Book Review: Joyspan by Dr. Kerry Burnight

If you’re an entrepreneur who spends your days thinking about growth, scalability, and the grind, it might be time to think about joyspan.

In her new book, Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half, Dr. Kerry Burnight introduces a compelling new framework for what it means to live well, not just long. While the book is aimed at readers in midlife and beyond, its insights resonate far beyond age brackets. In fact, for solopreneurs, startup founders, and purpose-driven creatives, Joyspan may be one of the most important mindset books you’ll read this year.

What Is “Joyspan”?

Dr. Burnight, a seasoned gerontologist and professor, builds upon two familiar terms: lifespan (how long you live) and healthspan (how well you live). But she adds a third term—joyspan—which she defines as the length and quality of time you spend thriving.

Unlike fleeting moments of happiness, joyspan is about sustainable well-being: purpose, vitality, contribution, growth, and connection. It’s a more holistic way of evaluating how you’re living, not just how long.

For entrepreneurs, this idea can be revolutionary. So much of startup culture is rooted in burnout: hustling harder, sleeping less, scaling fast. But if your business succeeds and you’re miserable, is that really success?

The Four Pillars of Joyspan

Burnight organizes her approach around four pillars:

• Grow
• Adapt
• Connect
• Give

Each of these has direct applications to the founder’s journey:

Grow: Business growth starts with personal growth. Entrepreneurs need to learn constantly, pivoting when markets shift, upskilling when roles evolve, and embracing lifelong learning as a core operating principle.

Adapt: Things break in business. The ability to bounce back, not just operationally, but emotionally, is essential. Adaptability isn’t just strategic; it’s a way to maintain your sense of joy when the external metrics aren’t in your favor.

Connect: Founders often feel isolated, especially in solo ventures. Joyspan emphasizes the deep health benefits of social connection, real, human relationships, not just LinkedIn followers.

Give: Burnight argues that contribution fuels vitality. Entrepreneurs who tie their businesses to a cause or mission greater than themselves often find they’re more energized and resilient over the long term.

Why Joyspan Matters for Entrepreneurs

Burnight didn’t write a business book, but what she presents is, in many ways, a philosophy of sustainable leadership. Entrepreneurs tend to build businesses that reflect their internal state. If you’re burnt out, that seeps into your brand, culture, and customer experience.

By intentionally cultivating joyspan, whether you’re 35 or 65, you build a business that sustains you, not just one you have to sustain.

Joyspan’s tools and practices include self-assessments, habit prompts, reflection exercises, and simple daily habits that guide readers toward small, compounding changes. These “Joy Practices” are where the rubber meets the road: they’re accessible but impactful.

Joyspan and Ikigai: A Strategic Alignment

One of the most interesting connections is the overlap between Joyspan and the Japanese concept of ikigai. Both frameworks revolve around finding deep purpose at the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what sustains you.

While ikigai focuses on philosophical alignment, Joyspan brings in practical tools rooted in behavioral science and positive psychology. Entrepreneurs who reflect on both frameworks may find a clearer path to designing a life, and business, that doesn’t burn them out, but builds them up.

Want to know if your current hustle aligns with your joyspan? This book helps you ask better questions.

Practical Takeaways

Here’s what entrepreneurs will find especially useful in Joyspan:

• A lens for evaluating your business model: Are you building something that supports your well-being, or drains it?
• Clarity on your purpose: Burnight’s exercises help reconnect you to the “why” behind your work, not just the “how.”
• Tools for resilience: Whether you’re between funding rounds or managing your first hire, Joyspan offers practices that build emotional endurance.
• Ideas for company culture: The principles of Connect and Give can directly inform how you shape your workplace, even if it’s just you and a laptop right now.

Final Verdict

Joyspan is not just a book for people thinking about retirement or aging. It’s a call to live and build with intention. It’s about structuring your life, and your business, around the things that truly matter.

If you’re an entrepreneur, solopreneur, creative, or purpose-driven leader, Joyspan offers a framework for staying in the game longer, with more joy and less regret.

It belongs on your shelf next to Atomic Habits and The Psychology of Money, books that help you do work that matters, in a way that sustains you.

Recommended For:

• Founders reevaluating their work-life balance
• Business owners over 40 looking to thrive, not just survive
• Creatives looking to avoid burnout
• Anyone seeking to align values with ambition

Burnight reminds us that thriving is not a luxury, it’s a design choice. And Joyspan is the blueprint.

Disclosure: I received an advance review copy (ARC) of Joyspan by Dr. Kerry Burnight through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.