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