One of the most difficult life-stages is when a person gets into his 40s. Even if that person has maintained himself well, the body starts to creak reminding him that he is a mortal.
On the career front he is typically at the top-most layer that he will ever rise up to - any further rise in the organisational hierarchy will be marginal and merely designation adjustments or role swaps, rather than substantive responsibility changes.
He also realises that he has put behind him more years in his career than he will in the future.
And around him he might also see quite a few fallen heroes within the organisation - heroes he may have worshipped and role-modelled a decade ago, but who suddenly seem to have stagnated and gone to pieces. These ex-heroes would typically be in their late 40s or 50s - these would have been the high-fliers a few years ago, guys with a lot of promise and possible CEO material - but who mysteriously seem to have lost their way.
And our man will start wondering what went wrong with these ex-heroes, and will dread whether a similar fate will befell him too some day.
In today's fast-track growth era it is very easy for a bright ambitious person to learn all that is there to learn in his industry by the time he is in his 30s. He then starts picking up various fine-tuning soft-skills - but these skills are acquired gradually. No measurable step changes - which is pretty disconcerting for our ambitious go-getter. Since his whole life revolves around this particular industry or skill area he starts feeling a distinct sense of what the French very elegantly call ennui - the result is he loses his sense of purpose. At this stage that person either takes premature retirement, becomes an entrepreneur and gets into something totally new. Or he starts going to pieces by passively trying to hold on to his job, and passing his time = fallen hero.
Which is why it is critical that every individual entering this life phase to parallely takes up a "second" passion or career which is totally unrelated to what he does in office. This could be learning to paint, helping out an NGO over weekends, teaching, learning golf or to play a musical instrument - anything that has a bigger purpose and will challenge the individual to once again exercise his learning skills in a totally new arena. Most of the best brains in any sphere continued to be productive and useful in their main career, because they consciously developed a 2nd passion which added the required zest and more enduring purpose to their life.
On the career front he is typically at the top-most layer that he will ever rise up to - any further rise in the organisational hierarchy will be marginal and merely designation adjustments or role swaps, rather than substantive responsibility changes.
He also realises that he has put behind him more years in his career than he will in the future.
And around him he might also see quite a few fallen heroes within the organisation - heroes he may have worshipped and role-modelled a decade ago, but who suddenly seem to have stagnated and gone to pieces. These ex-heroes would typically be in their late 40s or 50s - these would have been the high-fliers a few years ago, guys with a lot of promise and possible CEO material - but who mysteriously seem to have lost their way.
And our man will start wondering what went wrong with these ex-heroes, and will dread whether a similar fate will befell him too some day.
In today's fast-track growth era it is very easy for a bright ambitious person to learn all that is there to learn in his industry by the time he is in his 30s. He then starts picking up various fine-tuning soft-skills - but these skills are acquired gradually. No measurable step changes - which is pretty disconcerting for our ambitious go-getter. Since his whole life revolves around this particular industry or skill area he starts feeling a distinct sense of what the French very elegantly call ennui - the result is he loses his sense of purpose. At this stage that person either takes premature retirement, becomes an entrepreneur and gets into something totally new. Or he starts going to pieces by passively trying to hold on to his job, and passing his time = fallen hero.
Which is why it is critical that every individual entering this life phase to parallely takes up a "second" passion or career which is totally unrelated to what he does in office. This could be learning to paint, helping out an NGO over weekends, teaching, learning golf or to play a musical instrument - anything that has a bigger purpose and will challenge the individual to once again exercise his learning skills in a totally new arena. Most of the best brains in any sphere continued to be productive and useful in their main career, because they consciously developed a 2nd passion which added the required zest and more enduring purpose to their life.
