Since I retired from the Singapore Armed Forces in 2011, I have been paying it forward by helping senior PMETs re-tool and re-skill in my spare time.
What I have recently realised is that only those who want to be helped, can be helped. For the past few months, I have been talking to a senior PMET who was retrenched at the start of the COVID19 pandemic. Given his age and his former role in the offset printing industry, I explained that it is highly unlikely that he will be able to find a similar role in the same industry. I urged him to adjust his expectations, learn new relevant skills, and make a switch to an ancillary industry.
While he acknowledges what I say, he continued to make excuses not to re-skill. Tired of his excuses, last week I paid the course fees for him. I sent him the course schedule and told him to make arrangements to attend the course.
Up till today, he has not registered.
My conclusion?
He does not want help. He would prefer feeling sorry for himself and blaming the world for his plight.
The reality is that technology is disrupting the world. And this gentlemen will be the norm and not the exception. No one owes us a living, and while we cannot control what happens to us, we can definitely control our response to it.
“We are where we are today because of our actions or inactions. The choice is always ours.”
