The secret to never losing a job

[Music]

how many of us

worry about never finding a job or

losing our jobs can we have a show of

hands please

awesome that’s nearly a third of the

room thank you

for those who didn’t raise your hand i

assume you are either silver spooners

or geniuses can we be friends

in this highly volatile and

unprecedented area

we can’t predict if there will be

another pandemic

another global financial crisis we also

don’t know

what the next job will be that gets

replaced by artificial intelligence

the international labor organization

starter reveals that

nearly half of the global workforce is

at risk

of losing their livelihoods due to the

pandemic

a lot of jobs have disappeared in the

last decade

and studies show that 47 of jobs are at

risk due to the technology advancement

if you are like me in the majority of

the

commoners we do need to take it

seriously

i was lucky to be born and educated in

china

the ancient country ingrained with

thousands of years of

wisdom and culture

our ancients told us no matter how

external environment changes

the secret to survival and thriving is

bienton

my interpretation of bienton in today’s

vernacular

is ai not artificial intelligence

but adaptive intelligence our ancient

philosophy still applies in today’s

environment

before i talk about the solution of

never losing a job

let’s look at the problem first

traditionally

we have four groups of people who lose

their jobs during downturns

and have been hit the hardest during

this latest pandemic

the first group is hard workers hard

workers are no strangers to us

all of us may have said or may have

heard others say

i work hard when i’m young so i can

retire early

i never worry about losing my job

because i work harder than anyone else

i saw some recruiting ads in the chinese

supermarket

come and join us because we are only 996

996 means working from 9am to 9pm

six days a week only96

is regarded as an advantage in

comparison to some other companies

who are working 997 or even more

my big boss often says she doesn’t want

to see us in the office

at 4pm on a friday go home and spend

time with your loved ones

you know how it sounds to a china-born

immigrant

it’s like telling me i’m about to get

fired

so for those who think you are hard

workers there are probably millions of

people out there who are willing to work

harder for less

now let’s look at smart workers i don’t

work hard i work smart

yes my workers i hear you sometimes

it’s not about us not working smart

enough it’s just that we’ve landed on

our feet with the industry we are in

no matter how smart we work we’re still

at risk of

being made redundant if our companies

don’t perform or go through a

restructure

the third group is the job creators

the pandemic has definitely proven its

ability

to destroy overnight what we have built

over a lifetime

if it has taught us anything it’s that

no

business is a hundred 100 resilient the

international labor organization’s data

shows that

worldwide more than 436 million

enterprises

face a serious disruption due to the

pandemic

small business owners are out of luck in

this crisis

the last group is the stock investors

for stock investment it’s always like

gambling

and this time it’s out of control more

than ever

the shared trading agent warren buffett

only saw two trading clubs in his entire

career

what we have experienced before this

much alone

i feel for those who put all their

investment

into crude oil

we see highly paid workers lose their

jobs and fight for positions in

supermarkets

we see people lose their entire fortunes

in the share market

we see millions of small business owners

get forced to shut the shop for good

we see anger and frustration we see

depression

and this fear we see a mountain

emotional toll

that leads to devastating suicides

i believe those four groups of people

have done nothing wrong

those hit the hardest are still

respectful and incredible individuals in

their own fields

however it’s proven that

a single linear crit development

strategy is too fragile

we are not resilient enough we can adapt

to the crisis

quickly enough it’s just not good enough

then how

how can we be in pong how can we be

equipped with

adaptive intelligence

let me share with you two strategies

the first strategy is a adaptation

while appreciating that each individual

has a is unique

most of us have a pattern left pattern

that looks like this

our first 25 years are spending

education

the next four decades make up a career

we live all the leisure and asleep for

the last 20 or so years of lives

we also see a tendency to plateau

somewhere between the age of 45 to 65.

as i mentioned earlier a single linear

crit development strategy

is too fragile we need a stronger

adaptive power

charles handy in his book the second

curve provides us with a solution

we stabilize in our first profession

we accumulate life experience work

experience

and build up a strong financial

foundation

at some point in time we start a second

curve

while maintaining the first profession

the second curve

could be another profession that sets

you up for a better future

a business idea that keeps you up at

night or even

just some other skill or competence that

you want to develop on the side if we

look at many influential people’s

profiles

it’s easy to see that they often have

multiple curves

jack ma is a business magnate teacher

investor and philanthropist

oprah winfrey is a talk show host

television producer

author actress and also philanthropist

the rule also applies to businesses take

microsoft

as an example when most businesses

downsized or became bankrupt microsoft

also had to close all its stores

but it’s still turning a profit it’s

shares

went from a pre-covered value of 160 usd

to more than 200 today for microsoft

building multiple curves into its

ecosystem

it’s key to business resilience

the stronger curves compensate for the

weak ones

after two or three years of planning i

finally started my youtube tech channel

in april this year

with the thought that it not only

enhances my full-time job

but also develops some of my other

capabilities

being a youtube creator is many

other second curves i will be trying

proudly one of my videos hit a hundred

thousand views on linkedin

in a week as a result

my youtube subscriptions raised from

zero to

eighty by comparison

we have elon musk’s pattern he started

as a software developer at silicon

valley

then paypal spacex tesla

opened ai the boring company and it’s

not done yet

as you can tell small businesses and

individuals have already found the

secret of the second curve

the second curve isn’t telling us that

we should get too busy at expense of

family

it’s not saying excellence is our only

pursuit

instead the second curve is providing us

options

in this highly volatile world it’s a

survival kit

a backup plan the second curve

is our chance to make up for any

shortcomings

on the first curve to redeem ourselves

and to show that we have learned from

the past

in order to create a better future

okay now we understand that we can’t put

all the eggs in one basket

and we’re ready to explore our next

curve but where should we start

let me introduce you to my second

strategy i

intelligence the purpose of intelligence

is knowing what you are getting into

it’s the analysis of your own

competencies and interests

and the understanding of what kind of

jobs might be less susceptible to

computerization

compared to others it’s the ability to

learn

and the want to make the world a better

place

intelligence is not just simply

following your passion

a survey of canadian university students

found that

among 84 percent of students who had

passions

90 of those passions involve sports

music and art but only three percent of

jobs

are in sports music and art industries

a few years ago i was facing the

decision of choosing a career

i told my family i just want to follow

my passions and i don’t care about

making a living

my mom looked at me probably the only

career left for you

is being a princess thank you mother

following one’s passion probably it’s

career advice for

geniuses civil spooners

passions changes over time

and don’t always translate to a

meaningful and fulfilling career

so how should we choose a direction

intelligently

let’s look at a study by mckinsey

in the analysis of more than 800

occupations

they predict that jobs that consist of

repetitive and predict predictable tasks

will be replaced by artificial

intelligence over the next decade

on the other hand however the hardest

activities to automate with

currently available technologies are

those

that involve managing and developing

people or those

that apply expertise in decision making

planning

or creative work with the technology

races ahead

low skilled workers will naturally

reallocate to tasks

that are not susceptible to

computerization

for us to win this race however two

skills are essential

creativity and social skills

jobs that involve creativity and

imagination

jobs that require love and compassion

jobs that contribute to making the world

a better place

these are the jobs that won’t be

replaced

friends often tell me of course you

don’t need to worry about losing your

job

you’re working i.t honestly i still

worry

not in the same sense as worrying about

losing my hair

but jobs get to replace the i.t a lot

faster than you’d expect

as the it industry is often at the

forefront

of the innovation

the only way of ensuring job security

is maintaining the ability to learn

learn infinitely learn diligently

and learn fearlessly

while automation will eliminate some

occupations entirely in the next decade

it will affect almost all jobs to a

greater or lesser degree

depending on the type of work for us to

stabilize on the first

curve and thrive on the second curve

we will need to be prepared for rapidly

involving future fork

we need to rethink traditional notions

of

where we work how we work and what kind

of

talents and capabilities we bring to our

work

we need to reimagine how many of our own

activities

could be better or more efficiently

executed by applications or machines

we need to reinvest our valuable time

to focus on core competencies that no

robot

or algorithm can replace as yet

we have talked about how a single linear

career development strategy is too

fragile

no matter if we are hard workers smart

workers

job job creators or individual investors

the solution to that is bien tong

adaptive intelligence we adapt to the

environment by developing a second curve

we develop the second curve

intelligently by choosing a direction

that’s not susceptible to bring us into

land

i want to share with you another ancient

the chinese thing

it means our greatest changes happen

when we reach when we reach our limits

change means adaptation

and adaptation set us up for a brighter

future

thank you

you