Be Relevant or Perish

I remember a story by Somerset Maugham. I don’t remember the details, only the outline. This is the story about a gentleman, let us call him George, who at the age of 45 decided to call it a day from his active career and worldly responsibilities to truly enjoy the remaining part of his life. He was not married and had no immediate family to worry about. He was not a very rich man either. So he put all his saving in a pension plan, which would give him an annuity for 25 years. He planned his annuity in such a way that the payment would run out when he turned 70. He claimed that if he was still alive after the last annuity payment, he would end his life too. For the next 25 years he had a very pleasant and enjoyable life; but, he was still a healthy man when the last cheque arrived. He did not have the guts to end his life and had had to struggle to for his life after that.

This is an extreme case. But we see variations of this around us, among people and among organizations. Some are outcome of conscious decisions, some are outcome of irresponsible planning and some are outcome of circumstances.

Many people do save for their retirement. The nest egg they build up may give certain payout which is quite comfortable. But the saving they have is invested in a fashion that the assets no more appreciate and therefore the regular cash flow remains the same in absolute terms. With the kind of longevity we enjoy these days, many would live for 20 to 30 years post retirement. As the times goes, even with a moderate inflation, the buying power of the regular cash flow diminishes, and on the other side the expenses increase; especially on account of health related costs. By then there are no more avenues for new income opportunities as we are outdated and or incapacitated.

Many of us are familiar about this possibility and plan for this. But there is yet another facet of our life where we often forget about gradual obsolescence. It is about our competence and skill sets. We study hard and acquire skills and qualifications as youngsters. Then we get into a career or profession or business, based on the skills and expertise we have built. Once we are on a job or profession some of us fail to continue with the discipline of investing in ourselves; in updating our skills sets or familiarizing with new developments in our domain or acquiring new skill sets. We get caught up in our immediate and urgent demands of our job, our family and our social obligations. This is specially so for those who have managed to get placed in government jobs or other organizations which are large and stable and need lots of people to handle routine activities. In other words, an organization where uncertainty related to sustenance is low. We get caught up in pushing papers, bureaucratic maneuvers and window dressing; actions that don’t build the business or build people.

Over a period of time, our relevance diminishes gradually. New blood comes in with new skills and new ideas. We get passed over for newer challenges and newer opportunities or even promotions. (Unless we are in an organization which is already dominated by such people in which case we can be a part of the decaying organization and hope that it doesn’t go under before we retire!) As we go up the ladder, the positions and opportunities are limited and competition gets tougher. Unless we can prove that we are the best for the job, we are overlooked. We feel that we are not compensated or given credit for our past achievements. We forget that new opportunities are based on our relevance for future demands and not for past performance.

On the other hand some of us continuously build on our strengths so that our past experience complements our new skills and capabilities we acquire and together they are still relevant to the world around. We don’t deep freeze our brain but try to keep it still active and inquisitive. Those of us who have consciously worked on this dimension go onto see their value appreciating with time and till such time our health permits we continue to be in demand for what we can deliver and not what we have delivered. (Then we will be in the fortunate position to choose whether or how to monetize or enjoy this value.)

“I dread the word success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s goal in life. Like the Male Spider that gets eaten up once it succeeds in its courtship. I like the world of continuous becoming. With a goal in front and not behind” Barnard Shaw