Perhaps you might want to call it “pre-emptive self-termination.” If this term does not seem readily understandable to you, I will explain. I was finishing my final year at Santa Clara University. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up. It is a totally true story, what I am about to tell you, my global audience. It may be hard to believe, but it is true.

1979-1980 or so. I had the feeling the world was changing, and not just a little but a lot. I was very up on what was going on in the world, I was researching and studying everything, pretty much everything. One thing is sure: I had the impression that the Cold War was kind of depleted, this was just an intuition. If I had told anyone this, they would not have believed me. If anything, the Cold War was heating up, and Ronald Reagan's administration was to ramp up the tension and conflict with the Soviet Union. I did not want to go looking for a job, so I went down to Los Angeles, actually Westwood, and went to UCLA for a short while. Pretending to consider some work towards a graduate degree, maybe even a PhD.

A UCLA professor/instructor of mine, Peter DeLeon, told me I should go to the RAND Graduate School and get a PhD. He did really insist on this, he was adamant. DeLeon was working at RAND in Santa Monica, and he was a part-time instructor at UCLA. Public policy was his field. Defense policy. I did not really consider the idea, in fact I pretty much scoffed at it, to be honest. Why? Because I knew the world was changing. That really is the truth.

After about a year or so in Los Angeles, I got on a flight – one way ticket – to Dusseldorf, Germany. I was fleeing the United States. And why? Again, I knew the world was changing, and changing a lot. I could not quite explain what this change was exactly, but I knew it was profound change. I went around Western Europe and then headed to Paris, France.

I was not in Paris very long before a headhunter – they get you jobs – told me he could get me a job in Paris. With a newspaper, a left-wing newspaper, a really famous one and very influential. I took the job – it was amusing. I was there only briefly, and I began to appreciate just what I was going to do in my life. My career. Then in Paris, one day in the spring, I was approached by a senior “official” in the Reagan administration. He was CIA. He proposed that I would basically be doing what Henry Kissinger did when he was a young man, at Harvard. Editing Foreign Affairs magazine. Meeting foreign leaders and diplomats etc.

I did not take up any of these offers. And why? Once again, I knew the world was changing. Radically changing. I had the sense it was changing, but I could be not really explain what this change was. So I was really not interested in getting stuck on any one track, taking a “job” and doing what I was told. It's not that I was rebellious – I am of course rebellious – it's just that I thought these “opportunities” would not be suitable for me. They would not lead me anywhere. And they would not position me for the world that I knew was changing.

So I was undertaking an almost perpetual “pre-emptive self-termination.”

And the world did change a lot, as I expected and predicted. November 1989. The Berlin Wall was no more. November 9, to be precise. Everyone was shocked, totally flabbergasted. I was not. I think I was in Washington, DC at the time, with my French wife. There was total disbelief that the Cold War was gone. George HW Bush was in disbelief, as was the CIA. No one predicted it.

Any why? Well, this is where my argument here gets really interesting. Jobs, this is the issue. There was a machine in Washington that was all geared up for tension and conflict with the Soviet Union. The communist menace. Yes, it was indeed a menace, but this did not mean it would go on forever.

John Challenger is a friend of mine. Great guy. His father, James, started up Challenger, Gray & Christmas in 1966, in Chicago. “The First Outplacement Firm - Built On Helping Companies Do Right & Employees Land Right. Your Trusted Partner For Navigating....”

It is: “Outplacement and Career Transition Services.” John Challenger is a brilliant guy, incredible how smart he is. And I say this because he understood what I was arguing back 17-20 years ago. I mean to say that he really understood. And this was truly remarkable. But it is not that surprising, because his father James got terminated from his lawyer job at some law firm and then realized that anyone could get terminated – for any reason – at any time. Hilarious.

So the onus is on you to be ahead of the termination threat – and that's what I have done all my life.

I am not saying this is easy, it is not easy at all, and it is most certainly not any fun. But it is imperative. Because you will eventually be terminated. You will go through a “big career change” and that is to use a mild term, a euphemism.

The audio recording of this interview with John is excellent. I will republish it as soon as possible. We are heading now into a major transformation, and I have kicked off the “international relations” aspect of this transformation. We are in the transition to Phase 3 of human history. I have recently called up John Challenger and asked him to do an update. I think he probably will, at least I hope so. I have not talked to him in 17 years. And why is that? I consider him a friend and I'm sure he considers me a friend. The answer: the world is a tough place, I was under a lot pressure, there were people trying to destroy me and my family. Intelligence operations against me. Spying on me.

If I had only just stayed benign and willing to tolerate the termination threat. But I was unwilling to do that! Hilarious.

So you will need to understand the change in the world, and you will need to fend off the termination threat. Challenger, Gray & Christmas will be pretty busy in the coming years. They are probably already really busy. Expect to be terminated – suddenly and without warning. Will this termination be justified? Of course it will. You are complacent and even stupid.

I will end this article with a really good story, a cool story. I was sitting on the balcony at my [future] father-in-law's “condominium” in the south of France, in Provence, sometime in 1987. Looking over the Mediterranean Sea. We were high up on the mountain overlooking Hyeres, a small town on the coast. I was meeting him for the first time. I would marry his daughter about 2 years later. He is unfortunately dead (1934-2019), but he was an ophthalmologist.

“An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor and surgeon specializing in eye and vision care, diagnosing and treating all eye diseases and conditions, including performing surgery and providing complete eye exams. They are different from optometrists, who focus on vision care but are not medical doctors or surgeons. You should see an ophthalmologist for any concerns about your eyes or vision, particularly for a complete medical eye exam by age 40 or if you experience symptoms like blurry vision, eye pain, or flashes of light.”

“My daughter has talked about you a lot, she says that you know a lot about biology and the world...” he said to me. Or something like that, because my memory is not really clear going this far back. He spoke fluent English and he started peppering me with all sorts of difficult questions about evolution and biological issues. We had a really intense conversation about human biology and evolution. He told me his ancestors were French nobles and aristocrats and that many were advisors to the French kings, in Paris. He told me that a large number of his ancestors were guillotined in the French Revolution.

It was a great day in 1987, sitting in the sun in Provence. Having an intense discussion/debate with my future father-in-law. I was prepared for this, however. I performed very well, if I am allowed to boast. He was impressed, really impressed. We became very good friends. He served in the Algerian War as a medical doctor and medic. He told me that the French used heavy machine guns and napalm and he flew around in helicopters and his job would be to try to save the lives of Algerians who had been wounded or severely burned. French soldiers were killing them and his job was to try to save them, prevent them from dying. It was very weird, even madness, he told me.

He had a job. I'm pretty sure he was conscripted, he did not volunteer for this duty. His name was Alain de Rivals-Mazeres. I often heard how he was not happy performing his ophthalmologist duties there in Hyeres. He suffered from physician burnout. I will not reveal all the truth, but he suffered a lot. He did not have the right job, and he often asked me for advice. I did not know what to tell him. I mean, I tried to advise him, but he was not really able to act on my advice.

He wanted to offer his medical services for free, to everyone around the world. He wanted to fly around in a Boeing jet [which would be equipped with a mini hospital and operating room] and do surgery on blind people or people with eye disorder and disease – all around the world. He was really sad that he could not do this. I wish I had been able to help him achieve this, but I was just a young guy. I had no money – all I had was a strong desire as well as talent for pre-emptive termination.

This is a very important article, perhaps even historic. At least, that's my intuition.