FORUM
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Pondering the 21st century
Nigel Alston
Motivational
Moments
! " What you see is limited by how
ftp you look."
J ' Unknown
?
i I can't believe how quickly the
time has flown.
J It has been 25 years since 1 grad
uated from college. That year
marked one of the darkest in the
iiation's history, not because I gradu
$ed of course. That fateful year.
Urged by his own party to give up the
ghost, Richard Nixon became the
first president to resign from office,
i It was also a year of highs The
Chronicle published its first edition
Aid began a legacy that reverberates
through the community.
| What a difference two decades
ofm make.
i But you don't have to live a score
tt> prove that times do change.
| A mere five years, half a decade,
can make a world of difference.
1 Do you remember the year 1994?
J * i > i ? ?? -?
, /v ioi nas cnangeo since men.
An act of terrorism claimed the
Be of a spectator during the 19%
Olympic games in Atlanta. Sextu
jtlets were born to a black family in
Washington, D.C. We lost two more
Kennedys.
And Michael Jackson is still
searching for the answer to the musi
cal question about whether he's
black or white. A million black men
gathered for a peaceful show of unity
in Washington, D.C.
The Republican Party signed a
very short-term contract with Amer
ica Community, social and national
leaders have come and gone.
The five years have made a differ
ence not only in the life of the nation,
but in mine as well.
I now write a weekly column and
host a weekly radio talk show.
How I communicate with my
friends, family and co-workers has
changed as well.
I finally have a grasp of technol
ogy
I have e-mail and voice mail.
Everyone has a cell phone in his or
her car.
We've finally proven that you
can't escape technology, and it
changes every day.
TTiinking back on the numerous
changes five years have wrought, I
can't help but wonder what the world
will be like in the year 2004?
Are you confident about the new
millennium?
Let's assume we have navigated
successfully the Y2K scare and chal
lenge.
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have that could prepare people for
the 21st century?
Fast Company Magazine recent
ly asked 21 "thought leaders" for
their ideas to prepare people for the
new millennium.
I completed my survey of local
"thought leaders" on the issue as
well. Their thoughts range from hav
ing "people fests" to "you can't take
it with you."
"I would offer three words of
advice," said a friend.
A former college professor, he is
now a black mountain man and
believes in shaking things up a bin
"It is what Frederick Douglass
admonished people to do at the end
of the 19th century: agitate, agitate,
agitate," he said wryly.
Said another friend, "My. one
good idea is an old one: You can't
take it with you."
He believes material wealth is a
false god and that the best things in
life, while not free, aren't found in a
discount store.
"Learn to love, and if there's a
heaven, you're there."
Peter Drucker, a celebrated busi
ness thinker and author of more
than 30 books, thinks that for the
first time in human history, people
can expect to outlive the organiza
tions they work for. >
Living longer allows us to work
more years, and we risk becoming
"too good" at what we do.
He suggests we find new ways to
manage the "second half" of our
work lives. That could mean retrain
ing , developing a "parallel career" or
doing the same job in a different set
ting.
But that's not all. Within the next
year, experts believe scientists will
have sequenced the complete 80,000
genes that make each one of us an
inHiviHnal
Researchers think they have iso
lated three genes that cause colon
cancer. In a few years, tests will be
available to determine the risks of
getting the disease . People will then
be tested earlier in life and often to
screen for the disease.
Specialized foods will be one of
the biggest growth markets of the
future.
Medicine and agriculture will
join together to give people the kinds
of foods that their specific genetic
codes call for.
People will be living longer and
that changes the demographics,
according to Laura D'andrea Tyson,
dean of the Walter Haas School of
Business at the University of Califor
nia-Berkeley. People will retire later,
Internet usage will increase among
older .people and lifetime learning
will become more important.
One group that can expect to be
most affected by long life spans -
children.
"Many of them can expect to live
to age 90 or mote," Tyson said. "So
one task for the 21st century will be
to get our early-education systems
right, in order to give our children a
foundation for lifelong learning."
A. former co-worker suggests we
hold quarterly "people fests," in the
next century.
"People need to learn to trust
and believe in themselves. We need to
reflect on what we actually do bring
to the table and alleviate the feeling
that we must stay tethered to a job or
a lifestyle," she said.
She is an outplacement coun
selor and sees this firsthand. She
understands what Drucker means to
leam to manage the "second half" of
a career.
We stay in a job too long, rot
away, and things begin to turn gray.
Your confidence erodes and you
question whether or not you really
are any good. That is where the
"people fest" comes in. You gather
friends and acquaintances and rein
force the qualities of those around
you.
"We would get back to the belief
we had in ourselves as children," she
said. "I am unique, I am important,
and wherever I go 1 bring gifts."
I also consulted a futurist to get
his idea for the new millennium.
"Seek the thing that is seeking
you...," he said.
" Five years from now, when you
look back at 1999, what will you say
about it?
Nigel Alston is an executive with
Integon Insurance and can he reached
at P.O. Box 722, Winston-Salem,
N.C. 27102 or e-mailed at nal
ston237@aol.com
Making choices: work or family
Darjrl and
Estralctta
Green
Family
Visi.on
The phone rings.
"OK, Honey, I'll be home by
5 p.m. - after I finish a deadline
fpr my supervisor...uhm, huh,
I'll go by tne day care and pick
the kids up and start cooking
dinner. You can come by after
your meeting with the Salvation
Army...I know. Honey, but can't
someone else do it? You are
always so community-minded.
Never mind we'll talk about it
later.
"Take Nicole to soccer prac
tice. I have choir practice at 6
p.m. and I'll pick up your dry
Cleaning when I'm
finished....Practice starts at 5:15
and you know how upset the
coaches get when she's late.
' "You need to drop Mario ofT
at football practice by 6 p.m....I
told his coach we need to leave
by 7:30 because Mario has a lot
of'homework. The coach didn't
seem to understand why we are
always late. I mean, we have to
travel 30 miles between prac
tices.
"Oh well, I don't want you
and Mario to stay, up until mid
night doing social studies
I ecause we need to discuss
] iewayne's birthday party right
i fter I finish balancing our
I ooks."
How do you balance work
< nd family?
Probably with difficulty. The
I ressing urgency of our lives has
1 >rced us to realize that our fam
i ies need help. America is being
< estroyed from the inside. Peo
I le are getting downsized. Chil
c ren are running wild. Churches
i re missing out on their respon
s bility to help. The govern
i lent's trying to regulate morali
ry. Ana, mere are parents more
selfish than their children.
If our country is to,, be
healed, we need to fix the prob
lem at the very core...the family.
It won't be done by the govern
ment or private industry alone.
The problem is a moral and spir
itual one.
There is a war raging in the
minds of workers - what is more
important, work or family?
In most companies, loyaity
only goes one way. This is evi
dent in the first comprehensive
study of work-sponsored pro
grams, which recently reported
that many companies lack basic
family policies, don't make real
efforts to inform workers of
available help, and fcil to hold
managers accountable for sensi
tivity to family needs. Only nine
percent of companies surveyed
offer child care at or near the
workplace, while just 33 percent
offer maternity leave of more
than 13 week& When tim6s get
hard fof most businesses,
employees realize that the CEO
looks at their paychecks as a
way of cutting costs.
Most businesses don't value
employees; it's a fatal mistake by
management. Employee revenge
comes in many different ways.
Some employers are losing mil
lions of dollars from unplanned
absences, which have reached
their highest levels in the past 11
years. Family issues are the
most often cited reason for
employee absenteeism.
So, what steps can we take to
help manage family priorities?
First, we must recognize that
there are no perfect families.
Life is about making choices.
Unlike companies, many
families constantly struggle to
make group decisions without a
clear method for reaching their
goals. Here are some areas that
we are going to focus on in
future columns:
? Completing a family self
assessment.
^ Identifying a family model.
? Setting priorities.
? Writing a family mission
statement.
? Developing family goals.
? Developing a family plan.
?, Reviewing your family
progress.
After many scheduled con
flicts and misunderstandings,
our family came to the conclu
sion that we could not continue
to segment our life as if the
other parts did not exist.
You may find this strange,
but when you are managing
your time, you probably don't
think about how your church
involvement relates to your time
with your family or how your
work schedule conflicts with the
time with your husband. No, we
try to give 100 percent to all that
we do, and while some actually
manage this for a while, they
soon become burnt-out or frus
trated with the situation.
Remember: The home is the
basic foundation for our society
and strong communities are
built by strong families.
Daryl and Estraletta Green,
" thirty somethings" with chil
dren, are national speakers and
family advisers, They apply a
logical family process sprinkled
with common sense and spiritu
ality. Daryl is the author of the
book "My Cup Runneth Over:
Setting Goals for Single Parents
and Working Couples." If you
have any questions, please write:
P. O. Box 32733, Knoxville,
Tenn. 37930 or visit them at
HH'H'. afamilyvision. com.
^ ?* File photo
Families have ta make an effort to spend time together.
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Have you realized the power
of your money ? Are others depending on
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you to build the future? Are y<5u confident that you've got
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the right tools? We are here. To show you how to make
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the most of your money today and to help you plan for
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tomorrow. Because the future is closer than you think.
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