Douglas Orane's prescription for retirement joy

The following are excerpts of a speech by former chairman and chief executive officer of the GraceKennedy Group, Mr Douglas Orane. It was delivered at a Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) retirees' luncheon on Friday, January 17, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

I retired as CEO of GraceKennedy at the end of June 2011 and as the chairman of the board at the end of December 2013. Here is the good news about retirement — it's a state of mind. I have met 30-year-olds who behave as though they are seventy and I have met eighty-five-year-olds who behave as though they are twenty-five. Our contentedness in retirement is completely within our control. Retirement is a continuous process with different stages and adjustments that we make over the years. How have I made my adjustments? First of all by starting early. If you had happened to be in the Conference Centre in January 2000 at GraceKennedy's Business Conference you would have heard me say that I was going to retire in 10 years, around 2010. I have a joke about it - I retired in June 2011 so I was six months late! What this really means is that I had been preparing myself psychologically for many years prior to that date. One of the most important activities which I carried out during that decade was to ensure that effective succession was in place, not only for the position of CEO, but for many others in the GraceKennedy Group.

What effective succession planning at GraceKennedy meant personally to me was that I was confident that, whatever goals, activities, operations, and expansion plans I had been pursuing, would continue smoothly after my retirement. Many people have asked me this question - "Douglas don't you miss being the CEO of GraceKennedy?" My answer is simple - no, because I know GraceKennedy is in good hands with a much younger, competent generation managing the group.

PARTICIPATE IN A PENSION SCHEME

The next area regarding retirement is financial. In this regard, all of you in this room together with myself are in a special category and we are very fortunate that we all receive monthly pensions. A sobering statistic is that only 100,000 people in Jamaica participate in approved pension schemes out of a working population of about 900,000. I remember in my early years at GraceKennedy in the 1980s Daisy Coke the actuary saying to me "Douglas, regarding retirement, the most important thing is that a person has a pension. It does not matter how small it is. The reason is that it gives the person a base around which to plan their lives. The worst position to be in is to have no pension at all". Our conversation at the time surrounded encouraging individuals to participate in pension schemes throughout Jamaica.

One of the subtle changes that has taken place within me in recent years is that I have become a minimalist. I have found that I need fewer and fewer material possessions in order to live my life. For example, people ask me why do I drive such a small inexpensive car. My answer is simple - I only need to get from A to B reliably. I would much prefer to use my resources to do other things; my car is not about status. I prefer to spend my resources on memorable experiences with family and friends.

TREMENDOUS SENSE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE

So what do I spend my time and other resources on, now that I am retired? The answer is that I have a long list which I had developed over many years during my working career. The first, and probably most important one currently, emanates from the debt of gratitude I owe to the school that I attended and the teachers who taught me when I was there. I graduated from Wolmer's in 1965, and when I left through those gates I had a tremendous sense of self-confidence instilled in me which allowed me to chart my course in the world. Now at age 66, I have a burning desire to pass on those attributes to a new generation of 3,500 children at the Wolmer's Boys' School, Girls' School, and Prep School.

I, therefore, made a decision last year to devote the next five years of my life to serve my school, and that's exactly what I am doing now. I offered to help in whatever way I could, and I was asked to become a trustee, I am now chair of the infrastructure committee, chair of the fundraising committee and most important to me personally, a mentor to form 1M. We are blessed to have a country that has hundreds of educational institutions and each of you in this room attended at least one of them. My suggestion to you is to volunteer to help in whatever way you can with that school, to make it a better place for the younger generation to become well-rounded, wholesome adults. I can't think of a better use of your time.

COACHING AND MENTORING

There are many other activities on my list. I spend a great deal of my time coaching and mentoring individuals, whether inside GraceKennedy or outside in the wider society. For example, I joined an organisation called Katalyxt started by Winsome Minott which encourages and gives advice to individuals who have started their own businesses.

Another activity is spending more time with my family particularly the younger generation, my children, my nieces and nephews and younger cousins. In like manner to what I do at Wolmer's, I offer to help guide them in whatever way I can. I encourage you to do the same, but with a word of warning. When it comes to my own children and other younger relatives, we need to be very careful that our advice does not seem to be a disguised form of instruction which could be resented rather than appreciated. This is another skill I am learning in retirement, how to offer help without being overbearing or dictatorial.

GREAT PASSIONS

From my early teenage years I loved to travel. I have always been eternally curious about what happens in the outside world and, through travel, I have discovered many of the ideas that I have brought back to use in Jamaica. I continue to do this in retirement, and one of my great passions is following our Jamaica athletes around the world wherever they compete. You may have a personal desire to travel, too, for example to visit your relatives overseas. Here is another idea that I have found satisfying. Most of us do not know our own country Jamaica beyond the 10-mile radius in which we live. One of the joys of my recent retirement is to renew my familiarity with the Blue Mountains. There is no better way for me to now spend a weekend morning than walking in the forest in the Blue Mountains. I encourage you to do the same and, here is the good news, it is free.

SPEAKING SPANISH, PLAYING THE GUITAR

Back to my retirement to-do list. There are many items on it that I have not yet started, for example, I want to learn to speak Spanish more fluently. I had to drop Spanish in third form in order to do sciences and I have always had a yearning to learn more about that language. Another item on the list is to learn to play the guitar competently. When I was an undergraduate at Glasgow University in Scotland in the '60s in the era of student power, black power, the Vietnam war, and the musical revolution including rock steady, reggae and folk music, I learned to strum a few chords on the the guitar and sing along with my fellow students. Many of them were protest songs. Over 40 years have passed and that desire continues in me to learn to play that instrument. I have located a tutor, and now all I need is the time to do it.

THE DIGITAL WORLD

Over the Christmas season, many friends and relatives asked me what am I going to do now that I am retiring as chair of the GraceKennedy Board. I have replied - "2014 - that is my year for digital". Since the beginning of January, I have become more active on Facebook and LinkedIn. I have rejoined Twitter, which I had experimented with about two years ago and had temporarily given up on. Now I've got it figured out. In February, I intend to join Instagram. I am going to purchase an online software programme to teach myself how to touch-type. After all these years, I have determined that, for me to fully participate in the digital world, it will be a big advantage for me to touch-type on my laptop and iPad rather than with two fingers. I encourage you to do the same.

KEEPING FIT, KEEPING HEALTHY

Retirement has allowed me to pursue an activity that I was not particularly accomplished at as a youngster. That is physical exercise. My top cricket score batting at Wolmer's for my house was five, so you have an idea of my very average status as an athlete. Now in retirement, it really doesn't matter what my comparative performance is. I have found during the course of my working life that one of the ways of dealing with stress was to keep myself very fit. Some of you may know that I used to run in road races for many years. I have mentioned hiking as a hobby and early in my career I was very active in tae kwondo, the Korean martial art. Today, every morning when I wake up, I have a routine of yoga, Pilates, working out on an elliptical machine for aerobic exercise while I watch the news on BBC World and Bloomberg. I can't think of a better way to start the day. I do my annual medical religiously every year and my doctor says, "Doug, keep doing whatever you are doing - you are on the right track".

Question: What are you doing to take care of the only body that God gave to you? My recommendation to you is to exercise regularly as one of the best methods to keep yourself healthy.

PLEASE, MAKE A WILL

The next area that retirement has allowed me to concentrate on is preparing for the future beyond my sojourn on this earth. You will be familiar, and particularly because of your avocation, with the saying "There are only two things that are certain in life - death and taxes." You have covered the latter for us in your working lives. Regarding the former, I have been horrified during the course of my life at how many people have not made wills. In fact, a few years ago I started driving around with blank will forms in my car to give to individuals who I met who had not made a will. If you have not done so, as soon as you leave this function, make it happen. We owe it as our responsibility to our loved ones to set our affairs in good order.