The Boat: Adaptability Now!
By all accounts, I missed the boat.
In times like these, one of the most unfortunate things that many of us have encountered is this sense of “missing the boat.”
When you come up against something that you can’t control, a profound sense of regret at not taking appropriate action when you were able to—that sinks in on a very real level.
This sense of missing the boat comes up most often in the world of business, I find. Older people are losing out to younger people, and younger people are taught to be more savvy—not just more competitive, but more savvy—than the next person.
If businesses are ever going to move forward, this culture will have to change. And it starts with not being made to feel as though you’ve missed the boat.
In this article, I don’t want to talk about missing the boat so much as the idea of getting in it. Forgive me if that sounds philosophical there.
In other words, I missed the boat because I didn’t graduate from college at the age of twenty-two. I missed the boat because I did not spend two years in community college. I missed the boat because I did not work for an internship at the right time. I missed the boat because I had the wrong major. I missed the boat because…
There are a host of reasons as to why people are made to feel as though they have missed the boat.
Does this help anyone psychologically?
If the boat only takes in twenty-two-year-old college graduates who are single, have worked before, from the right majors at the right schools at the right time—how is that a recipe for successful business? How is that an inspiring way of communicating to a prospective employee that the company values them?
Yes, I did miss the boat. I am proud that I got on when I did. If I was ever interviewed by anybody, I would tell them about the setbacks that I faced, the challenges I went up against. More importantly, I would tell them about how I overcame those challenges.
This is the perfect time to expand the boat, redefine the boat, and make it more adaptable. It is going to be a profound benefit to companies if they hire people who have been faced with immense challenges and uphill battles (and I’m not just talking about me).
Adaptability is going to be the cornerstone of this new economy, and companies must make sure that all sectors of people who are capable of working are not left out as the economy goes to wild transitions.
Companies will have to adapt and change. It is to their benefit to hire people who are used to that sort of thing.
Every person comes with a story. Every person comes with several stories. And the last thing any of them would want to be told is that they missed the boat.
If you have the chance, please let the people that are you are interviewing share their stories with you.
Who knows?
You might find a helmsman in one of them, someone was more than capable of guiding your boat into new waters.