John Linton
I read in the SMH yesterday that the owner, founder and CEO, of Crazy Johns - John Ilhan - had died of a heart attack at the age of 42 while walking on the beach near his home. I met with him once and talked to him briefly on the telephone some 3 months ago but have no knowledge of how he ran his business other than what anyone can read in the business press; that basically his business was continually growing and was a major 'player' and an equally major influence in the mobile marketplace. I read the brief profile on his background and activities when he reached the top of the BRW's young rich list (wealthiest people in Australia under 40) and his 'drive' was evident not only from the quoted business results he had achieved but from his quoted statements in the write up.
Of course, I'm sure the vast majority of people who operate in highly stressful positions in IT and all other industries and professions live to enjoy a long and enjoyable life completely unaffected by the demands of their day to day activities. However, when I read that report, I took a few minutes to try and remember the people who I've known who made some sort of difference to the IT/Communications Industries and was saddened in being able to recall more than a dozen people who I'd known who didn't live very long at all.
Over the years I've been in the technology business I've noticed a worrying number of people who died well before the quoted averages for Australian males or males from other countries. The person I admired most (of all the people I have ever been managed by or observed managing) in terms of the very best manager of people in the IT industry committed suicide in his early 50s and one of the true genii of the development of mainframe computer chip architecture whom I had the privilege of meeting on several occasions also died of a heart attack in his late 40s - he just dropped dead while waiting for a flight at the airport.
I'm reminded by these sad events that the environment in which many people work in IT is inherently unhealthy - long hours, sedentary working (made worse over the past ten years by the spread of laptop use), constant change/development, low margins in many aspects, unrelentingly fierce competition and a constant need, in senior management positions, to take decisions very quickly based on too little information.
The financial rewards, for all but the very few, are nothing like what has been the norm in merchant banking and stock broking for the past 30 years yet the level of intellect and speed of thought and crucial nature of the decision making are equal or greater in most, if not all, aspects of the day to day activities.
Perhaps I'm getting to that age where the increasing number of minor ailments, aches and pains which are the inevitable result of an aging body and too many decades of drinking too much alcohol and eating too much gourmet food coupled with no exercise and 12 hour plus working days is making me too aware of the fleeting qualities of human existence.
Perhaps the habits of a working lifetime are what protects most of us from thinking about the consequences of the lack of care we take of our body and mind while we expend so much effort on doing the ever increasing things required of a career in this amazing industry which, just as you think you've understood something begins to change before you can take a 'breather' from the unrelenting demand to deal with new circumstances.
Time waits for no man, it's almost 9 am, and I'm already behind schedule.