My friend A started work as a telephone technician in his early 20s. He was straight out of NS and he stayed on the job, receiving numerous awards and promotions until he reached a ripe old age of 50 when his company decided to retrench him.
Distraught, A desperately hunted for a job. His ex-colleagues informed him that his former employer was outsourcing certain services to a smaller company. He went to work for that smaller company, doing essentially the same work for about half his former pay. What’s more, it was all on a contract basis. He managed to renew his one-year contract for 5 years. At the end of it, he was told that they didn’t need him anymore.
Desperate again, A took up a part-time job with an even smaller company. Young technicians didn’t like to work on weekends. His hours were all on weekends. The pay was downright insulting. But what to do? A kept telling me that 做生不如做熟. Familiarity bound him to familiar jobs that were paying less and less. Then, with so much time on his hands on weekdays, A decided to go for training to be a tour guide. He was just killing time, but after his passed out, he was surprised that he actually received calls from tour agencies with assignments for him.
A was in a dilemma. Most of the assignments were on weekends when he had to work. What to do? 做生不如做熟? I talked to him and advised him to quit his 30-year-old career as a telephone technician. Go full time into tourism. With much trepidation, he did that and regretted it during the first 3 months. There were jobs, but not too many. Only one travel agency was calling him, but as time went by, more and more travel agencies called him up. Soon, he almost had a job every single day.
A writer like me, A is also a good presenter and storyteller. He is effectively bilingual in English and Mandarin, speaks good Cantonese and has a strong interest in learning Thai and Indonesian. Soon, he was also building contacts with vendors at Clarke Quay and a few other places. He was sending customers to more and more places and earning more and more commissions. And he was only on the job for a year when his income was at least equal and sometimes exceeding his income before he was considered too expensive and retrenched by the giant telco. Most importantly, his new job was virtually stress free compared to all the messy troubleshooting and tight deadlines in his previous job.
Looking back, A would kick himself for not changing line the moment was retrenched. The 做生不如做熟 thing bound him to a fixed mindset that he could only be successful as a telephone technician. Even though I was the one who advised A to bite the bullet and venture into uncharted waters, there are times I have to remind myself that dentistry is not only the way to go for me. As time passes, the profession faces more and more regulations, challenges, competition, rising operating costs, manpower issues, along with increasing public awareness and perceptions of profiteering. If the going gets too tough, then maybe it’s time to let go and choose a different path. Nothing is more valuable than health. 做生不如做熟? Not always.
