Examples of how conversations build up in the Future of Us group! Thread 1: Ageism
*Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar*
Anecdote forwarded by Member 1
I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport in KL. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.
He handed me a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Abdul, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’
Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Abdul’s Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.
This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!
As he slid behind the wheel, Abdul said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’
I said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’
Abdul smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water and orange juice.’
Almost stuttering, I said, ‘I’ll take a Lassi.’
Handing me my drink, Abdul said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have The NST , Star and Sun Today.’
As they were pulling away, Abdul handed me another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’
And as if that weren’t enough, Abdul told me that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.
Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he’d be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.
‘Tell me, Abdul ,’ I was amazed and asked him, ‘have you always served customers like this?’
Abdul smiled into the rear view mirror. “No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about POWER OF CHOICE one day.”
Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle. “If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!’
‘Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’
‘That hit me. really hard’ said Abdul. ‘It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes, slowly … a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.’
‘I take it that it has paid off for you,’ I said.
‘It sure has,’ Abdul replied. ‘My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on it.’
Abdul made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like a duck and start soaring like an eagle.
Start becoming an eagle today … one small step every week..next week… And next…And….
“You don’t die if you fall in water, you die only if you don’t swim. Thats the Real Meaning of Life. Improve yourself and your skills in a different way.
*Be an eagle. Not a Duck.*
Response by Member 2
About Aging Societies
New life expectancy figures released by the ABS confirm the megatrend that we live in an ageing society. An Australian born today can expect to live for 83 years till the year 2104. A century ago Australian life expectancy was 62. We have added one year every five years for 100 years. No need for a retirement plan in the first-half of the 20th Century because few expected to live to the Age Pension qualifying age (for men) at 65. Men and women looked, acted, and I am sure felt old at 50 just 70 years ago. And that’s because they knew they were approaching the last decade of life. Today you can’t act old at 50, or even 60, knowing that there are decades to go. Being “old” at 50 back then meant that couples had to get a hurry on: meet late teens, marry early 20s, have kids–and more kids–and then set off from the family home by the time parents reached the grand old age of early 50s. Our extra 20 years of life changes not just the perspective of retirement (eg the need for super and/or a retirement plan) but also of youth. If the lifecycle extends into the 80s and beyond, and if knowledge workers in particular can work-on in a hybrid (work/lifestyle) arrangement, then use the 20s differently: secure training and qualifications, travel, trial relationships and jobs and perhaps different places to live. In many ways being gifted an extra 20 years of life over a century has created a dilemma for contemporary Australians: we are still working out how to plan for, fund, manage and extract meaning from these extra years. Many in this later stage of life volunteer, become involved in community activism, are surrounded by a loving family, find meaning via spirituality. Others struggle terribly over this time in the lifecycle. Maybe it’s time to think about how we can ensure that more Australians have a better life experience in life’s later years
Tips to overcome Ageism
By Member 3
I would like to share my pov too. I agree with Ariel that financial knowledge and planning is super important. Because this allows us to tide tru the period while we look for the next career switch or next job. And this should be instilled from young to be financially savvy. #2, I also agree with Rama though that it is not easy to find the next passion to move on. I like the ‘have to kiss many toads before you find the prince.’ So resilience is key but have to have money to feed oneself or family while doing so. #3- it’s definitely a multi-faceted problem and requires not just changes from us but everyone else and indeed it needs some movement and Govt effort to make some hard changes followed by individuals. Especially in the case of the HR (as shared by Sean).
“Ageism Anonymous”
By Member 3
😅. For my part, I really do wonder about the generational expectations, having been in tech innovation all my career (dotcom, mobile & now blockchain). I have had the good fortune to be headhunted twice in two years, primarily due to the urgent need for the blockchain industry to find leaders who are conversant with crypto and tokenomics. I’ve lived the disconnect of being the only adult in the room – but it became an advantage in the end. With millennials working in the organisation and generally sitting on large amounts of money in token form, communication is about changing the way things are done – and importantly, being part of a movement. Not so much personal gain, but more how to manage this massive and rapid disruption. In the new role, We have hired teenagers, Gen Z’s – and senior leaders almost in my own peer group. It’s definitely a growth mindset approach. I have to learn new stuff literally by the hour and be able to highlight & discuss that learning with the ‘youngsters’ who are living it minute-by-minute. The good news is – crypto gives self sufficiency to people of any age. 🙂 My two tokens worth.
Ageism – Mindset issues
By Member 4
I think from a startup perspective, it cuts both ways…
I founded an edtech startup 2 years ago where instead of focusing of students we focus on teachers (many of whom are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s) and support them in a wide variety of ways.
We hired 2 seniors (late 50s and early 60s) to manage several non tech tasks within the business. We have a robust internal training / onboarding program for all employees and these two staff members went through this… Twice.
Why? Because even after going through the program once they found it difficult to perform the non tech roles… And when we provided a younger staff member to mentor them on a day to day basis so that they could help them resolve issues quickly and get them up to speed, it unfortunately became a confidence deflater for them… That was not what we were hoping for. Ended up, even the younger staff felt bad and didn’t know how to help them get through this. We realized, it was more of a refusal to “change the mindset” issue rather than anything else. Ultimately and unfortunately we had to let them go as there was only so much we can do to help employees… In the end they too need to want to change the mindset and be willing to accept new ways of working.
On the other side though… Me as a 50+ year old founder have been told by investors flat out to my face… “As a senior founder we cannot mentor (control) you and as such even though we want to invest, we can’t proceed.” Yes, this is in Singapore. The decision to invest in a business should not be dependent on the age of the founder but rather the opportunity itself. And yes, I have heard this similar rhetoric not once or twice on several occasions. But regardless of these kinds of statements, we ploughed through and today are perhaps the largest community of teachers in Asia.
As such, ageism as a problem is multifaceted… It requires acceptence from all sides and requires a overall societal change in the way people look at ageism. After all, it takes two hands to clap.
Ageism and Staying relevant
By Member 5
I would go back 5 to 6 years and say by the time one reaches an age of 44-45 Years, one should start thinking about building a second track which adds value to your own personal career.
How?
1) By seriously investing in own, new skills, a bit of technology, a course here and there. It is a mix of actual skills + a bit of paper qualification on CV
2) Increase your network ruthlessly (a strategy that i used when i turned 45 years. I call it 10/ 5 /2 – applied literally via LinkedIn over a certain time fence (like a month of fortnight) Must Invite 10 senior leaders in my own domain, must give 5 Thumbs Up to senior leaders for their posts and must Share 2 Posts related to Supply Chain (any article from a good resource). The time fence can be 15 days or 30 days.
3) Increased participation in Webinars, speaking at events and attending professional events like SICC, AMCHAM (examples)
It takes anything between 4 to 6 years to build a Solid ECOSYSTEM / which is the 2nd Track that I mentioned. If you have two Tracks 1) Professional 2) Personal fully baked and cooked by 50+ you are ready to erase (self or forced) Professional track and move over your vehicle to the Personal track.
Personally I have been doing this since age 45 and at 59 years, never ever got worried with 3 Job loses around 2009, 16 and 18 because I had the personal track to move myself out.
SORRY FOR A LONG message and also for giving my own example, certainly not the best example but just a pointer. There are some great leaders in our group and their POV is so eminent. Today in my new avatar as Talent Advisor, I ruthlessly navigate senior leaders around 50 Years to take this thought seriously, not for any benefit to me but for their own security. And I can tell you more than 50% don’t take the advise and go back to work since making $ and increasing Bank Balance is the motivator
Ageism – Personal Encounter
By Member 6
Last year, I was asked by a pre Series A startup investor to consider being the interim CEO (they termed it as adult supervision) before appointing a gen Z/young millennial to CEO. Interviews were with the staff not the board as they are afraid to lose the talents. Eventually they didn’t hire me because the staff felt I was too intimidating/old at 49. They prefer someone they can hang out with easily. That was great learning feedback about leadership styles. Similarly, from my Gen Z daughters and volunteers , I have to be accessible anytime and be highly responsive if they like to talk to me. Open door policy is not good enough. Lol (no emojis..) Yes, Systemic and structural ageism is present. For me, re-learning is more critical.
Ageism – Pivoting Advice
By Member 7
Sanjay, this is brilliant, must get you to write a white paper on Anti-Ageism- Leaning Forward!
On your point about building your side gig when you reach mid 40s or earlier, its easier said than done. Not all are into tech, so one has to try several areas to figure out what you are good at when you pivot. Moving into a related field of interest is perhaps the best bet. I still remember the advice someone gave me when I left the Sg public sector at age 56 after 31 years of service,
” You have to kiss a few toads before you find the the right frog that turns into a prince”.
Ageism – Startups need Experienced folks
By Member 8
I am not sure if many of you here saw Ravi Menon’s, (MD of Monetary Authority of Singapore) (MAS)… four IPS lectures as part of SR Nathan lecture series.. done just 3 or 4 months ago.. available in You Tube.. in one of the 4 lectures Ravi rightfully lamented that the problem with Startups today is that young people with no Leadership n management experience and skills jump into startups… many fail… but if these young people have a way to bring in people above 65 who have wisdom, experiences and maturity of thought.. that combination is not only powerful but can produce more successful startups…and find useful jobs with shares than just salary for older workforce…
In a recent webinar organised by aORA(Old Rafflesian’s Association). as the guest Speaker I proposed to the President of ORA to do just that and am told ACS old boys association is keen to do it together to work with appropriate organations like ACE and SCE to help do the matching.. but it is just in the planning stage though.. fyi
Sinna
Ageism – Salary Expectations
By Member 9
I am of a strong belief that this issue has a lot to do with the higher salaries that seniors are expecting / getting. At one stage the incremental benefit of their experience hits a plateau. That’s when management thinks of getting the same from a younger staff which demands lesser salary.
Every Organisation in the end has to have a pyramid for stable functioning.
Top is narrow, can not fit everyone there…
Metaverse
By Member 10
For the past three months I have been immersed in the major transformation that is happening right now in web world – Web 3.0.
It will take all of us into a more immersive and interactive experience online, both socially and with our businesses. It involves gaming environments, virtual and augmented reality and digital assets called NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Web 3.0 operates on blockchain technology and will see us interacting and transacting both in the real world and the virtual world seamlessly over the coming few years, using both cash and crypto currencies. The term being used to explain all things related to this exciting and daunting new world is The Metaverse. It is already here.
Facebook even announced this week that they are entering the Metaverse and will be totally rebranding their company, including a new name to be announced shortly.
Max Volume is entering the Metaverse
I formed Max Volume on the pillars of Creativity, Collaboration and Community and immediately set about to find a compelling way to combine all three. I have spent the past 3 months co-creating a really cool creative NFT project that involves words, music and animation – and I want to take you with me on this journey into the Metaverse.
The project will start today, officially launch in November and run all the way into next year. As a community, I want those who participate to not only feel part of it and excited by it, but be rewarded financially for participating. I invite those who are curious to join the project to fill in this anonymous survey by 31 October 2021. More information will be shared after the launch.
