[Insight & Opinion] Anxiety Drives Growth

If You Settle Into Comfort Too Early in the Era of Living to 100,
Stagnant Growth Is the Real Crisis

While talking with my younger sibling, who is a dentist, I learned that foreigners often visit their clinic.

There are mainly two groups of foreigners: one group consists of English instructors at academies, and the other group is foreigners working short-term jobs to earn money. My sibling checked how long these foreigners had been in Korea and how well they spoke Korean, and discovered an interesting fact.

Among the two groups, the English instructors mostly cannot speak Korean well even after living in Korea for more than three years, whereas the other foreigners tend to speak Korean well after about two years. Why is there such a difference?

English instructors do not feel the need to learn Korean because, even without speaking it at all, they are recognized as the “gap” (dominant party) and people around them take care of them. However, foreigners who come to work in Korea live as the “eul” (subordinate party), so they have no choice but to struggle to learn Korean.

This seems similar in the workplace world. From my observations, generally the “eul” learn more and grow more. Of course, “eul” can also become complacent, but usually if “eul” lose their sensitivity, customers stop seeking them and survival becomes difficult, so they have no choice but to constantly develop their expertise and capabilities.

Of course, there is no absolute “gap” or absolute “eul.” Most people are “gap” to someone and “eul” to someone else. Even a company that looks like a “gap” has “eul” departments, and vice versa. Also, “gap” requires suitable capabilities for that world and faces difficulties. Many “gap” individuals also work hard to learn and grow.

Moreover, growth speed varies depending on one’s position within the company. Recall when your growth speed was the fastest. Usually, growth is fastest when you are a junior. You learn a lot then. Why? Because you feel anxious. You lack experience and knowledge, so you worry whether you can properly fulfill your role.

Because of this, you try to learn more and grow more. However, as time passes and your position rises, you become more comfortable. The passion for growth decreases. You can perform existing tasks sufficiently with previously learned knowledge and appropriate soft skills. As a result, more people stop learning new things. The growth curve begins to stagnate. Some well-known people with good academic backgrounds, careers, and reputations from the past fall into comfort and stop studying, repeatedly recycling the knowledge they once had.

Ultimately, comfort steals away intensity. Therefore, if you feel too comfortable and have no stress right now, it might actually be a crisis for your growth. When you think you have achieved something and your mind is at ease, you need to suspect whether your growth has actually stopped.

While too much stress can be difficult, an appropriate amount of anxiety, a sense of crisis, urgency, and stress scientifically help people become healthier, learn more, and grow. In the era of living to 100, if you enter comfort too quickly and stop growing, isn’t that the real crisis?

Shin Sujeong, Head of KT Enterprise Division