Equipment leasing and all things related

Shortly after bemoaning in a recent post that I was not as young as I once was, I discovered that I wasn’t cool either (and not just in the eyes of my teenage children).  Now, this probably doesn’t come as a surprise to those of you who recognize my penchant for accounting, but still, it brought me up short to find out that I work in an industry that isn’t considered cool.  A double whammy and a cold one at that!

How did this startling revelation come to light?  As I have said before, we need to bring in the future, future leaders to maintain the viability of the leasing industry.  ELFA’s Industry Future Council and Executive Roundtable attendees also have identified this as a critical factor.  One of the impediments they identified to doing so, however, is the perception of the leasing industry.  Back in the day, the leasing industry had cachet.  It was fast moving, developing, and a breeding ground for new products and ideas.  This is no longer the case.

In addition to lacking visibility with young professionals and graduates, the leasing industry no longer has that “cool factor.”  What that means, I am not exactly sure, but apparently has something to do with an inability to impress people in the bar when you tell them you work in the leasing industry.  Something to do with the ‘job du jour’ mentality and leasing not being in the inner circle of hot jobs.  In fairness to the comment, though, I have to say that I am getting similar feedback from younger leasing professionals as to the long-term prospects of leasing.

This is not to say that we don’t have the current talent to continue building the leasing industry.  As Valerie Jester mentioned in a recent Equipment Leasing Today quote, “We do have cool, bright, creative entrepreneurs” in our industry.  What we do need to do, however, is two-pronged in nature.  First, we have to continue to identify these people and provide them with the chance to grow.  Second, we have to bring in new people of the same caliber by overcoming the lack of industry visibility and the perception that it is not “cool.”  I, for one, am a great believer in our industry and think tremendous opportunities remain today and in the future, so it is not an impossible task.  We just have to work at continually identifying and exploiting them.  Maybe we can even get back to being cool!

While I am on the subject of aging and the cool factor, I need to clarify a comment from one of my recent posts.  For those of you who aren’t classic rock and roll fans, my statement of “I hope I die before I get old” was not intended to be either macabre or a commentary on hoping to pass on before I get infirm.  It was, instead, intended to reflect a state of mind.  This thought, so eloquently verbalized by Roger Daltrey in “My Generation,” reflects a desire to always stay young at heart.  If I am not enjoying life and those around me, then it is time to move on.