Fortune Magazine published my story about Americans reinventing themselves last week. The genesis of the piece was my realizing that just about everyone I know is sitting in their office—if they even have an office—spending no small part of their day thinking: "How much longer is my job as I currently know it going to last?...And what the blank am I going to do next?" Oh, and I'm not just talking about people in the media business. I'm talking about practically everyone except for tenured professors.
We're living in the "Age of Disruption" — a time when technology has flattened the world, making it easier for new companies to be born, but more difficult for traditional companies to do anything but cut costs and cut jobs. In the Age of Disruption, change has become the only constant: business models are being torn up daily, and the skill-sets required of both workers and managers are in a constant state of redefinition.
I'm not a historian (and I don't play one on TV) but I can't recall reading about another period in history where everyone no matter their occupation, their education or their social status, seemed so uncertain and disconcerted about their job future...a time when everyone deep down was worried that they were, at most, a couple of years away from becoming obsolete.
Curious to know your thoughts. Feel free to comment here or toss me an email.
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