Many Lives of Work

‘In an era defined by turbulence and unpredictability, this book offers an antidote to the turmoil.’– Thomas J. DeLong, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School ‘Honest, practical, and deeply human . . . A must read.’ – Walter Susini, Professor of Practice at SDA Bocconi School of Management, author of Green Don’t Sell and Bullsh*t.inc ‘A powerful guide to navigating career transitions.’– Boris Groysberg, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and author of the award-winning Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance ‘A highly relevant and inspiring read for anyone thinking about the next chapter of their professional life.’– Beatrice Guillaume Grabisch, BCG Senior Advisor and Former Nestlé Executive Board Member for HR and Business Services ‘Essential reading for all of us.’– Rawi Abdelal, Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and Emma Bloomberg, Co-Chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership InitiativeLonger lives call for a new way of thinking about careers.We're living and working longer than any generation before us, yet our careers are still shaped by an old model: choose a path, progress through it, retire. What happens when a path that once fit no longer does?The Many Lives of Work is for experienced professionals navigating career change, career transition, and reinvention in midlife and beyond – whether you're questioning your current path, considering a second career, exploring a portfolio career or simply asking what comes next.At its heart is the perennial career framework: a new model for longer working lives in which careers aren't straight lines but have seasons – growth, reflection, experimentation, renewal, reinvention.Drawing on research, real-world stories, and practical exercises, The Many Lives of Work offers a structured process to rethink your professional identity, reconnect with your skills and sense of meaning and test new possibilities – so you can shape a working life that keeps evolving with you.This isn't about quitting your job or starting over. It's about approaching career reinvention in the age of longevity with greater clarity, agency and possibility.Your work can have many lives.

Galya Frayman Molinas and Gamze Dinçkök Yücaoğlu are the co-founders of What’s Next Initiative, a platform exploring how longer lives are reshaping careers, identity and transition. Their work focuses on career change and renewal in longer working lives through the perennial career framework. Galya Frayman Molinas is a business leader, Non-Executive Director and educator with more than three decades of global and cross-cultural leadership experience spanning general management, strategy and marketing.Galya began her career at Unilever before joining The Coca-Cola Company, where she led businesses across multiple regions including Turkey and Central Asia, served as President of Coca-Cola Mexico, and headed the company’s global strategy function.Following her global executive career, Galya reshaped her work around governance, teaching and social impact. Today, she serves on corporate and non-profit boards, teaches strategy at London Business School, and supports social changemakers through the Ashoka Foundation. Her current work explores how longevity is redefining careers, leadership and organizations, and challenging traditional assumptions about how we work and build our lives.Having lived and worked across multiple cultures, Galya remains deeply curious about people, experiences and their stories. Together, she and her husband Hayati enjoy discovering places and perspectives. She loves crochet, which she considers her version of meditation, and enjoys making pieces for her family. Gamze Dinçkök Yücaoğlu is a researcher and trainee psychotherapist. Her career has taken her across finance, research and executive education shaping her perspective on reinvention, identity, and the evolving nature of work and ambition.Gamze spent more a decade at Harvard Business School, where she served as Associate Director of the Middle East and North Africa Research Center and worked closely with faculty on research and case development. She has also contributed to leadership and executive education programs for senior professionals from around the world. In her previous career, she was involved in finance within the energy sector in Turkey.Alongside her professional work, Gamze has been actively involved in education and social impact initiatives, including serving as Chair of the Education Roundtable at TÜSİAD. Currently, Gamze is completing an MProf in Psychotheraphy at Regent’s University London. Her current work focuses on career reinvention, identity and human development in the age of longevity.Gamze lives in London with her husband Bedii Can and their two daughters, Ela and Sena.  Outside of work, Gamze can be found reading fiction, training with unnecessary intensity at the gym, exploring new places and ideas, or looking for the best cup of coffee in whatever city she happens to be in.