Recently an ICICI Prudential advertisement on the television caught my eye. The ad showcases RETIREMENT as the WORLD’s BEST JOB. Well, they may be doing the right thing as far as selling their product is concerned, but what caught my eye was not that they made a good ad, instead I was wondering whether we should follow that principle in life ?
Let’s have a look at the ad first (just a 58 second clip) and then discuss.
The ad showcases a person dreaming about ‘doing what he loves and getting paid for it’, but, POST RETIREMENT. If you see the other way round, it means that the person does not love what he does presently. He dreams of a hundred things that he plans to do after retiring from his current job. Is that what you also plan to do ? Some 2-3 years back there was an AVIVA ad, featuring Sachin Tendulkar, and it correctly mentioned “Why wait till 60 candles on the birthday cake to do what you love/want to do!” Why is it that we are afraid to do what we want to do, currently ? You may think that I am being over optimistic in saying that if you really love to do something, you will definitely find time for doing that and that too without incurring monetary losses, but it’s not like that. In fact at the end of the day, you may be earning your entire living out of it. I personally know a few people who did exactly that! A technologist turning a pro-photographer is just one of them to be named.
There is one more way and that is that you may not have to quit what you are currently doing and still do what you love. But frankly speaking, not many of us can do that, at least difficult to do for a long period. We may pursue for a short period and then we think and believe that “I will do this and that when I move out of job”, and then wait till we grow old enough to get surrounded by complacency and diseases. What happens next is something which I don’t need to say. All of us have seen our grandparents or parents, how they think when they reach that phase of life. They want to relax, free from all responsibilities and honestly they should be doing that having worked for so many years. After all everyone wants to ease out. And then later on all they have is stories to share with their grandchildren, “I would have done this, would have done that ….. with lots of “If’s and But’s ” !”. I feel that I’d rather tell my grandchildren, “I did this and I did that … ” without any IF’s and BUT’s and in the process also inspire them to follow their dreams and do what they love to do.
I am not sure but there will definitely be some of you who do not agree with me and the comments section is especially for those people, apart from those who agree. Do let me know what your thoughts are, would love to have an exchange of thoughts.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Abhinav,
I agree with you to a greater extent. However again it depends on individual to individual and their dreams.
Hi Hema,
True, it depends from individual to individual but still dreams should be there.
Thanks for dropping
I would encourage to do what you love to do, we call this the 20/40/60 principle.At 20 you worry about what people think about you, 40 you dont care what people think about you. At 60 you realize people were never botherd about you. First of all love your ‘Life’ The moment you are out of college..there are so many things to learn ..what you love and dont..whats your talent and abilities..your commitments and where do you fit in..Its philosophical to say DO what you LOVE.
It might not be possible most of your lifetime..yet consider your likings and identify your dislikes.
Save for the future.. I know this sounds cheesy..Above all it is we who decide whether to retire or not..
One should not wait for retirement to do what you like to or love to..Dont let the mind get trapped for retirement…
Focus and plan on what you like and start it parallely and once you are comfortable, get into it completely..Focus on how to generate income going forward(this is very important)
Indeed Kavitha. That’s the best approach you just mentioned “Start Parallely and once you are comfortable, get into it completely”, but alas a majority of the people are not able to do it!
20/40/60 principle sounds interesting, I never knew about that and would say that people should believe the “60″ principle from Day1. Apart from a closed set of people, nobody has to be bothered about. The sooner we realize this, the better for us
Thanks for your wonderful comment