By Steve Moran

I watched Richard Branson launch into space on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane this past Sunday with almost as much fascination as when as a young kid watching Alan Shephard blast into space as the first ever American Astronaut; the first orbital flight and the first shot to the moon and of course the first man on the moon.

I confess, like that little kid so long ago watching Alan Shephard, I watched the whole thing: takeoff, separation from the mothership, the weightlessness, and most importantly the landing. And just like that little kid of long ago I thought “I want to do that.”

Richard Branson Takes On Senior Living

I got to wondering: What if Richard Branson went into the senior living business? Here is what it might look like:

  1. He would look at what is being done today so he could figure out how to do it better while being cost effective.
  2. He would be 100% focused on making the resident experience the primary focus while being excellent at the basics of care and hospitality.
  3. He would come to the conclusion that the one thing, the big thing, that senior living has over all other living options for older people is that it creates community, which is the single most important thing for emotional and physical wellbeing.
  4. He would make sure working for Virgin Senior Living (this would have to be the name right?) was amazing. That everyone would love coming to work.
  5. Lastly, he would figure out how to get the story of this latest business venture splashed all over the media. Making moving into a Virgin Senior Living community look like the coolest thing an older person could ever do.

Then I Got to Thinking . . .

What would it be like if a senior living organization, or the whole industry, decided to send an 80-year-old, 90-year-old, or even a 100-year-old resident into space? Imagine the publicity, the news stories, the interviews, segments on the morning shows, the weekend shows. It would generate so much publicity that the cost of sending an elder into space would be trivial.

We have got to be looking for ways to make senior living look cool or someone else will. 

Could we do this? Should we start a GoFundMe page to make this happen?