"Get a good education. Get a good job. Make sure there is a pension. Retire early if you can."
How many of our parents said something like that to us in high school? Parents thought they had the right advice. But now it turns out that advice like this is what is disengaging employees at work.
Get a good education - more importantly get the right education. A degree in astrophysics is a good education, unless your love is in marketing. Then that astrophysics degree was a huge waste of your time even if you could make more money in astrophysics. People get degrees in great-paying professions but hate the work. That's how you become disengaged from your work. Make sure your education is in something that you will love to do for a lifetime.
Get a good job - no don't. Get a great career. You don't want a "job" - you want a career. When you stop looking at what you do as a job and instead view it as a career that you chose (even temporarily), you engage better and find more reward. A job is just a paycheck. Most could give a fiddler's damn about a job. But a career? You will protect that and keep up with changes and your education. You will be inspired to become the best in your field. But a job? Who cares.
Make sure there is a pension - especially if it just a job. Just showing up at work and doing just enough to not get fired qualifies anyone for a pension. You could be the world's worst school-teacher and you will get the same pension as the best teacher. Pensions are not incentive to perform. Perhaps the whole pension idea should be reformed to become commensurate with effort and engagement during the working years - a lifelong performance bonus, if you will. That would force people to give their best all through their work life and to choose something they would enjoy doing.
Retire early if you can - or not. I'm sure Richard Branson and Donald Trump are just waiting for retirement (Branson is 60 this year and Trump is 64). Bet they can't wait to stop slaving at their jobs each day so they can enjoy their retirement years of doing nothing and collecting their pensions. If you love something, you won't want to retire. And if your company forces you to retire, open your own consulting business to keep active. Why is it that we force those with the most wisdom to leave organizations?
Kids, ignore the "advice" of old people in jobs who do just enough to not get fired, who educated themselves in a discipline that gave them no joy (because they thought it was the right thing to do) and who are counting down the days to retirement so they can collect a pension from a job that they really didn't care much about. Look for the people who went against convention, who chose to rely on their smarts, their hearts and their spirit and who defied what old people told them and made their mark in this world. They're easy to find. They're the old people who are still working because they love what they do that much. Take their advice - not someone who can't wait to check out early.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture
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