Hanging up..... what???

After working for about 30 years, I was seriously contemplating to call it a day. Neither was I comfortable with the changing corporate environment nor was my organization showing any particular admiration for my skills and experience.

I was thinking as to what would be the right timing, how I will keep myself busy once I quit and how will I present this decision to my family and friends.

I very distinctly remember and cherish those childhood memories of the momentous event of Mohammad Ali’s retirement. The King hangs up his gloves – screamed the newspaper headings. Or for that matter, when the football legend Pele announced his retirement, it was his boots that were supposed to have been hung.

Having worked in the IT industry for the last 18 years, I failed to figure out as to what will I finally be ‘hanging’. A keyboard or mouse didn’t make much sense as there was no symbolism associated with these – unlike the boots and the gloves.

As I was recollecting all my childhood dreams of a career, I remembered my first impression and fascination for the armed forces.  If I had joined the army, I would have proclaimed hanging up my uniform. The other fascination that I had was for cartooning. In that case, I would have announced hanging up of my pen or my brush. Another dream profession for me was that of a Doctor. It is another matter that the doctors never retire, but for the sake of records, I would have at least hung up my stethoscope.

I began my pursuit by jotting down the various roles played by me in the last 20 years. I did a bit of database administration, some software programming, some product SME and a lot of program management, people management and delivery management. All this while, I neither used any particular prop nor wore a specific attire – not even a symbolic one.

Finally, I could zero-in on one particular aid that I used all these 20 years doing grey and white collared jobs. The one key tool that I used while writing my code; designing a solution; shaping a product; interacting with my teams and my clients was perhaps my brain. And therefore, will it be appropriate if I announce to my friends that I would be hanging up my brains? But post that, my close friends and family will surely be in trouble – managing a brain-less creature around for rest of his life.