It is coming up on 5 years since I took early retirement from Hewlett Packard. While I worked as a minister for 3 of those 5 years, my 25 years at HP defined my work life. I am currently not working and enjoying myself more than I ever imagined possible. For most of my time at HP, I never thought beyond working there, I was consumed, now I cannot imagine going back. Don’t get me wrong HP/Compaq was a great place to work and I was always treated well by the company. While far from perfect, HP/Compaq usually tried to do the right thing by its customers, shareholders, and employees. The objective of this letter is to give you some perspective on your job and encourage you to enjoy all elements of your life at every stage of your life.

The work at HP/Compaq was certainly interesting. We thought we were changing the world with each new product introduction. There are few things more satisfying than spending a career developing and marketing products that people use daily to improve their life or make themselves more productive. Of course, my career at HP had its challenges. Reduction of workforce, or layoffs, were always a difficult time. There were also times of constant reorganization as we tried to make our corporate structure match the rapidly changing computer market.

While my career was full of countless project launches, burdensome travel, and constant financial pressure, I can’t remember many details of those things. What I do remember is the people. My time at HP enabled me to interact with some of the smartest, kindest, most thoughtful people I have ever met. These people positively influenced and shaped my professional and personal life. HP is a global company. Having friends and co-workers from around the world helped form my global perspective. I really did travel a lot with HP. While I went to many fascinating places, again, the people are what I remember.

As we live in a world affected by terrorism, war, poverty, and abuse of human rights, the common item I discovered from all my travels is, people are basically the same and want the same thing. While governments are busy with political agendas, most people simply desire security, food, shelter, water, and the best for their family. When you tear away all the trappings of wealth and politics, we are all the same.

Enough philosophy, now for some advice to my friends still working at HP, or any large corporation. I know my friends at HP like PowerPoint looking, bulleted lists so here we go.

 

Make the most of this day!