HATTIE: Richard Stanley and Joe Wasserman tried to quit. They came separately to Great Barrington to relax, retire and, perhaps, fiddle around real estate and whatever caught their fancy. They met while attending a town meeting, and as entrepreneurs will do, they talked about their dreams for improving Great Barrington's historic business district.

Now you see what became of their first meeting. Richard and Joe couldn't retire, and no one should have a goal to retire. Sure, you want to change. Sure, you need a new challenge. But we're all sick and tired of hearing the AARP bragging about being the biggest association in the world and about being the largest advocacy group in Washington. When people who don't work claim to have the biggest voice, something's very wrong.

All but one of us at SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL are baby boomers. Then we have one 23-year-old. No one here thinks about retiring. It's not good for people not to have work. And it's not good for the country for our most experienced individuals to leave the work force. The great thing about working for yourself is no one can make you quit, and certainly, no one can make you join the AARP. We have studied a number of way past retirement age entrepreneurs. We've learned a lot from them and from Richard and Joe. But I think the greatest lesson is they are all smart enough not to retire.