Copyright@HanKokKwang

Jobsite readers can get the practical Bestseller at a special price by calling Lily at 65-343 0228 or email her at [email protected].sg TODAY !!

Much has been said and written about the Knowledge-based Economy (KBE). Internet time competition. Information overload but knowledge starvation. Only the paranoid survives. Business at the speed of thought. What does all these mean to the common person ?

Change usually happens on a subconscious level. We will not change unless there is some thing in it for us. We have to start thinking and start asking questions. Look around you and ask questions. Question convention. Question norms. Think for yourself. Critically evaluate those models that we grew up with - the same models we took as the truth, the models that were thrust upon us by our good intentioned parents, teachers, peers and seniors. Challenge the notion that you need a Degree to succeed.

Are they still relevant today ?

Try this acid test : when our well intentioned seniors share their models with us, were they personal experiences or hearsay, an opinion ? Have they tasted success with their model, or were they just projecting their unfulfilled dreams upon us? Or are we the second chance to confirm that their model did not work ? If it is so, reject them straightaway.

Opportunities available to us today far exceed those during the times of our seniors and parents. Those were the good old days because they were predictable. Now it is the wild wild frontier. Look at the dot.com companies. From Yahoo to Amazon to Dell, they are causing a revolution in the way we do business. In the process, they make their founders very very rich.

Many of them did not finish their degrees. They found the school system too slow and too unlike the real world for them. The common trait among these big timers was that they think a great deal. And they took action. This small follow up step of taking action can make a world of difference. Achievement can only come after action.

What we need now are new formulae. The old ones that we grew up with are redundant. They have outlived their usefulness and relevance. The problems may be the same but we need new answers. Look at the Asian economic crisis. There were many crisis before in the world, but every crisis requires a different solution, a different approach, due to different variables. The way Indonesia turned out under the IMF bail-out scheme was a good example of how we cannot apply the same approach to different crisis. The nett effect : a whole government was overthrown.

We need a new formula. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. It is the same way we are using our old winning formula and expecting new successes. It does not work that way. What we reap is what we sow.

In the new order, jobs will be scarce, but work will be abundant. For example, look at the Y2K problem. If you have the requisite skills, you don’t need a job because there is work everywhere for you. The number of companies who are restructuring, retrenching and downsizing simply confirms that we now live in a different world.

In Singapore, 29,000 people lost their jobs in 1998. This was unprecedented. Amongst this group, about a third were white collar professionals and degree holders. So what if you don’t have a degree ? They were also not immune to any economic crisis. This is alarming for the small nation state because the people have always been used to jobs chasing them. In the past, there were always more jobs than people. Then again, those were the good old days. Times have changed.

Giving you a Checklist of what to do will not do, because that will be over simplifying things. It creates a false sense of security and it can be easily duplicated. Anything that can be duplicated becomes a substitute. There can be no competitive advantage if there are substitutes. What you should go for is to re-look at your fundamental self, your values and your talents. This requires thinking. The only sustainable edge is continuous learning and thinking. Understand the First Principles well and you will find life much more manageable.

For instance, take the world famous Coca Cola drink.

You can get it for S$0.50 in a supermarket.

For the same product, you need to fork out S$1.00 at a food court.

In coffee houses, you may pay S$3.00 for a Coke.

And in up-market hotels, you may pay as much as S$6.00 for that same drink.

Same product, different perceived value. Between the low and the high end, the difference is 1,200 % !!

It is the same with you. What is your perceived value in the market? What is your perceived value in YOUR chosen market ? Once you have chosen the market, they will pay you your price because of your perceived value.

The following poem from the classic "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill will show you what I mean :

I bargain with life for a penny,

And life would pay no more

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store

For life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask

But once you have set the wages

Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire

Only to learn, dismayed

That any wages I had asked of Life

Life would have willingly paid.

How do you increase your perceived value? For a start, develop your competence. Competence has been around a long time. It used to be the passport to success but now, it is only an entry ticket to the race. Even with competence, there is no guarantee. Look at the number of competent people around who are unhappy and unfulfilled. Competence is basic, but competence alone will not make you successful.

As illustrated below, the only lasting advantage is persistence and determination :

Competence is more than an educational qualification or a Degree. It is about having a track record of success in your chosen field. If you do not have a track record, you cannot demonstrate competence. If you do not have a competency, start developing one. Just understand that competence takes time. Choose a competence where there is a market value and a market demand.

If your competence has no price tag and you cannot sell it, you have wasted your time. This is the real world. Capital goes where business is, and business is nothing more than an exchange of mutually beneficial interests. Look at the number of Degree holders who are unemployed (through no fault of theirs) and you will get the picture.

With competence, you have to decide what your objectives are in life. What is your game plan in life ? Why do we look at objectives only after we have acquired competence ? Shouldn’t objectives come before the game plan ?

In theory, we should always start with objectives. The real world is usually different. How many of us started our working life knowing exactly what we want ? We made our choices when we were young and unsure – how good can they be ? In fact, they were more our seniors’ goals than ours. It is after our studies that we realised that the course of our study may not be our career of choice.

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We knew next to nothing about the working world when we were expected to make our career choices at age 18 or younger. All we had were opinions and they were mostly from our PEERS, who knows about just as much as us ! Even if we had talked to our seniors or other well intentioned professionals, deep down we are still not sure. Very very few people go into their careers by deliberate choice. That is why there are many people who are unhappy in their jobs.

Why do they stay on ? Because they have become competent in what they do. They have bills to pay and a lifestyle to keep. In short, they are comfortable (in their comfort zone). Secure on the surface but suffering inside. Like the wild animals who have been domiciled, they cannot survive if they go out into the wild wild frontier. It is a sad situation to be in, because they are constantly living in fear. They fear that someday, their worst fears may come true, that they are redundant in the new KBE.

If you think I am exaggerating, ask any outplacement consultant. They will tell you that fact is stranger than fiction. Many Senior Executives do not even know how to put a decent CV together. The sad part is they only discovered it after they were retrenched.

They could be making decisions involving thousands or millions of dollars one day and the next, they could be out walking the streets, a victim of the changed world. The corporate world has been dubbed "the land of the living dead" for a reason, because people stopped thinking. Organisations take on a life of their own beyond a certain size. Then the systems start controlling the people. People just go on and on and on, chasing deadlines after deadlines after deadlines. Resistance is futile because you will be assimilated. Of course, the more common term is the rat race.

This is the real world – no one will teach you the rules. If you come in unprepared, you will just be a pawn in the game. These are exciting times but you must be prepared. This is the wild frontier. You either make it, or you will be marginalised. It may seem unfair but that is life. Take it less personally and you may just stand a chance to make it.

There is only one rule in the KBE : Who Dares Wins !

May you find your new success formula soon.

Copyright@HanKokKwang

Jobsite readers can get the practical Bestseller at a special price by calling Lily at 65-343 0228 or email her at [email protected].sg TODAY !!