Eight, we're going to be talking about the cycle of life. Let me introduce you to a very wise person, Saeed Lootah. Saeed Lootah was the uncle of a friend of mine that he lives in Dubai. He's from Sharjah, another of the Emirates and he was the founder of the first Islamic bank, the Dubai Islamic bank, published in 1975. As I was doing a case study on Islamic banking, my friend took me to meet his uncle. But he was living in the desert in all simplicity. I met Saeed Lootah few years ago in the desert. He told me about his life. He started in young age as a seafarer trying to look for pearls and then trade them in the market. Then he became a very, very successful businessman and a banker. In old age he dropped everything and he moved to the desert to live with all simplicity, thinking, writing, tutoring, and concerned in education. He told me a story, the story of the cycle of life. Let me share with you that story to try to explain to you what is a cycle. What he says life is about taking in and given out. When we came to this world, when we were born, we're basically taking in, we take in food, love, resources, knowledge. We give out a little bit unconsciously. We live back, we smile. But basically we are in the taking move, just getting everything we can because we're getting ready to participate in this world. Those are the learning days. Then we grow a little older. We keep on getting knowledge, information, friends, family members, resources, but as long as we take in, we also give out. We start producing perhaps products, services, but also families, making new friends. Those are the productive phase. We are taking in a lot, but we're also giving out a lot. We are very much in the balance of taking in and giving out. Then he said declining years, the all years, we of course still taking in. Many of us will hope to be learning and getting new knowledge until the very last day. However, we also may take new friends but not as much as before, but basically we're giving out. We are giving out resources to our friends or family members, knowledge, experience out, and so we leave this world the same way we enter with nothing. This is a metaphor that of course, not everybody have to follow, but explains the three main periods of life; youth, maturity, and old age. Now, if we look at the numbers in 2015, more or less, estimation says that we will have 9.5 billions in the world. Out of which about two billion will be under 15, more or less six billion will be from 15-75, and we'll have about 1.5 billion over 65. That will be the cycle. But also the metaphor of Saeed Lootah explains that we are all necessary. The learning days as well as the giving days are equally important to create community. It is important to understand each one of the periods separately. Karl Mannheim, he spoke about generations. What it says is, whenever we are born in a particular period, perhaps there is how global crisis or now in COVID, that shapes our generation. That shapes, that doesn't mean that they all in that generation think alike. But you have some external circumstances that shape a little bit division you have of the world. From that moment on, different scholars in sociology have been talking about cohort or generations. You're probably familiar with baby boomers, millennials. There is different ways of making those cohorts or generations. We're still talking about youth, maturity, and old age, but in a more specific way. Some researchers what they do is to look for particular events, like COVID, for instance, or a war in order to create a generation. However, this is problematic because it's very different from different places in the world. Other sociologies, what they do is they create a generation every 15-20 years. That is the case of Pew Research Center. The more or less every 15-20 years, starts, the beginning, and the end of a generation. If we look at the metaphor of Saeed Lootah, about learning, producing, and giving, we can start talking about the givers. Here we will be speaking about in two generations : the silent generation and the baby boomers. You can see in the different timing they were born roughly. Then we'll have two generations in the producers, the Millennials, as you have very often see, but also the generation X. Finally, the younger ones, the learners, we also have two generation. That means we will have the generation Z or you will have the newborns after 2012. That is probably we're going to be called Alpha, is not yet very well established. Now what are all those names? Generation X, Y, Z, or Millennials. The question we can have a scientific name like X or generation Z or generation Y. However, some people like fancy names because they represent something that that cohort had. For instance, the Millennials, that was popularized by the book of William Strauss. He was so significant, the turning of the century that generation cohort received the name of the Millennials. Now it is important for you to understand that those are only classifications and as we always say in diversity, classifications can be useful, but also can be a trap, so be careful here. The question is if I'm born in the baby boomers, which is the case, I don't necessarily think everything like my cohort members, or I don't have the same circumstances. For instance, the crisis, of course, affected every generation of that particular moment. But if you live in a wealthy family is not going to be the same as you live in a poor neighborhood. Those are classifications that help us to understand what is the particular circumstances of that particular generation, but also one maybe beneath. In organizations, this is going to be very relevant. Of course, in different parts of the world is different. Like the definition of the Pew Research Organization established baby boomers in 1945 because that is very much in the United States after the war, it was the boom of the mortality. Now we're talking about, for instance, in Spain, normally baby boomers will be more closer to 55 because is when the explosion of mortality started. We're talking about the crisis probably was global, but it was not affected equally to different places of the world. Again, this classification is useful, but do not believe is like that. It's just useful for talking about certain issues in organizations and we will do afterwards.
