Several decades ago, the world's knowledge base doubled every 4 years. Now I think knowledge doubles weekly or faster. What has this got to do with you? It means you have to keep learning new things to make yourself more valuable. You can't stop. You need to keep reinventing yourself. Each day you need to become "the new you".
If you go back 50-60 years, the norm was to find a quality company and a quality job. The perception was that the company would take good care of you if you put in a dedicated effort. If a person changed jobs 2-3 times in a lifetime, that was a lot. Today people are changing jobs 10-12 times during their career.
The competitive global marketplace doesn't allow companies to "screw" around. If someone has marginal performance or if their job skill becomes obsolete, that person is replaced. Sometimes it isn't anyone's fault.
Shelby Jr. for example has training and job skills to transcribe doctors verbal medical information about different patients into printable form. Guess what? Now they are developing voice activated transcription software so that they don't need a person to bridge the gap from voice to written form. Apparently the software isn't perfect yet so there is a requirement to proof read the doctors information. Suddenly the skill of her job is being transformed significantly. So what does Shelby Jr. have to do? She needs to reinvent herself into a new person (and she is keenly aware) with new skills. So now she can go back to school and become the neurosurgeon she has always wanted to be.
Becoming the "new you" is a continual process. It takes a mindset that says I'm going to keep going to school to get more knowledge and develop more skills. Then the world becomes an opportunity rather than a steady flow of disappointments because your job is being eliminated.
I used Shelby Jr. to make my point of becoming a "new you". No one escapes my premise. It applies to all the Grasshoppers and your families. It includes your Mom. It includes me.
I guarantee the world is going to change (faster and faster). Embrace it. You'll like the new you.
Love,
Dad