What to Do After Thirty?
Our company has a new regional manager, looks to be in his forties, not very tall, sturdy build, dressed quite casually. No matter from which angle, he’s an unremarkable passerby on the street. At lunch in the company, the general manager asked about his family situation and learned he has no children. Asked further, he doesn’t even have a wife. Everyone at the table teased him that nights must be lonely, and the whole table laughed. Only he didn’t laugh so casually. He still quietly ate his meal and stopped talking.
After eating, several of us returned to the office together. We waited a long time but the colleague still didn’t come to open the door. Everyone had to sit on the stairs waiting. Another colleague and I were both bored playing with our phones, while this manager pulled out a book with a tattered cover, grayish-white pages, and a cover that had been ravaged beyond recognition. After finding a wall corner to squat down, he read with great interest. I was very curious what kind of book this was. Looking at its printing standards and weathered appearance, it completely met the form a pornographic novel should present. But after staring for a long time, it seemed to be just some martial arts novel I’d never heard of.
The way he squatted reading made me think of an impression that has appeared countless times in my mind: indeed there are such people who squat by the roadside all day with nothing to do, reading books. They look very focused, but actually only because they have nothing to do and no one asks them to do anything. Regardless of the possible situation, or that the book he reads isn’t very refined, or that the way of reading isn’t very civilized, or that he’s a middle-aged bachelor—in short, to me, being in your forties like this isn’t glorious. I even somewhat subjectively think that being in your forties and still working for others is also an embarrassing life. People in their forties should start their own careers. At noon, they should be discussing business with clients, not at this moment squatting in a corner reading martial arts novels with no distracting thoughts.
The ancients had the teachings of “at thirty one stands firm, at forty one is no longer confused.” That’s because ancient people’s lifespans were generally shorter, so “establishing” one’s career had to be earlier. In modern times, everyone lives past seventy or eighty. “Standing firm at forty” is also reasonable. But in the ten years before establishing one’s career, what are we doing? Between twenty and thirty is the learning stage—learning professional skills, accumulating social experience, building social circles. After thirty, knowledge is mostly learned, social experience is there, personal network is basically stable. At this stage, our energy is probably half on career, half on family, initially accumulating the original capital needed for entrepreneurship at forty.
Design is a job that feeds on youth. I don’t believe I’ll still be doing the same thing after thirty. Even if I can, I definitely won’t. Doing the same thing for 10 years is a great misfortune in life, a waste of life. Either change careers or direct others to do it. That’s what I think.