Ever imagined how fast you are becoming obsolete in this ever changing world? Yes my dear, you are getting obsolete, like and old computer or for a comparison why not a mobile. Look around you; the school and college factories are working overnight to produce more and more educated products.

Their efficiency and effectiveness is all together another topic of discussion, but yes they are there to compete with you, at a lower cost; at a lower deployment and maintenance cost. Confused… don’t be, I will explain.

Let’s take an analogy of a mobile or a computer that you have bought, let say, a year back. Aren’t improved models with new features available that cost almost half of what you paid for the machine you own? And may be next week and next month you will have a better version available. And some years from now, you will find it difficult to use the existing machine with the latest technology.

“Come on Sajid, that’s ridiculous! I can still use my old mobile and old computer for the basic tasks such as calling or browsing. Why on earth I need a new machine?”

That’s your part of the story my friend. But let say your operating system vendor stops supporting the old operating system or may be the latest browsers are not backward compatible with your slowly but definitely obsolete becoming machine. Then what would you do? Do you have any choice but to replace your machine, may be now not, but in future. Yes, definitely. And so are we.

Over a period of time, we become obsolete in our knowledge, in our ways of thinking, in our work and moreover in our behavior. Let me elaborate on this. Recently some fresher’s were inducted in our project, here at IBM. They are fresh college pass out, with lots of new ideas, coming from varied culture and backgrounds.

When I look at them, with more than ten years of experience in IT, I feel myself becoming obsolete now. I need a new datacenter, may be a new storage capacity to increase my knowledge and skill sets. These fresher’s are like fresh factory made, customizable robots. You can train them in any new technologies, any new skill sets.

They are more adaptive then any one of us with such vast amount of experience. They are cost effective and more efficient, more proactive and fast learners. Yes they do have constraints, and the biggest of them all is experience. They lack experience and the wisdom that follows.

But no one will prefer buying an old machine at a heavy price tag, which is less productive, un-upgradable, and moreover resistant to change.

“Mr. Sajid, your analogy is imperfect. There is no comparison between machines and humans. They have no feelings, we do, they have no family to feed, and we do. You cannot throw out an employee just because he is old and un-adaptive?”

I am not saying that everything is comparable here. The only point I like to cast is, we and machine both can get obsolete over a period of time and we need to reboot and upgrade ourselves. That’s it.

The business of business is business. You employers are in business to make profit. If you cannot deliver, why would they be worried about you and your family? You are almost a leech, a parasite. Rather then becoming one, why don’t you dwell deep into your senses an idea of upgrading yourself. Becoming an asset to your organization by providing more then they expect from you. Simple, isn’t it.

Let me give you example of a bank I visited last week. I have slowly and gradually severed my relationship with them, and that was the last visit. As soon as you enter their premise, you sense some discomfort even though they have best of false ceilings, cubicles and lightning effects. It’s not the grandeur of their office that attracts me, but the low-lessness of their service that distracts me.

Their employees will always put forth a dictate of their laws, rules and regulations instead of trying to be genuinely interested in your concern. This is a nationalized bank. And not going too far to any private bank, I find a very receiving and comfortable experience whenever I visit SBI branch here in Hyderabad. Both of these banks are nationalized but there is a difference. One is resistant to change and another has changed our perception with their selfless service.

And when we expect that service, why aren’t we ready to provide them to our customer, our colleagues, our employer? And my dear friend, that is very possible if you bring in change in your life. Read more, think even more. Change bit, change good. Live life, love life.

“Sajid, it’s easier said then done. How you suggest that we can have continual improvement possibilities?”

Why not? When seasons are continuously changing, your age is changing you week over week, why can’t you change your mindset. So here I share my idea of a Continuous Knowledge Upgrade philosophy which is synergistic in approach. I feel happy to help people, share knowledge and motivate them. This, sometimes I think, will deprive me of extra know how over other person. And subsequently I will loose my value in the group. But because of loosing value shall I cut down the deep ingrained habits that I have cultivated through years? I feel I must not.

I apply a “Continuous Knowledge Upgrade” approach to this issue. Now what’s that? I keep learning new and varied things which in turn keep me supplied with enough fuel to feed people around. I love to share and feel happy if I see someone improving, growing, and excelling in his endeavors.  Life is more than holding back. I believe if my ideas can get wings with the imagination of other person then its synergy, far more than my energy.

The other approach to this is to observe and align you to successful people and their way of life. Why are they successful, when are you not? And mind you, you won’t have to go far to find that successful person as well as the reason. Look around, look at your manager, your boss. Why are they your boss, instead you being one yourself? What are the best things you can learn and adopt from them? Simple observations will provide you answer.

So with this belief in my heart that we remain upgradable, consistent and adaptive towards change and resourceful towards our endeavors, I close this discussion here, awaiting your ideas. Happy New Knowledge Installation…