Experience is their main asset

The Collins English Dictionary defines the word “asset” as “anything valuable or useful”, and then gives an example of its usage: “experience is their main asset”. That little sentence neatly sums up what I’m going to write about this week. It reminds all of us who work in business that our world is not just being driven by so-called innovation, or by revolutionary technology or by artificial intelligence.

Of course, all these buzzwords refer to real things that are happening in today’s world and have to be acknowledged and welcomed by all of us. We’re all dependent on these dynamic developments, at the very latest when we go into a hospital for an investigation or a procedure, where technology plays an ever more vital rôle. But technology alone is not the solution.

I would argue that experience is just as important in providing a diagnosis to a problem as any piece of equipment. “Experience” is, as the good dictionary rightly claims, an “asset” and it is not restricted to any one time or place, or ceases at any given time.course, all these buzzwords refer to real things that are happening in today’s world and have to be acknowledged and welcomed by all of us.

We’re all dependent on these dynamic developments, at the very latest when we go into a hospital for an investigation or a procedure, where technology plays an ever more vital rôle. But technology alone is not the solution. I would argue that experience is just as important in providing a diagnosis to a problem as any piece of equipment.

“Experience” is, as the good dictionary rightly claims, an “asset” and it is not restricted to any one time or place, or ceases at any given time.

Experience matters

A friend of mine recently retired just before he turned 70, after working all his life captaining vessels all over the world, most recently for a multi-national commercial organisation. He explained why he had chosen to carry on working full-time beyond his 65th birthday: “My company had many orders and needed individuals with my knowledge and my maritime experience to command one of their vessels. I enjoyed helping the company out, making a contribution, and keeping my mind and my body as active as possible.”

I see so many older people in our community doing things that are “valuable” and “useful”, either doing paid work or working for charities on a voluntary basis. Individuals of all ages can be assets for the community, and economy.

An article by Vivien Hacker Waine for the Lancaster & Morecambe Guardian.

Posted: 28th February 2019