Being Unemployed
During the forty-eight years since I graduated from business school, I have rarely been without work. In fact, I was always a man in a hurry for some reason, so rather than take off some time between school and work, I finished my 3-credit summer school class needed to finish off my MBA degree on a Friday in June, 1976 and started at Bankers Trust on the following Monday. It’s interesting to note that while I started as an MBA degree holder in June, I technically have a COrnell MBA diploma that is dated August of that year. I was scheduled to end my days at Bankers Trust in 1999 as a retiring member of its Management Committee, after our firm was acquired by Deutsche Bank, but circumstances compelled me to stay on with Deutsche Bank in the role of Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Asset Management for what amounted to an additional 18 months. In fact, I started working at my newly established venture capital firm while I was on payroll with Deutsche Bank as a consultant, so I literally didn’t take one day off in between. Two years later I went from there directly to Bear Stearns to assume the role of Chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns Asset Management until that came to an abrupt halt four years later.
Even when I had literally and figuratively hit the Wall Street wall in 2007, I signed on as a consultant for a hefty monthly fee for a year and walked directly from that job into an early December position as Chairman and CEO of Africa Israel USA for the next two years to the day. I do recall a few weeks that December when I was at loose ends, but I very quickly signed on as President and eventually CEO of The New York Wheel and for a while over the next year did both that and acted as President of a start-up hedge fund called Ironwood Global. Throughout those years I was also on payroll at Cornell, part-time, and teaching at the business school. My term at NYW ended pretty much at the same time that I began as CEO of LERC, an ammonia/hydrogen synthesizing start-up, where I worked until I transitioned out here to “retire”. While out here on this hilltop and sorting out my retirement ideas, I took on both my role teaching at the University of San Diego and as an expert witness at SEDA. My tenure at USD ended by my choice last year about this time, after three years, so I probably have to say that I have now retired from teaching, but I am more active than ever as an expert witness at SEDA.
As the world ages and as people contemplate the financial and psychological dynamics of retirement more and more, I think I am more rather than less normal in not actually retiring, but rather just slowing down gradually. Indeed, the nature of the expert witness work that I do is directly relevant to what I have done professionally since 1976, so it is fair to say that I really haven’t changed careers so much as taken on a position that is both more flexible (not unlike almost all jobs since COVID) and requires less than a full-time commitment. The truth of the matter is that my expert witness work is sometimes full-time and sometimes not, depending on the flow of business and the work requirements of the moment. I still have calls on my time and still think to keep my mornings more free than not, given the time zone I live in. Hell, I even have an upcoming “business trip” for SEDA to attend a function in New York City, so I must still be employed.
Next to my desk I keep a little sticky note that lists the eight cases which are technically ongoing for which I serve as an expert witness. One has gone through the testimony process and may or may not require more of my time as it formally wraps up. Four of them have gone through the report-writing and deposition process and may or may not settle, but might still require testimony at trial. Those deposition have all happened over the last eighteen months and it is anyone’s guess when or whether they will be resurrected to the point of needing more involvement from me. The other three cases are on the hoof in that I have been engaged to work on them and they are in the discovery gathering process, so I have yet to bill even one hour on any of them, but they can ignite with a flourish at any moment.
The timing of my last deposition was such that it was perfectly aligned with my departure to SE Asia, and in March, I actually had minor wrap-up work on the two most recent depositions by virtue of reviewing and signing the transcripts and noting the errata involved in the transcription. That means that I am currently nine days into the first month in two and a half years when I have not yet billed one moment of time for work on a case, even though I have these three pending initiation. I have received word on two of them that they are on the docket and that I will be notified when information is available for review, so I am literally standing ready to start whenever they shoot off the gun. It feels like a strange place to be.
While I am technically retired, I have not felt totally retired yet. When asked I say say I am sort of retired, but that I am still working doing this and that. I do not mind being occasionally underemployed, but I don’t really like being unemployed. I am staring at my business card stand, something that used to sit on my desk back in the days of having an office outside of my home. It faced outward towards whomever would come to my office to talk with me. It now sits facing me, I suppose to remind myself that I am still employed and still of value to someone for something. It says that I am a Managing Director of SEDA Experts, even though all that I manage is my own work load when there is work to do. I much prefer doing the professional work of an expert witness to being responsible for the business of being an expert witness. I am happy to pay my SEDA partners out of my billings to handle the business end of things since that is the part I least like. I don’t mind flying to NYC to attend a function that is really a client relationship management activity, but that is mostly because it happens only rarely. I spent a lifetime of selling, both my services and myself and I would rather not do too much of that any more. I see the old moves come out when I get interviewed for a new case. I can’t help myself but be in selling mode, and I guess I do it well enough to be one of SEDA’s leading and most prolific experts, but I will admit that it gets less and less interesting for me to do it.
I do not know when I will be called on to get back into harness, but I know that this old plow horse does not like languishing around the pasture for too long without an active gig to occupy my daily mindshare. I have to admit at the moment to being unemployed and maybe that’s the first step towards being really retired. I think when anyone asks I will now say that I retired at 70, but take on an occasional gig as an expert (since I no longer want to say that I teach). I note than a ex-partner of mine has decided to become a motivational speaker on the specific topic of happiness. If I were asked to guest lecture in a course he was giving on happiness, I would probably only need a few sentences. It would be to prioritize your important relationships and stay at work for as long as you can. In other words, being unemployed sucks, despite what any retired person might try to tell you.