The article is very thought provoking and made me revisit my own life. When I graduated in 2000, i was sponsored by my college to go through a career guidance programme conducted by the University's Psychology department and the HR department of the management Institute. End of many tests and lectures and awareness programmes, before the career guidance session, the heads of departments observed that there was in me, a total lack of drive and ambition. To my question whether their observation was based on their idea of achievement and money and whether it matters in life, they smiled and said that as long as it does not affect you, it hardly matters. I modelled my career as per their guidance and had a fulfilling eleven years of my initial career with a corporation involved in industrial development of backward areas of the state.I had an unwritten agreement with my boss where I would do anything he wanted me to do (on priority), with a proviso that he will never ask me not to do something which I wanted to do. In the process I started to encourage and support DOING and moved out from a commercial space to service space. The shift was such that out of 8-10 hrs of working, nearly 3-4 hours was spent in doing things interesting, not directly connected with my work but which was indirectly benefiting the organisation. I left service the day I was 35 and became a free lance Industrial Advisor encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship.. I was earning around Rs4000/- per month more than sufficient for a decent livelihood spending as little time as possible for livelihood earning and spending the balance time making my own life interesting. Over the past 30 years I have moved from earning Rs5000/month working two afternoons a week to earning Rs60000/- working one afternoon a month. In between some interesting assignments were also taken up where the fees was left to the beneficiary to pay as per their assessment of value received. Most of the times there was no scope of work defined nor fees discussed with emphasis on involvement (have been involved with anything and everything one can imagine) with a high level of faith, all the while encouraging and supporting DOING and promoting and supporting social causes . In this process over the past 30 years I have come across interesting people (from all walks of life), great relationships, interesting projects, and has been the recepient of unimaginable love and generosity, In fact I could with pride claim that I have more than 100 years of experience and the wealth generated in real terms as also in terms of time value of money for the time spent between the livelihood earning periods is beyond anybody's imagination. I am 67 years and still believe that LIFE STARTS NOW
WHO SAYS TIME IS NOT MONEY!!!
On Apr 8, 2014 ANANTHARAMAN wrote :
The article is very thought provoking and made me revisit my own life. When I graduated in 2000, i was sponsored by my college to go through a career guidance programme conducted by the University's Psychology department and the HR department of the management Institute. End of many tests and lectures and awareness programmes, before the career guidance session, the heads of departments observed that there was in me, a total lack of drive and ambition. To my question whether their observation was based on their idea of achievement and money and whether it matters in life, they smiled and said that as long as it does not affect you, it hardly matters. I modelled my career as per their guidance and had a fulfilling eleven years of my initial career with a corporation involved in industrial development of backward areas of the state.I had an unwritten agreement with my boss where I would do anything he wanted me to do (on priority), with a proviso that he will never ask me not to do something which I wanted to do. In the process I started to encourage and support DOING and moved out from a commercial space to service space. The shift was such that out of 8-10 hrs of working, nearly 3-4 hours was spent in doing things interesting, not directly connected with my work but which was indirectly benefiting the organisation. I left service the day I was 35 and became a free lance Industrial Advisor encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship.. I was earning around Rs4000/- per month more than sufficient for a decent livelihood spending as little time as possible for livelihood earning and spending the balance time making my own life interesting. Over the past 30 years I have moved from earning Rs5000/month working two afternoons a week to earning Rs60000/- working one afternoon a month. In between some interesting assignments were also taken up where the fees was left to the beneficiary to pay as per their assessment of value received. Most of the times there was no scope of work defined nor fees discussed with emphasis on involvement (have been involved with anything and everything one can imagine) with a high level of faith, all the while encouraging and supporting DOING and promoting and supporting social causes . In this process over the past 30 years I have come across interesting people (from all walks of life), great relationships, interesting projects, and has been the recepient of unimaginable love and generosity, In fact I could with pride claim that I have more than 100 years of experience and the wealth generated in real terms as also in terms of time value of money for the time spent between the livelihood earning periods is beyond anybody's imagination. I am 67 years and still believe that LIFE STARTS NOW
WHO SAYS TIME IS NOT MONEY!!!