You are more than a Job Title
My life is my work.
This was my mantra from the day I assumed adult roles and moved out of the family home. As I grew wiser I moved away from goals that were related to work and shift to goals that influence the wellbeing of my loved ones. I began to realise I had confused my work with my life. I thought if I did well in work, I could provide my family with everything they need. But what they want was me and I was spending more time on planes and in foreign countries than with my loved ones.
So I did 3 things.
1. decided not to be defined by my job,
salary,
office, secretary, driver, car.
2. asked and answered this question - "What does life after work look like?"
3. act on my conclusions - including what must be IN my life and what must go OUT.
And that's how I decided to retire at 56.
I exchange job titles for life's roles.
I am a husband to 1 wife for 33 years,
son to 1 mom for 59 years,
father to 3 girls for 31 years,
grandfather to 1 granddaughter for 9 years,
friend to 1 friend for 41 years,
parent to a succession of 6 dogs for 51 years.
Remember your very first day at work?
You prepared for it for a long, long time and now its finally here. And it's exciting, bright, shiny and also scary. And you can't wait to take the first big leap because the possibilities are endless.
That's how I felt on my first day of life after work. I embrace Richard Feynman's wise counsel “Fall in love with some activity and do it! Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best.”
Together with Aleth, I took several first big leaps including :
1. fumbling with Spanish in Barcelona.
2. teaching my granddaughter to overcome fear of water.
3. trekking in Sapa, Vietnam.
4. designing for my mom her first 4-day food scavenger hunt that spans across 2 countries.
5. writing LI posts that chalked up over 10 million views.
6. helping my best friend moved his business to another country.
7. stopping a 40 year old habit, smoking
Now I spend my energy making the world a better place for the people I love. That's how I measure success.
How do you measure success?
I’m a Cloud Community Builder inspired to bring the best out of people and technology! Strategic IT Business Leader | Go-to-Market & Business Development | Creating Clarity, Empowering Growth, Scaling Impact!
6 年Hi David, Thanks for the article. I really admired your courage and actions taken to be yourself and not to be defined by job. It is wise decision and you have a set a good example for rest of working adults on fulfilling the true meaning of being in the world. When we grow up and out of the education system, most of us has been given a tile and scope of work. A lot of unsatisfactions and compliant we put to our work, management, the system etc. However, I found that We are the one restricting ourselves. We lose the courage of being ourselves and take actions to change. Chinese proverbs said “一屋不扫 何以扫天下” “治家后而理国” One can't Make a By Success without Being Self reliant. Start from our own life, be valuable to our loved ones. Good intentions with continuous efforts will lead to good results.
Achiever, Reformer, Negotiator & Entrepreneur | International Business Development, Global Trade, Supply Chain Operations & Stakeholder Management | German National with Singapore & Hong Kong Permanent Resident Status
6 年spot on and life is much more than your job title - after all family is the most important thing in life!
Director and VP of Operations scaling with AI | 15+ years Operational Excellence Leader | LEAN Six Sigma Black Belt with $25M+ in savings | $100M+ Sales Optimization | MBA | Business Consultant
6 年Love this outlook David Wee We can all learn a thing or two from your perspective. Life is short.