A Life of Risk

One of the fundamental problems of an electronic factory is that it has to foresee what their customers need years ahead. A tea restaurant can change its menu in a few days to include Taiwan-style tea milk with chewy candies and blackburry toasts, if it will. However, it takes a few years for a factory to go through the process of adopting the "technology of tomorrow" from developing the technology, building the production lines to product testing, to pilot runs. There involves certain gambling in the anticipation of what people want a few years down the road. In that sense, the business is similar to those of property developers. Both take the risks of wrong judgements. Likewise, people face uncertainties and it is no easier for us to deal with them than a factory or a property developer.

Some career consultants make an analogy between companies and people, saying that an employee can function as an individual company does. Optimistically speaking, i think that can work. You are a company of your own capability to serve your "customer", your employer.

The reality check is, however, you, as an employee, have only one single customer. Your "business" overly rely on this customer for its entire income. People may, if the contracts allow, have freelance job, like what i am having here, which could diversify their income sources. But that could help diversify a little. Few can earn a living as freelancers. Besides, freelancing cut into your leisure time. There is no way for you to outsource your production to any "supplier" if you take the job seriously.

More than once, i have been told by insurance agents: "Join us! Selling insurance is like running your own business!" That's right. Insurance salepeople, or financial planners, have a nice job and some earn a lot of money. But the profession doesn't suit everyone. Most jobs are still single-customer businesses.

Worse, the development time horizon is even longer than those of factories and property developers. In the world of high division of labor, you have to adopt special skills in order to fit into a position. And you have to make decision which career field to go for in your late teens when you go to college. That's when you are young and inexperienced about the world outside school.

When i went to college, the smartest classmates went for Triple E, the abbreviation of electricity and electronics engineering. But nowsdays, some twelve years having past, there aren't too many top jobs in the engineering field in Hong Kong.

The professional jobs are by nature sophisticated enough to absorb all your learning efforts, which unfortunately makes it hard for you to take a detour in career. Therefore, the decision you made at college is a long-shot bet. The risk is you may earn lower income for many years, if not your whole life, than otherwise.

Being a civil servant was a contrarian investment in the early and mid 1990's when most people were dreaming of making overnight fortune in the private sector. Those civil servants chose a less colorful life and accepted relatively stable income for their whole lives. Today, their decisions turn out to be good investments.

Living in the world of unknown future, some people must be luckier than the others. Good judgements could definitely help. Take bird flu. We may take precautious steps to lower the risk of catching it. A housing mortgage is another big risk. Many people are most concerned about it. You have probably visited the place before you decide to buy it or not. But when it comes to career, the risk comes well before you have ever realized it. Economic restructuring can result in numerous victims.

While you are reading this article, it would probably be too late for you to do anything about changing career fields. Hopefully, you don't even think about it. Probably, you are also tied to your mortgage. However, it is always good to prepare ahead.

Back to our analogy between companies and people, studies show that successful companies are adaptive to new market trends and technologies. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras argue, in the classic management book Built to Last, that a successful CEO doesn't need to have outstanding abilities to forecast the market years ahead, but they need to build a company that is flexible and sensitive enough to adapt changes.

i believe this theory can apply to individuals. Have good health, open eyes to the society, be well-connected with people, be versatile, and you may run a successful "business" of your own.

Ride on a time machine and travel back to the past, would you choose a career path different from what you did? If i had a chance to choose again, i would major in sales and marketing in college because it is a practical subject that can apply to different career fields and different job positions. Afterwards, when getting more mature, i could choose whatever i prefer for further studies. You may have different ideas. My ex-collegue Marko told me that philosophy, history and political science are king. Recently, i read more about politics and found it quite inspiring. Perhaps, the knowledge would still be useful some time in the future.

Academics are often seen to live in their own world. They should not, if they want to win a Nobel Prize, argue Nobel Prize Laureate Peter Doherty. "Science is about telling good, readable, memorable stories. It isn't necessary to be a Shakespeare or a Michael Ondaatje, but anyone who wants to be recognised as a top scientist must be able to write clear, concise English," Professor Doherty says in The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize. Chinese novelist Gao Xingjian won a Nobel Prize. His translator did not. It is not about English, i think. My own interpretation of Professor Doherty's sentences is that presentation is the key.

Some people overcome the risk and become even more successful. Great Eagle (41) Deputy Chairman Lo Ka-shui is a cardiologist turned businessman. Virgin Atlantic Airway's boss Sir Richard Branson used to run a music record company. Chief executive Donald Tsang recalled his earlier career as a "lonely salesman" and said he is now no longer lonely. Through the ladder of his political career, has he ever changed job?

Nov 4, 2005
Copyright Quamnet