A few days ago, a middle-aged gentleman attended my Patterns of Excellence Introductory Seminar and signed up. He told me that he wanted to re-think and re-plan his life’s strategy as he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere in his career. What frustrated him was that he used to be very successful in school workshop. He was the perfect student who studied hard, got top grades and went to Raffles Institution, Raffles Junior Colleges and to NUS, where he got a first class honors degree.

He did everything by the book and coudn’t understand why he had less success and money than some of his friends who were from lousier schools and had poorer grades. ‘Where did I go wrong?’, he asked me.

He always wanted to attend my kids’ program and learn NLP but procrastinated for a long time. What really made him take action was that he had enough about working so hard, but always getting passed up for a promotion. What’s worse was that his company (an MNC) was undergoing a restructuring and there was a high posisbility that he may get retrenched. At the age of 43, he had the fear of what he was going to do if it should happen to him. He came to me looking for answers.

I explained that the world had changed so much since our parents time and the advice they gave us in the past will not only NOT help us succeed, but it may kill us. In the past, change happened slowly and people would work for the same company their entire lives. In the old days, parents gave good advice like, ‘ study hard. Get good grades. find a good job with a good company. do as you are told. don’t rock the boat. the longer you stay and the more loyal you are, your value and pay will automatically increase until you finally get to retire at 50 with a nice secure pension.’

However, the world we live in today is vastly different. Technology and knowledge is changing so fast that 80% of what you learn in school is OBSOLETE by the time you graduate. The nature of jobs are changing so fast that 50% of the jobs that exist today will not exist or exist in a different form 10 years from now. So what does this mean? THis means that when you work for a company today, there is no job or income security anymore. The longer you stay in a company, your value will begin to decline (if you don’t upgrade yourself continously and do things differentl). By the time you hit 45-50 years old, there is a 70% chance of being retrenched! Why? becasue your boss will know taht he can hire someone half your age, half your pay, double your energy, doing the same job! And even if you can find another job, it will probably be at a much much lower pay!

Many people who are holding their prestigious degrees and in prestigous positions (Senior managers, Vice-presidents, directors) think they have security. But it is really an ILLUSION of security. Because you do not own your job or your income. Both these can be taken away from us at any time.

So what will give us true income, true freedom and true security? The answer is in continually investing in yourself and upgrading yourself. Your true wealth and security lies in your mindset and your personal mastery skills in being able to continually motivate yourself and overcome adversity. No one can take this away from you! With the right mindset and personals success strategies, you will be able to ride the sea of changes and take charge of the environment, instead of allowing the environment take charge of you! You have to begin to master your mind and design your own destiny (or someone will design it for you)