Extra1 Elder Advice Week 116.
Elder Advice is another year older today. And hopefully another step closer to being the person he ought to have been all this time.
Going about the daily ritual of trying to stave off the corruption of the flesh this morning, I was in the midst of explaining to my insolent knees that their co-operation was needed when I heard from one of my favourite clients. He is 92 years old. And alive and well and living in Ottawa. If that is not a contradiction in terms.
When last we met, we reviewed the extensive catalogue of failure in Elder Advice Weeks 1-111 - the incompetence and ineptitude of authorities, the loss of civility, the floundering of education, and the rampant self-interest evident everywhere - and concluded that the root cause is pretty much, people. Which would not have been surprising to us if we had been on only our first beer.
Anyway, we were perilously close to crossing the line into the territory of the Four Yorkshiremen: you know “…Who'd a' thought 40 years ago we'd be sitting here drinking Chateau du Chasseur? … Aye … Them days you'd be glad to have the price of a cup o'tea… Aye. A cuppa' cold tea… Aye …No milk or sugar! … Aye… Or tea. … And in a cracked cup ….” etc., etc., when he recalled the sage advice of Field Marshall Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC, DL. Suitably reminded today, Elder Advice now passes it on as a birthday present to you.
The Field Marshall was a unbeatable, and also unbearable, commander of British forces in World War II. After the war, he made occasional appearances as a motivational speaker at corporate events in the 1950s and 60s. There, he gave instruction on successful management, including what would now be considered unacceptable counsel that there are only 4 kinds of people in the world.
The first are the smart and lazy people. These, the Field Marshall posited, were those who are perceptive, insightful, often genius. The master planners of grand schemes but, at the same time, incapable or uninterested in their implementation and the detailed, grinding work involved. This kind, he forthrightly acknowledged, included him.
The second are the smart and busy people - “like my colonels”, the Field Marshall noted. Highly capable individuals with a prodigious work ethic, an eye for detail, a stiff upper lip and a relentless dedication to purpose. These people, Montgomery counselled, are the life-blood of any organization. And every family, corporation and institution should seek as many as possible.
The third are the lazy and stupid people. There are more of these than any other kind, which the Field Marshall put down to bad luck, bad education or a combination of both. However, he charitably observed, with the proper training and incentive, these people are perfectly capable of carrying out straightforward instruction and, by their sheer number, are essential to the ultimate success of any plan.
The fourth are the stupid and busy people. These, Montgomery warned darkly, are the problem. They claim abilities they do not have. They have less than they show and speak more than they know - to upend the Fool’s advice to King Lear. They offer the illusion of performance while doing nothing of actual value. Unchecked, they occupy positions of sufficient authority to endanger the organization. They need to be identified and ruthlessly excised.
Refreshingly blunt and, if you candidly scroll through all those of your acquaintance, remarkably accurate advice. The problem these days is that either there are simply more unidentified stupid and busy people around or, more concerning, patently stupid and busy people who are known yet tolerated.
Elder Advice strongly suspects the latter. After all, he was not born yesterday.
© Bernadette Lonergan 2023