Clearly Connecting the Aughts

Now that the aughts (plural form of ought) are over – the urban dictionary cites ‘aughts’ as the decade between 2000-2009 – we step into a new decade of decadence. In fact, our calendar is segmented into another aughts, which spanned 1900-1909. The last ten years ended on a low note, what with an inevitable global recession, high unemployment, rogue traders, rodent CEOs, and a displaced sports hero called Tiger. Corporate and moral compasses were spinning madly away, although we cannot place the golfing iconoclast as a beacon of morality or ethics. Journalists and morality pundits seem eager to connect the dots, albeit with inaccurate linkages.

Yet, the immediate future looks brighter even after the excessive fireworks displays have fizzled into toxic ash. No major skirmish was experienced in each New Year countdown. There were many major lessons to be learnt, and hopefully, not repeated. History has a perverse way of playing back episodes like reruns of bad comedies and Shakespearean tragedies.

Asians believe that every decade determines a crucial stage of personal development. With each decade comes a sense of mental and physical development. Wisdom is supposedly accumulated with each decade, as our greying or thinning hairline will have us console ourselves, successfully or otherwise. In our first decade, we experienced spurious and unbridled growth. Our pubertal years were marked with quiet or disquiet rebellion. Our twenties saw us saddle up with work/life imbalance as we jockeyed for a vantage point in society while we established our careers and our amorphous adult identity. Our thirties are marked by battle-scars of physical and psychological wear and tear, as our bodies indicate a need for moderation and maturation. Our forties – the onset of mid-life crisis – is the make or break point, where we are expected to settle down or face social repercussions from our transgressions; and our bodies are screaming for a hiatus, while we absent-mindedly settle into our comforts. Our fifties…you get the picture. I’ll tell you all about it when I get there; until we reach the bridge, as the Chinese would say.

What has the last decade taught you? What did you clearly learn in your ten years of employment? How has your leadership style and approach changed in the aughts? Is it still rock and roll, or a rolling stone gathers no moss, or let the good times roll?