....and do not be afraid to retire, just don't re-tyre.

When I finish reading a book, I start on a new book.

Taken metaphorically, my life is like that.

It is a big waste of time to read, over and over again, the same book. Every chapter of our life is uniquely distinct in itself, and we ought to move on to the next chapter, the next book and the next; until we can read no more.

Every event, association, relationship cannot be permanent until eternity. Nothing is fixed for life.  

And if life is temporary, everything else is. You can easily imagine how mundane, insipid and flavourless life is if one does the same routine day after day, year after year until he drops dead – stricken by disease or sheer exhaustion. My life is not worth this end. I will continue to keep my mental, physical and emotional state in top condition, and I am absolutely glad that I am in a much better state of mind and body when I was ten years ago.

Everyone embarks on his life journeys; different chapters, like in a book. And strangely today, all life journeys can be started and assisted by search engines. We get ideas, know-how, learning experiences from others; in other words new found knowledge to kick start a new journey. This was unthinkable fifteen years ago.

Fifteen years ago, advice about what and how to do always come free, unsolicited, but they are mostly bad advice sub-consciously designed to confuse you more. The more friends you have, the more advice you get, and the more confused you become. By a recent research I did, I discovered that there are those who, with a plan, look forward to retirement; and those who, even with a plan, do not.

There is also another retiring category comprising the ones who never got started as far as honest work is concerned; and I have seen quite a number in my 37 years of industrial experience, interacting, mingling and rubbing shoulders with a wide network of government officials, bosses, peers, subordinates and acquaintances with varied expertise, personality, attitude, motives and behaviour.

To this category of people, retirement makes no difference; and retiring at 40 or 50 or 55 without a plan, with nothing to do, and having not much money in the pocket is no big deal. So they just continue with dishonest work, get their pay, short-changing their employers; but then rant, whine and whimper when they are shown the door.

I started gainful employment when I was nearing 20, back when the oil-shock retarded the industrial world’s growth that was so dependent on oil. Everybody was so casual, taking oil for granted like it will always be available in abundant quantity and at a low cost. Then the sky fell down! Everybody suddenly became fatalistic.

During the onslaught of this oil shock that comprised many short sky-rocketing periods of rapid oil price increases, I had the opportunity of coming to grips with industrial life, of getting a first-hand experience seeing working adults cry, like babies, not at funeral parlours, but at the factory gates. With tiffin-carriers and home-cooked meals for their new working day in hand, the workers were utterly stunned at their factories’ sudden closure. The only option for them was to cry. Oh well, there is another option -- rant! That was the scenario in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong 1974. As a trainee technician with just a HK$10 daily allowance, I began to understand what having a job means to people, especially when he is eking it out just for the survival of his family. It was my first major brush with the reality of working life.

I was indeed lucky to be selected among thousands of applicants (the unemployment rate in Penang then was a double digit figure), but a naive I had actually taken the job just to enjoy the travel overseas --- a three-month training stint in Hong Kong. That unforgettable experience of watching mid-life workers actually losing their jobs in an unscheduled manner suddenly made me appreciate the employment I have in hand -- even for that mere pittance. Along the way, I learned to manage the little income that I have, to save, to be thrifty, and go for value-buys; without being a scrooge and to always be prepared for any eventuality. Not to sob, rant, whine and whimper later.

Yes, I started young, and for the next 15 years, I remain employed in the Japanese MNC and I quickly moved up the corporate ladder. I urged my peers to go for night classes and higher education. There were few takers for company since they have to dig deep into their own pockets. They just had not saved enough. So I went ahead. I did not want to miss the opportunity. I had missed higher education due to the rigid racial quota (university) entry rules of the NEP and I did not want to miss it again. Now the chance has come; I qualify and I have enough cash on stand-by for the studies, and enough to sustain the small little family that I have already started.

My decision and action brought mixed reactions. I was praised by my bosses, envied by those who could not afford it, and ridiculed by those who wanted everybody to remain just like them; to just earn your wage and then go home to your family. It did not matter to me. I was hell-bent to get what I was looking for –- and I succeeded after three years. Right after, my employer was working on product diversification and I was appointed the leader to transfer and transplant the whole project to a new factory to be built.

And soon I was again away from home for 6 months, this time undergoing intensive training in Japan. We worked hard, I worked exceptionally hard. I went for post-graduate studies three years later, spending weekends in lecture halls and libraries; spending time networking and meeting up with mentors, professional managers and local entrepreneurs in the weekends. I graduated with distinction. I hardly had time for my family then and I was working really hard, never mind those who hardly worked.

I got myself moving up to the Board of Directors (the youngest and only local member on the BOD) in this Japanese MNC. Unwittingly, I became a local career man’s benchmark.

Those were the first few general chapters of my working life. It wasn’t easy, it was tough! Especially so when after 16 years in this new joint, the HQ in Japan decided to relocate to China in 2005. It was the twilight time of an organisation, but a dawning of a new chapter in my life.

Memories of the Hong Kong workers locked out of factory because of closure came running back to my mind. I felt a very heavy burden on my shoulders as I tried to prevent our workers from suffering the same fate – an unscheduled retirement for those who were neither here nor there – those in their 40’s and early 50’s. Eventually I realised that there was nothing much I could do as the power to continue or relocate depended on HQ. This is globalisation, globalising for profit maximisation, using just the simple economic theory.

I decided to end this chapter of my working life, and to start writing a new one. I thought of retiring for good, I was approaching 51. It sort of coincided with my original plan to retire at 50. I already had a plan and well, I think enough resources. But on second thought, I was simply and mentally not ready for a life on the beach.

I started a manufacturing consultancy right after, and I focused on local companies. It was a success and soon I had directorship offers from different clients. After much consideration, I decided to join one to help propel it to become a world class organisation. It lasted 4 years.

Decision time came again after the goal is accomplished. I decided to start another new chapter of my life.... to be fair to my wife, to be by her side as I had been “away”, "married to employment" for almost 37 years – and to pursue my dream of getting my PhD and starting an enterprise with my son at the same time. If time permits, I will write a few books.

So have I retired this time? If we are talking about previous employments, then yes.

What if it is about my life? ....absolutely not!

I do not think that those who cannot or do not look forward to read a new book, that is, to retire, as being one-dimensional or tunnel-visioned. Some have to work out of ego, or mental or financial necessity, while some out of inability to let go; inability to take the challenge of opening up the first chapter in his new book of life. It is funny though that many who will not want to retire think of retirees as soft, insipid, wasteful and brain-dead.

For the sinister that never got started as far as honest work is concerned, they do not see any real change between work and retirement. They have never actually worked in the first place, only being masters of work politics. Put them in the real political world and they will shoot their own feet, or become political dinosaurs within a week. They do not have the guts to be in the real political world, really, so they remain contented by being dishonest with themselves in their salary man’s world, and in cognizance of the "fact" that their employer "owe them a living".

Retirement is inevitable, just like life. Nothing goes on forever. The day will come. All things must change and pass; and the day will come for each person to read a new book in his life, to retire; lest they want to be eliminated by “karoshi” (Japanese terminology for working to death, which can be at any age!).  But for most people, retirement happens predictably and they react like ducks taking to water, especially when the mandatory retirement age has been written into the terms of employment; that your shelf life has expired so to speak. This is scheduled retirement.

When one is scheduled to retire, everybody tries to be ceremoniously nice to you on your last day at work in the office. There will surely be some who have been really bad to you but still don’t feel guilty about it. They will be conspicuously absent – ironically confirming their guilt, but there is nothing you can do now. There is afternoon hi-tea topped with untruthful flattery and unusually pleasant speeches, you get a few nice souvenirs and farewell cards to take home. They expect you to leave early, they accompany you to the door, and they also expect you to go straight home and never come back. Ha,ha,ha, ...sad, but that is the fact.

For some others like me, the decision to retire from employment was not a scheduled event. It came unscheduled but designed to be most suddenly. I talk to the big boss, I tell him the reasons and then I do it. As a top executive, I make decisions. I don’t let things be decided for me, even about my retirement. Well, it was a shock to the organisation, but what I did was just exactly what top executives are cut out to be – shockers who make things happen! When I have done enough, I have done enough. It was time to move on, and I did. No regrets.

For many others, however, unscheduled retirement is, strangely, scheduled for them by the top management, and is very painful. Like those workmen crying at the gates of a factory closed abruptly. And if scheduled retirement is the trigger point that may make you confused with your life three months after retiring, imagine the dangers posed by this kind of unscheduled retirement.

Organisations going “kaput”, rationalisation by manpower cuts, relocations and job obsolescence that leaves you out in the cold, at age 48 or so – neither here nor there!

So my friends, you must prepare for retirement as you would for anything major. Retirement is a major. You must have a plan. If indeed you look forward to retirement, it is important to have your daily routine and your big events all planned out in detail.

Remember you cannot spend 24 hours, 7 days a week on the internet, drink chinese tea or beers in your own garden, talk to your plants, or listen to your favourite CDs on your brand new state of the art hi-fi. You will start to vegetate. You will become soft, insipid, wasteful and brain-dead. You may develop sleep apnea or worse, become suicidal.

So the more hobbies and interest areas you have, the better. Have many. Many, many, many! Because it is amazing how quickly a retiree gets bored, disenchanted and lose interest with a new interest!

If indeed you miss your working life, always consider that retirement is the dawn of a new and better day in a new chapter of your life. It is your new book, where you write, not read, all your new chapters. You are ready for re-birth and to embark on new stuff, like, a new life.

You will know when to retire, do not be retired. Do not stay on simply to re-tyre yourself to go a few more miles (years). No need to re-invent the wheel. Logically, you can decide by the signs. Like why you, as an eagle born to soar, is working for or is working with a bunch of turkeys. There are many tell-tale signs. You must pay attention to them. When you have done enough, you have done enough. Enough is enough, never stay on for sake of the pay and the perks.

Like when you “don’t like your job no more” –- retire. Staying on makes one a prostitute. Hating the job but loving the money. Forget the gold watch and the golden handshake, they are golden handcuffs anyway. The opportunity cost you lose by staying on is much more than you think you know. Progress to other more worthwhile life projects of yours.

When I retired a good seven months ago, I go. And I did not just go, I completely let go. I left and I never looked back. I know my job is no longer my business. I am no longer obligated to offer any advice, and to be fair, neither my ex-boss or successor is obligated to listen to any of my views.

I have no regrets. Absolutely none. 

Just like what Frank Sinatra crooned, I did what I had to do - and it was the most memorable and meaningful decision I have ever made to date. To retire from 37 years of employment, after all has been said and done. I have never been happier; writing and reading this new dawning, this new chapter in my new book of life.

I blog, I have started on a book, I play the guitar better and better each day, I am starting a new enterprise, I am a PhD candidate in good progress, and I go so close to nature when everybody else is so stressed out at work.

I work out at the gym every day for an hour and I am in a better physical and mental state than I was ten years ago. I get to talk to the gardeners, security guards, people who serve me food, and I have time for some social work. I have come to understand people much better than I thought I did.

I do photography, I travel “inwards”, I discover “new” stuff by observations, I still provide management coaching to local manufacturers, and I “let my hair down” during the weekends.

But most importantly, I have quality time with my wife, two wonderful adult children, an emphatic and helpful son-in-law, and a wonderfully cheeky grand-kid like when I was a kid. Well, I may not be that wonderful, but life is now indeed wonderful as I weave the bricolage of my old and new life experiences with my family and the few true friends, and 2 god-children. So yes, I'm now a full time Godfather as well, kekeke....

There is so much that anyone can do after retiring from employment. The scope for adventure, discovery and fun is absolutely, immensely, and expansively fabulous.

How I wish I had retired from employment according to my initial plans 5 years ago, and to have a great life on the beach that was not to be. But, no regrets -- it is always better to retire than never. I for one, however, will simply never  re-tyre myself for a few more miles; I just simply retire from full time employment to enjoy all the years I missed with the people I love and the dreams I have.