Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Expiry Tag


Everything has a shelf-life.

Once you cross the expiry date, decay sets in and takes control. Oh, you can still use it but the results can range from the ridiculous to the fatal. This applies to a bald head of a person or the bold Head of an organization. The legal term for human functional expiry date is called superannuation. The reason is plain: senility takes complete control in the form of gluttonous greed, pompous pride and unconcerned unilateralism which inevitably spawns sick sycophants. This is the perfect breeding ground for hypocrisy. An envelope of smiling yes-men and tale-bearers adds the final complement in the recipe for disaster.

Governments all over the world are not fools to have a retirement scheme. Not just governments but even founders of multinational corporates chose, deliberately, to retire ahead of their time. Take Bill Gates or Michael Dell as examples. They somehow understood what most Christians are obtuse to understand: New wine cannot be put in old wine-skins.

If you really want positive progress, and a continuation of what you have built, you will always need to check - whats your expiry date? When have you stopped bearing fruit? When should you handover? Shucks! have you prepared any one of calibre to handover? Or can you invite anyone of calibre to take over? Questions can nag like rhetoric but at some point you have to get out of the way before you destroy your own labour.

So dont forget looking at your own expiry tag.

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