What is on your professional ‘bucket list?’
TLT Sounding Board June 2013
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What do STLE members want to accomplish in their professions before they retire? The list includes such items as obtaining an STLE certification, owning a business, completing important research projects, obtaining a patent and becoming a top sales representative. On their personal bucket lists, travel was the No. 1 answer, with Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and Africa cited most frequently. TLT readers also demonstrated a bit of taste for life on the wild side. Kayaking, barrel racing and skydiving were mentioned more than once. One intrepid reader even said he wanted to go cage diving with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa.
Be influential in bringing integrity back into our lubricant marketing industry. Exaggerated and unsubstantiated performance claims, disregard for grease applications and compatibility and commingling of branded products sold in bulk to unsuspecting consumers are far too common.
Update my tribology short courses before having someone take over my consultancy business.
STLE is serving a lot of people, including me, even though I am not a member. I will look into becoming a member.
Complete all of my open projects.
Meet the objectives of my research work. Develop my technical consultancy activities. Evolve my visiting research roles within the universities I am associated with.
Our sales are currently at $45 million. Our goal is $100 million in sales within 15 years. Sustainable 8% growth in sales and profits.
I am already semi-retired at 69 but still take on the odd contract job from reputation referrals. It would be nice to see a lube program with documented improvements survive after I am not there to supervise it.
Teach at a university.
To be a member of the board of directors of my company.
I have pretty much done everything I have set out to do and only have a couple of years to retirement.
Get patents on my ideas for resolving some lubricant and fuel issues and publish a book explaining my understanding of lubricant technology.
Be No. 1 in sales for the company.
Expand my knowledge in CVL lubricants and apply for an expanded role with my current company.
Open one more distributorship satellite.
Contribute to science and technology and develop unique technologies that can be licensed and commercialized and help mankind by producing renewable fuel at a lower cost, which is more sustainable.
Survive until retirement.
I would like to develop new lubricants for transportation and industry.
Run my own company!
Become a respected public speaker with no fear of public speaking.
Invent new lubrication/tribology technology and statistical techniques.
I’m already retired but still would like to see a good computer program for calculating blends that would save lots of time and expense.
Work on a U.S. Presidential Scientific Advisory Panel.
Increase and maximize sales revenue of industrial lubricants.
Contribute to the framework and reality of industrial excellence in my country. Educate customers about current technology of oils. Continue to recommend correct oil and grease application.
More education in my field. More or updated certifications.
Make sure that all oil analysis instrumentation is quantitative and handheld or online if needed.
Undecided, even at mid-career.
(1.) Make a significant contribution to the financial success of my company. (2.) Be recognized as an expert in my field (additives for metalworking fluids).
Build a new blending plant with updated facilities.
I want to be considered at the top of my subspecialty in tribology.
Become the wholesale director.
Writing a doctoral thesis.
Reach age 67.
While I have accomplished much of what I set out to do and some things I never expected, I still would like to give back to the tribology community by writing a practical textbook that would make tribology more of a mainstream topic in science and engineering.
Fully modernize my plant’s PdM activities.
I’d like to be more involved in PCMO category development and have input in the category parameters.
Be part owner in a highly successful sustainable organization and serve on multiple board of directors for several other organizations.
Start my own company for mobile basic oil analysis and filtering.
Get STLE certification.
Recertify my CLS certification with STLE. Being a member of local advisory councils, help promote internships for young careers in our company.
I am currently on the verge of retiring, but I did have several goals that I wanted to achieve during my career. (1.) Obtain a patent. Currently have two with another one pending. (2.) Receive the Presidents Award (highest level of company recognition) for a significant contribution toward the future success of the company. Received the award in 1992 for a technology that the company holds as a trade secret. (3.) Become president of a technical society. Achieved this goal when I became the president of a technical society. The society was the STLE.
Reduce the amount of negativity in the work place. Be a more positive role model.
Teach at a university after my industrial experience is over.
I would like to insure that my acquired knowledge over 30 years is being shared and passed along to others entering our industry.
Grow my division to one million gallons sold annually.
Identify the ultimate biodegradable and renewable surfactant.
Grow my company to $10-plus million/ year sales.
Earn six figures. Become a successful well-liked manager and mentor for my employees.
I would like to run a field test in Bali. There are two U.S. states I have not been to for business reasons.
Continue education, possibly obtain another degree. Focus more on reliability as a whole rather than just the condition monitoring aspect of RCM. This job is a means of providing for my family, my optimal profession with my most earnings potential lies in the following question.
Would like to qualify as a Certified Lubrication Specialist.
Be a vice president or president of a company.
I would like to start my own company.
Increase the size of our global business by at least 10 times.
Be one of 10 top professionals in my area of expertise. Develop technical tools and implement ideas that benefit the bearing and lubrication community.
Complete my CLS certification.
I’ll be retired by the time this article comes out, so no time left for a bucket list! But I still intend to remain active in STLE!
(1.) Experience management. (2.) Five more papers published in international journals. (3.) New oil requirement successfully implemented.
I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to do many different and interesting things in my career. I just want to continue being productive and learning.
Get people to understand the importance of quality—achieving it, monitoring it, maintaining it! To get people to understand if they do the simple basic things, the larger problems don’t happen.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being extremely fulfilling and 1 being not at all fulfilling, how fulfilling do you find your career?
10 (extremely fulfilling)
15%
9
24%
8
26%
7
18%
6
11%
5
0%
4
2%
3
1%
2
2%
1 (not at all fulfilling)
1%
Based on results from some 13,000 TLT readers. Total exceeds 100% as some readers chose more than one answer.
What is on your personal bucket list?
Balance my passion for business with my desire to become a better husband, father and employer.
Spend three months traveling through France, Italy and Scotland.
Catch peacock bass in Brazil, salmon in Oregon, arctic char in Alaska.
Learn foreign languages.
Go on a cruise.
Travel to the basilica in Mexico, as well as visit Japan. Watch my kids graduate.
See my children develop, be happy and set the platforms for their future development.
Travel worldwide.
I would like to spend time giving to the community, concentrating on direct services to reduce hunger and provide comfort to people with AIDS and other difficult diseases.
Become more of a strategic thinker rather than an operator. My strength is operations management. I aspire to become more of a coach and to develop a team of operators.
Visit New Zealand.
One of my top items is going to be done after I retire from my science career and that is work for Disney. It is my choice, and finally I get to pick the company I have always wanted to work for.
Get in shape.
Go camping in the Chicago Basin in the Rocky Mountains.
Visit Alaska and Hawaii.
Win the lottery.
Pay off my mortgage. Take care of my kids’ college education and help them settle in their lives. Keep my wife happy!
Be a better teacher/presenter. Better husband & father.
Travel more.
Fly a plane. Visit Antarctica. Travel the globe. Race car driver extraordinaire! Learn to relax! Build a house. Crazy as it sounds but how rewarding upon completion.
I’ve done so many things but would like to travel the U.S. visiting the many natural wonders of this country.
Visit Paris, Jerusalem, Turkey, Rome, Africa.
Anything and everything.
(1.) Spend a lot of time with my wife and grandkids. (2.) Hike and bike in some beautiful places. (3.) Make some unique furniture for family members.
Take a trip to Asia.
Get my kids through college. Golf.
Catch a 100 lb. Halibut from my kayak.
I would love to travel with my grandchildren (should I be fortunate enough to have any). I believe that travel opens the mind and that traveling with children changes one’s perspective.
Make a tour and visit old castles and churches in England.
World tour via motorcycle.
Run a marathon.
Promote desire and motivation in people to improve themselves and those around them.
Disney World with my daughter.
I am doing it now: moved from R&D into a technical customer service/support area to fully utilize my skill set.
See whales, volcanoes, ride to Sturgis, see every NASCAR track. Play with my grandchildren and just sit quietly on a remote beach with them.
(1.) Travel and see more of this country and the world. (2.) Sit back and read a bit more. (3.) Lower my golf handicap.
First of all, be able to retire before I “retire.” Help my children through school and be established in a career field (hopefully in lubricants). Live long enough to have grandchildren.
Travel the world and experience many cultures.
Travel the world and downhill ski at every possible spot.
Establish my business and develop infrastructure in Tamatave, Madagascar.
Spend more time with my grandchildren. Help to be a positive influence in their lives.
Get a master’s degree. Because of family circumstances, I had to go to work after my undergraduate studies and never got around to going back for the graduate degree.
Train my replacements to be better than I am.
Do some international traveling to China, India and popular European cities.
Visit Bali, Alaska and Montana.
Return to production agriculture and own/operate a 1,000-head mother cow operation. Basically retire in ranching, having raised my kids in agriculture, as I was. I will, however, continue to apply what I have learned in reliability across spectrums, primarily in asset management. How one manages their assets, whether it be a cow herd, a haul truck fleet or a multimillion dollar processing facility, will ultimately determine the success of their respective business. Relating asset care to productivity and making business-based decisions will ultimately fill this bucket.
Barrel race.
Complete my engineering study, have more kids.
Have children and start a tradition of going on annual mission trips. Become and stay debt free and teach my children to live without debt.
Take that cruise to Australia and have good health.
Cage diving with the great white sharks off the South African coast.
Editor’s Note: Sounding Board is based on an e-mail survey of 13,000 TLT readers. Views expressed are those of the respondents and do not reflect the opinions of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. STLE does not vouch for the technical accuracy of opinions expressed in Sounding Board, nor does inclusion of a comment represent an endorsement of the technology by STLE.