DON’T GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAM
What did you want to be when you grew up? Is that what you ended up doing? For one Great Depression era child, it may have taken almost 80 years but she finally realized her dream vocation, working in the predominately young workforce of Silicon Valley at the age of 91.
Now beloved and respected by her co-workers, Barbara Beskind dreamed of becoming an inventor since she was a 10-year-old little girl. More than just a childhood fantasy, Barbara tried to pursue her passion when the time came to enter college. Unfortunately, such a career was unheard of for a female at that time and a high school guidance counselor told her that women were not permitted to enroll engineering programs.
A product of her time and pragmatic by nature, she ended up serving in the U.S. Army and as an occupational therapist. As she told Jenna Bush Hager during an interview with the Today, she probably went through five careers and retired five times during her lifetime. But her passion for invention remained. Undeterred by her limited eyesight, due to macular degeneration, she decided to apply for a job with IDEO after reading about the design firm.
Although the average age of a Silicon Valley employee is 30, the firm, best known for designing the first mouse for Apple, hired Barbara. Offering valuable insight as well as practical feedback, Barbara knows it is difficult for the young designers to try to “put themselves in the shoes of the elderly. People who design for the elderly think they need jeweled pill boxes or pink canes. We need functional equipment.”
Bringing the experience that cannot be taught, Barbara still walks several miles a day using ski poles that she modified herself. She has also adapted a magnifying device to help her read the paper and has designed a modified version of a walker, which is being developed into a prototype by IDEO. Traveling to the office on Thursdays, Barbara’s arrival is heralded by a company-wide email each week and she is greeted with hugs from the moment she walks in the door. Meeting with her co-workers as she is seated on a couch, rather than in a conference room, Barbara’s focus is on projects related to aging and she often tests them out in the retirement home where she lives.
As IDEO associate partner Gretchen Addi explained, “Our culture is telling us, aging equals decline and Barbara is very solidly standing there and saying, you know, ’I’m gonna call you on that.”
To learn more about Barbara Beskind, watch her Today interview with Jenna Bush Hager below.
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