I've been working for 37 years and I'm still thinking about deferring my retirement!
I was surprised to see that TSMC's first-year turnover rate is 17.6%. What about other companies? In Taiwan, with less than 4,000 master's and PhD graduates from electronic and electrical engineering programs a year, we need to work hard to plug the loss of manpower and find reasons to make everyone in the industry love it!
One day I asked myself whether DIGITIMES is in the media industry or the electronics industry. After I seriously thought about my position, I saw a vast business opportunity and my life was rejuvenated. I started to write "Ten Reasons Why I Love Electronics Industry." I hope that everyone will manage their with passion, and I'm sure I can deliver a good talk if I'm asked to give a lecture on the topic of loving your work.
I often ask myself: If I were not in a business related to the electronics industry, what kind of person would I be today? If I were a civil servant, routine work would be part and parcel of my life, or I would have to pay lip service once in a while? If I worked for a family-own business, would I be a "partner" or a "vassal"?
There are a lot of choices in life, and if you are a top player, then you will have a lot of options. If you are not a top player, it'd still be okay: just stay low and hope opportunities will come your way tomorrow. If you are not qualified but complain a lot, why should the boss choose you when there are so many others available?
The CEO of Business Weekly says she promotes the "willing," not the "able," and I totally agree. These days, we need people who are willing to work hard and not afraid to make mistakes, not people who think they are "competent." I've seen a lot of smart people in this industry. I think I'm not as skilled as others, but I always try to use my knowledge and expertise to seize the high ground in the field I'm good at, so that companies or the markets have to rely on me and listen to me.
Know your capabilities, your situations, choose the best strategies, and leave the rest to God! No one was born a master; keep the fun of learning; don't be a follower; don't flatter others hypocritically; do earnestly praise the really excellent people and learn from them: These are ways to elevate your tastes and accumulate your joy in life.
I like my three former bosses, all of whom have a lot of merits. Without them, I wouldn't be standing at this height.
The greatest joy of this industry is that you don't really have to deal with the uninitiated. I've been meeting the best and brightest, and we can talk about everything from products and technology to the market. In conversations like these, you can talk generally or go deep. There aren't too many industry sectors in Taiwan where you can find yourself in such an enlightening environment.
I always say that if you want to excel, it is better to spend 80% of your time in your field of concentration, so that you are more likely to stand out from the crowd; don't expect opportunities to fall from the sky. If a person does not respect his or her own nature and core values, it is very difficult for that person to achieve a high level of success.
