worked 32 years at an insurance company, retiring as an actuary at the age of 66.
Warren Schmidt
At the start of the film, Schmidt appears to have lived what many would consider a successful life. He worked for the same company for decades, built financial stability, and followed the expected career path of marriage and retirement. On the surface, everything looks stable and respectable. However, once he retires, the structure that organized his life disappears almost overnight.
Schmidt eventually realizes that his job provided more than just income — it provided identity and possibly purpose or meaning. Without work, he finds himself drifting, unsure how to spend his time or what role he now plays in society. In other words, Schmidt is missing meaning and purpose in his life. In the movie, after his retirement, his wife suddenly dies of a brain hemorrhage. While Schmidt is cleaning out his wife’s closet, he finds old love letters between his “best friend” and his wife.
Gradually, Schmidt’s life unravels as he visits his old office to see if his replacement needs any advice. Not only does the replacement not need any help or advice, but as Schmidt is leaving, he walks by a trash area and sees the boxes that he left for his replacement, containing his life’s work at the insurance agency, have been thrown away. He must have wondered if the 32 years he spent at the insurance company made any difference to anyone.
Schmidt’s grown daughter, with whom he rarely communicates, is getting married to a waterbed salesman, whom Schmidt disapproves of. He tried to talk her out of getting married, but she brought up the years of the two of them not having much of a relationship, and why does he suddenly care about her now?
Schmidt travels to the wedding alone and has a few misadventures that demonstrate his social ineptness. He is bored, friendless, and lonely. He obviously didn’t work on building relationships with his family or anyone else. He let the company “tell him” who he was and what to do. And he rarely, if ever, stopped to reflect on what gave his life meaning. The bottom line was that he didn’t manage himself.
Peter Drucker
The connection between Warren Schmidt and Peter Drucker comes from comparing Drucker’s 2008 book, Managing Oneself, with Warren Schmidt’s life. Drucker says that throughout history, people had little need to manage their careers – they were born into their stations in life or, in the recent past, they relied on their companies to chart their career paths. But times have drastically changed. Today, people must all learn to manage themselves. Drucker argues that individuals must take responsibility for understanding their strengths, values, and contributions if they want their lives to remain meaningful over time.
Drucker also emphasizes that people must learn how to manage the second half of their lives. As people live longer and careers change more frequently, individuals cannot rely on traditional retirement as the end of their contribution to society. People, especially knowledge workers, need to stay engaged in meaningful pursuits long after their retirement. He says that it is important for people to be able to contribute and make a difference. Drucker recommends doing volunteer work as a meaningful pursuit. Although he cautions that one should discover the fulfillment volunteer work gives before they are 40, because after people turn 60, they usually do not start volunteering. Drucker also acknowledges the importance of strong relationships. Getting to know each other and developing trust strengthens relationships and helps people to remain engaged in meaningful pursuits.
Perhaps the most important book written on meaning is Man’s Search for Meaning, by Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, published in 1959. Frankl wrote about his experiences a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust and applied his knowledge of human psychology to help define meaning. Frankl argued that human survival in extreme conditions depends on finding meaning and purpose, famously stating that those with a “why” to live can bear almost any “how.” He observed that inmates who maintained a future-oriented goal—such as reuniting with loved ones or finishing creative work—were more likely to endure. And prisoners who, despite their circumstances, gave their last scrap of food to another prisoner who looked like they needed it more, tended to live longer than the prisoners who abandoned their values and stole other prisoners’ food. They found meaning in their lives by helping others. Drucker often repeated Frankl’s quote on the “why” and “how” of having meaning.
Many others have weighed in more recently on the importance of meaning. Most notably, Jeffrey Rosen (2024), in his book The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, emphasizes that the founding figures of America were deeply influenced by classical writers who advocated for a life of virtue as the pathway to true happiness. Rosen argues that the pursuit of happiness is not about accumulating wealth or achieving fame, but about living a life of purpose, guided by the intrinsic rewards of virtue and service to others. These classical ideals, which shaped the very foundation of American society, continue to resonate today, particularly in the context of grassroots movements that seek to promote peace, justice, and the common good.
A study conducted by Demiri, Yucel, and Yilmas in 2023, Predictive Effect of Meaning of Life on Psychological Well-Being and Happiness Among University Students, examined 323 university students and found a 30% positive correlation between those who reported finding meaning in life and their happiness and psychological well-being.
An article by Anastesia Besika in Frontiers in Psychology, March 12, 2023, An Everlasting Love: The Relationship of Happiness and Love, quotes Aristotle: “What is the highest of all goals achievable by actions?… people…say it is happiness…but with regard to what happiness is they differ.” It also quotes Carl Jung: “Man cannot stand a meaningless life”. The article reinforces the link between happiness and meaning.
Conclusion
This movie positively affected my life. I highly recommend that everyone see this movie, especially those in the process of embarking on a career. The movie actually ends on a high note as Schmidt discovers a glimmer of hope that his life can be meaningful after all. I won’t spoil the movie by saying any more, but it is the dramatic, tear-jerking highlight of the whole movie. It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VVmvsfh3nI
