Wanted

ACQUIRE A

SECOND STRING

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Never rely on the skills and knowledge

you have. Develop new skills. Acquire new

knowledge

The more options you can offer (in terms of skills,

knowledge and experience) the higher the probability

you will be wanted.

Alexander McCall Smith (already mentioned in Chapter 21) is

not only a best-selling author and great speaker but also an

amateur bassoonist. But his main job has been as a professor of

Medical Law. Benjamin Zander (see Chapter 21 again) started his

life in music but now also lectures as a leadership and

motivational guru. They have both acquired second strings to

their bow.

We all understand the need for

insurance but often neglect this when

it comes to the worst thing that can

happen to us at work – losing our jobs.

Every day there are news reports of

companies scaling back on their

operations and making thousands of

staff redundant. I feel sorry for these people, especially those

who have failed to prepare for this eventuality and don’t have the

insurance of alternative career paths.

When a company’s revenues and profits drop substantially it has

no option but to fire employees. It is a harsh but regrettable fact

of life.

Any employee’s first priority must be to safeguard his future,

protect the welfare of his family and ensure he is well positioned

Remember Baden-

Powell’s famous Boy

Scout motto: ‘Be

prepared’

to seize the first opportunity to regain employment. Apart from

any ‘job-loss’ insurance scheme this priority requires two

further types of insurance. The first is to view the redundancy

positively. Your initial reaction might be, as stated earlier, ‘This

is the worst thing that has happened to me – I’ve lost my job’ but

within 24 hours you should have transformed your thinking

such that: ‘This is the best thing that has happened to me – it

gives me a golden opportunity for a fresh start in my career.’

Positive thinking about setbacks is great insurance against a

desperate future.

The second form of insurance is to acquire a second string to

your bow. Wise people are never complacent, nor do they rely on

a narrow experience and skills base for generating income. To be

prepared for the future it is essential to work hard at developing

a second set of skills so that if you are made redundant you will

have more options. This might mean, for example, gaining

experience in teaching or training in addition to your original

profession. It might mean learning a new language so that you

have more appeal to any employer operating globally. It might

mean doing something completely different, for example

studying alternative medicine in your spare time in order to be

well positioned to make a career of this in the future, should you

so wish.

Furthermore, by acquiring a second string to your bow you will

have more to offer a prospective employer who might want

someone who can devote one day a week to in-house training in

addition to practising their specialism.

Pete Jimenez’s week-day job is as general manager of Optima

Digital in the Philippines. However he has acquired a second

string to his bow. During weekends he roams the junk shops of

Mandaluyong and Quezon City searching for scrap iron, rusty

pipes, nails and any metal parts that set his imagination

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working. He then converts these into metal sculptures. ‘I work

in my garage. I never know what sculptures I’m going to make

because I never know what scrap iron I’m going to find’, he says.

His sculptures have been widely exhibited. ‘If his company ever

puts Pete on the scrap heap,’ commented a fan, ‘he’ll know

exactly what to do.’

People who limit themselves to one professional skill set risk

being categorised as too narrow in outlook. More often

nowadays employers are looking for people who are multiskilled

and thus sufficiently versatile to adapt to changing business

requirements.

PRA C T I CA L TI P S

G

Review the skills, knowledge and experience you require for

your current job and ask yourself: ‘Would I have to rely on

these to get another job?’

G

If the answer is ‘yes’ think seriously about acquiring a second

string to your bow.

G

This can relate to anything that really fascinates you.

G

Then devote time and energy to acquiring this new set

of skills.

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