Daily Inspiration: ““Most people who criticize those who invent the future, usually don’t understand the future that is being invented!”

“Most people who criticize those who invent the future, usually don’t understand the future that is being invented!” – #Futurist Jim Carroll

Let’s talk about Tesla. And #TeslaHaters

Basically, people who simply can’t accept the idea that a company might have the audacity to challenge and lead the way in forever changing one of the world’s largest industries. Someone who dares to take on the legacy behemoths that are in Detroit, Tokyo and Stutgaart.

Here’s the thing :  we’ve been here before. Back in the day, people criticized Steve Jobs and his ragged band of ‘short sighted fools’ at Apple for daring to go up against the behemoth that was IBM computer technology.

Steve Jobs had a way of dealing with the haters – focus on the product, not the whiners. Delight the customer, not the stock market. Be relentless on building an ecosystem for the future, not just a device.

Watch this – and learn!

This video of Steve Jobs from 1997 about the press and the stock is pretty much on point about Tesla today, keep up the good work @elonmusk @tesla Source: https://t.co/dk0JdmDA47 pic.twitter.com/Meb693HJ8M

— Tesletter (@tesletter) May 27, 2019

It’s a pretty basic lesson in how to deal with the haters.

When it comes to massive innovation and industry transformation, there are countless examples through history where ‘haters gonna hate the innovators’.

It comes with the territory.

What is it that the haters don’t understand? I’m not quite sure!

I have a friend – a very intelligent fellow who owns a hi-tech company – who thinks that Audi, Mercedes & other legacy companies will soon own the EV and self-driving car space, and that Tesla is doomed. I think he’s nuts.

I really don’t think he understands, at a fundamental level, what is happening here. when we look back from the future, we’ll realize we once lived in a time in which we had cars that were based on carbon sources such as gasoline & which were driven by humans. Then, they were electric, with batteries, & drove themselves, and had big technology ecosystems behind them.

It’s the first real product of a massive shift.

That’s the future that is being invented, and right now, pretty much the only company in the race to that future is Tesla.

Legacy companies? They don’t have the skills, the insight, the track record. Most important, they don’t know how to make the shift into being a technology company – which Tesla clearly is. They don’t understand IT ecosystems. Worse – they are blinded by their arrogance, infallibility, and believe that they own the future. It’s their right!

They are the Sony Walkman of the music industry to Apple’s iTunes.

As I explain on stage, a Tesla isn’t a car. It’s a “an upgradeable, hyperconnected, data gathering technology platform (with wheels & a battery.”

Just like Apple, they’ve built the ecosystem for the future of transportation.

What is it? Read this: IOT Early Days

So what do you do if you have your own haters? People who abhor your progress, success and view of the future?

Do what Steve Jobs did. Ignore them.