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Take a
Break
By Michael Alan Hamlin
May 5, 2003
It's hard to believe, but in a couple
of months, I'm going to come face-to-face with my 51st birthday.
If I were a corporation, I'd sound really enduring when I told clients
that I was in my 51st year. That sort of longevity, considering
that less than three percent of all companies ever founded make
it past their 10th anniversary, is really impressive in an organization.
But observing that an individual
has lived half a century is another matter, particularly when the
individual is living in a young country like the Philippines. About
67 percent of voting age Filipinos - as near as anyone can reasonably
tell - are between 18 and 45. Virtually everyone is younger than
50 years old. This is in stark contrast to a country like Japan,
where birthrates have plummeted and a majority of the population
is actually over 45.
Many economists believe that the
Philippines' young, productive population is a big plus because
the original Asian dragons once had similar demographic profiles.
But the impact of productivity-enhancing technology, the emergence
of China and Indochina into the mainstream global economy with better
than a billion low-wage workers, and an education system that does
little to prepare the young for the kind of technology-enabled jobs
that are likely to be available make that assumption extremely suspect.
But whether the young population
proves to be a boom or a bane, there's no arguing with the reality
that I'm an older person in a very young country. And although I'm
not old in an elderly, virtually incapacitated way, it's pretty
obvious that my perspectives are likely in many ways to be in remarkable
contrast to the generations to which this country effectively belongs
by default - the young. True, human nature at its core - we love,
we hate, we aspire, etc. - hasn't changed much. But the way we do
and express these things certainly has.
Our contrasting perspectives are
in large part influenced by the impact technology has on culture,
lifestyles, and business practice. I grew up with a refrigerator,
a phone, and a TV. These devices - and their continued evolution
- represented quantum leaps in technology. My kids, on the other
hand, consider a computer and the Internet about as mystifying as
frozen steaks in the freezer. They are constantly connected to their
friends, support groups, and weird strangers through their mobile
phones. Slide rules are collectors' items because those same mobile
phones do everything quickly and painlessly that slide rules did
awkwardly and hopefully accurately.
Pondering these contrasts and their
implications can take a lot of energy out of a nearly 51-year-old.
So I've gradually taken on some significant lifestyle changes to
facilitate my wondering about the relevance of a half-century-old
guy and his place in the world. As I've noted before, management
icon Peter Drucker says that because people live longer and healthier
lives, they find themselves in the position of recreating themselves
at least three times in their professional careers. It is ordinary,
he argues, to outgrow careers and lifestyles and go on to the next
one and the next one.
As circumstances would have it, I've
pretty much done the three career thing already. That doesn't mean
that I'm ahead of the curve. Rather, it suggests that I've taken
some pretty big risks - at least one woefully ill-advised - to get
to where I thought I wanted to be in terms of success, illusive
wealth, and happiness. I've been so busy somewhat needlessly recreating
myself every decade or so that I've unexpectedly arrived at the
time in life when I really should be recreating myself for important
reasons, not just because it happens to be the thing I want to do.
In other words, I can't keep up the pace of the first 30 years of
my professional life.
It's taken a while for me to realize
this, and the shift to a slower, more introspective way of living
has taken on some interesting manifestations. For example, in 30
years, I've had probably five legitimate vacations, most of them
for three days and two nights. I did spend a couple of weeks in
the U.S. on a working vacation once, but I've only been back there
four times in my career.
The point is that in my "older
age" I'm beginning to enjoy taking vacations. I'm not sure
if I should be alarmed by this development, but for the most part
I'm too busy enjoying contemplating, and actually taking, time off.
Not all of that time is spent at the beach or in other forms of
leisurely travel and entertainment, however. I've gradually undertaken
a measured but deliberate recreation of my routine at home where
I'm spending more and more of my time.
For instance, I'm sitting out back
as I write this column next to a 4,000 liter fishpond my wife and
I recently added to our backyard. We have a small backyard, so this
is a really big fishpond in relative terms. And it looks pretty
nice, and that's nice, but it's not the reason we built it. We built
it because we love the sound of the water cascading into the pond,
the mesmerizing movement of the carp that populate it, and the enjoyment
we get out of maintaining and further developing our little creation.
Working out here has become so enjoyable
- and productive, even - that I'm installing a wireless access point
for our home network so that I can access the Internet while I'm
watching the fish swim around waiting for their next meal. That
makes it a snap to communicate with the office, interface with clients,
and actually do substantive work - while I'm enjoying the peacefulness
of this serene little backyard world.
Gee, I guess growing older isn't
so bad after all. In my case, at least, it's helped me focus on
what has to be one of the most important aspects of life, and that
is enjoying it.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is currently
at work on High Visibility: Building Strong Personal Brands in Asia.
Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved..
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