Once upon a time in the future, there's going to be a music teacher who shows up for work in late August, incredibly motivated and planning for their December concert.
That teacher will be pulling and buying music, arranging colors on cards for seats, planning soloists, writing a program, marking calendars, getting their MP3 files for accompaniment in order, and psyching themselves up for what's going to happen in three months.
When the kids show up at the beginning of September, it will be full speed ahead, getting all the musical numbers ready for the big concert in December. There will be a million questions from kids, parents, admin – all that will demand that teacher’s attention.
The stress and tension will build right up to the first notes on that December evening.
In a blink, it will be over.
That concert will come and go, flowers will be handed out by parents, chairs stacked in the corner, props will be pitched, programs picked up off the floor by custodians, and the process will start all over in January for the spring concert.
This teacher will have spent a big part of their 7.5 hour job focused on two 1 hour events. At least let's hope they're only an hour or less long.
Dirty little secret: Teachers often see these concerts at some kind of pinnacle of achievement. Not everyone views them that way.
Principals see evening concerts as a headache. The shorter they are, the better. Admin and front office see concerts as PR opportunities or potential disasters. The kids see them is fun and that's the lane where I tried to stay, in the fun lane. Make some fun music and give away a guitar.
The question remains, though, with all that planning for such a temporal event as a concert, how much planning in 2025 did that teacher do for the year 2065, the year they are scheduled to retire? Is the assumption that those retirement things will just take care of themselves?
Take away point: Just like concerts don't take care of themselves, neither does your plan for financial stability after you’ve stopped teaching.
If you don’t think that 2025 will suddenly morph into 2045, think back to high school. How long ago was that?
In a blink, 2065 will be here.
If you think 2025 was stressful, imagine 2065 without proactive measures in 2021?
I had some buddies who worked for Chrysler who used to joke that Chrysler was a pension company that many cars on the side. And they were correct.
After speaking to the assembled graduate students at Harvard Business School, Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, was taken out by the kids to a local pub for drinks. After things got lubricated, relaxed, and collegial, Kroc asked the kids if they knew what business he was in. They seemed confused by the question.
No one answered and he asked again.
“Well, Mr. Kroc, everyone knows you're in the hamburger business, right?”
Kroc smiled.
“No, I'm in the property business”. He explained how all those McDonalds were built on property – property that he usually owned. The money was in the land – not the burgers.
Maybe this will help.
Know what you are.
You're not a solely a music educator. For a minute, picture yourself as someone in the pension business who teaches music to children on the side.
That’s not to diminish the importance of music and the Arts in the lives of your students or to imply that teaching is a side hustle. The pension business just emphasizes the importance of not simply planning for December of 2025 but rather for planning for June of 2065.
If you haven't started planning for 2065, now is a good time to start. As Dr. Stephen Covey always said, “If you need a tree today, when's the best day to plant a tree? 20 years ago. What's the second best day? Today.”
Start planning for 2065.
Ready?
Set.
Plan!
That teacher will be pulling and buying music, arranging colors on cards for seats, planning soloists, writing a program, marking calendars, getting their MP3 files for accompaniment in order, and psyching themselves up for what's going to happen in three months.
When the kids show up at the beginning of September, it will be full speed ahead, getting all the musical numbers ready for the big concert in December. There will be a million questions from kids, parents, admin – all that will demand that teacher’s attention.
The stress and tension will build right up to the first notes on that December evening.
In a blink, it will be over.
That concert will come and go, flowers will be handed out by parents, chairs stacked in the corner, props will be pitched, programs picked up off the floor by custodians, and the process will start all over in January for the spring concert.
This teacher will have spent a big part of their 7.5 hour job focused on two 1 hour events. At least let's hope they're only an hour or less long.
Dirty little secret: Teachers often see these concerts at some kind of pinnacle of achievement. Not everyone views them that way.
Principals see evening concerts as a headache. The shorter they are, the better. Admin and front office see concerts as PR opportunities or potential disasters. The kids see them is fun and that's the lane where I tried to stay, in the fun lane. Make some fun music and give away a guitar.
The question remains, though, with all that planning for such a temporal event as a concert, how much planning in 2025 did that teacher do for the year 2065, the year they are scheduled to retire? Is the assumption that those retirement things will just take care of themselves?
Take away point: Just like concerts don't take care of themselves, neither does your plan for financial stability after you’ve stopped teaching.
If you don’t think that 2025 will suddenly morph into 2045, think back to high school. How long ago was that?
In a blink, 2065 will be here.
If you think 2025 was stressful, imagine 2065 without proactive measures in 2021?
I had some buddies who worked for Chrysler who used to joke that Chrysler was a pension company that many cars on the side. And they were correct.
After speaking to the assembled graduate students at Harvard Business School, Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, was taken out by the kids to a local pub for drinks. After things got lubricated, relaxed, and collegial, Kroc asked the kids if they knew what business he was in. They seemed confused by the question.
No one answered and he asked again.
“Well, Mr. Kroc, everyone knows you're in the hamburger business, right?”
Kroc smiled.
“No, I'm in the property business”. He explained how all those McDonalds were built on property – property that he usually owned. The money was in the land – not the burgers.
Maybe this will help.
Know what you are.
You're not a solely a music educator. For a minute, picture yourself as someone in the pension business who teaches music to children on the side.
That’s not to diminish the importance of music and the Arts in the lives of your students or to imply that teaching is a side hustle. The pension business just emphasizes the importance of not simply planning for December of 2025 but rather for planning for June of 2065.
If you haven't started planning for 2065, now is a good time to start. As Dr. Stephen Covey always said, “If you need a tree today, when's the best day to plant a tree? 20 years ago. What's the second best day? Today.”
Start planning for 2065.
Ready?
Set.
Plan!
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