Daily Inspiration: “The future you are looking for is often right in front of you!”

“The future you are looking for is often right in front of you!” – Futurist  Jim Carroll

When I was small, I remember that my mom could never find her glasses, and so she kept multiple sets. Today, I keep multiple sets of reading glasses around, so that I can always find them. Problem solved. I’m in Biloxi, Mississippi today for a keynote for the Mississippi Economic Development Association – they’ve invited me in for a talk on ‘where the jobs are, where will the growth occur.’ I won’t give them the storyline that it will come easily through tariffs, walls and magic wands.
It will come from the future trends which are already all around them. Things like self-driving cars, 3d printing, crowdfunding, the sharing economy, blockchains, personal drones, swarmbots, smart dust, vertical farms, the Internet of Things, cognitive computing, smart factories, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, quantum computing, intelligent farms, smart clothing! All of these trends – and more – are leading to the birth of new industries, the reinvention of old ones, and lots of jobs and opportunities to go with it. A community of people can choose to yell and scream to try to get the future to adapt to them. It usually doesn’t work. Or, they can look at what is occurring around them, and figure out how to turn that into opportunity.They can easily find their glasses with the right strategy!