The era of oil is over! Everyone from Forbes to Bloomberg is now reporting on what I observed as a trend years ago – that we’ve got so much momentum with renewables, energy microgrids, electric vehicles and battery storage technology, that essentially the dominance of carbon based energy is drawing to an end. That was the focus of my keynote at this event, with a room full of energy executives, including many involved in the ‘downstream’ – i.e. gas station – industry.
Archives for August 2019
Focused on Success? Here’s What You Should Avoid!
I’ve long been accused of being relentlessly optimism in the face of long odds. It’s a message I share on stage, in my writings, and in my personal life.
If you have a similar mindset, how do you maintain it? Hang out with other optimists! People who have a belief that we have an opportunity to make the future what we want it to be – rather than the potentially negative future that might come about.
How do you do that?Stop spending time with people who possess these human traits:
- a relentlessly negative attitude
- continual pessimism
- pervasive procrastination
- a small thinking mind
- the dominance of indecision
- close minded opinions
- never learning
- distracted easily
- a lack of focus
- distinctly lacking in curiosity
- a narrow focus
- an inability to collaborate
- lazy and unmotivated
- an unquestioning mind
- a longing for the past
- forever relying on old glories and achievements
- bigots and racists (d’uh!)
The list could go on…
A lot of how your future will unfold has to do with the company you keep.
Take an inventory of who inspires your creativity, charges up your outlook, and who motivates you for the future.
Video: What’s Up with the Future of Energy, Transportation & Downstream Suppliers?
I’m off to Omaha, Nebraska, later today, where tomorrow, I will keynote the DTN Energy Summit.
The room will be full of executives and operational managers who make decisions with respect to gas and energy supplies for the transpiration sector – gas stations and more. I’ll put into perspective the trends that might shake up their reality in the years to come, and filmed a pre-event video to start to stir up their thinking. Give it a watch!\\\
Daily Inspiration: “You can always recover from your Tin Cup moment!”
“You can always recover from your Tin Cup moment!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Much inspiration can come from a round of golf – but a lot of personal, emotional grief as well.
Such as that moment of clarity when you realize that you’ve left it short in the river, sliced into the pond, or hooked into a stream.
Water, it seems, is not your best friend.
Once you do this, a mental game takes over that is difficult to break – you remember that river, pond, stream. The next time? You do the same thing.
Wherein a pattern of repeatable failure settles in, one that is extremely difficult to break!
The other day, I golfed a lady who is a legend at our Club. “I’m the one that shot 20 on #11” she informed me.
Here’s the story – at my home golf club, Credit Valley, we cross the Credit River 7 times. Some of them are an easy carry, but a few are not. #11 is a particularly tricky shot & has been the scene of many an emotional meltdown over the years.
For regular play, there is a ‘Max” score on the hole, related to your handicap. Go in the water twice, & you pretty much move on to the next hole. (Over on #12, my good friend and Grade 5 teacher Ian Bates has christened this place as the “Bench of Shame” – go sit, have a time out, calm down, and move on. It works with 9 year olds, and has worked with me!)
But in tournament play, you must play a hole until it goes in the cup.
So on this hole? You must get over the river.
She didn’t. She kept going in, over and over – until she finally did & recorded a score of 20 on the hole.
Have you seen the movie Tin Cup? The most famous scene has the main subject – Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy – played by Kevin Costner – in a tournament. He puts a ball in the water. Angry, he hits another – into the water. The scene repeats itself until he finally gets across & in the hole – for a 12.
She had 20. Yet the defeat has not scarred her – she still golfs to this day and has a great game. When I played last week with her, she got over the river. She never gave up – her Tin Cup moment did not defeat her.
I have had my own Tin Cup mental challenge. Starting golf late in life, I spent a lot of time in the river on this & other river holes. A few years ago I moved up to a different sets of tees that take the river risk pretty much out of play.
Yesterday, I moved back a set of tees – & carried the river on this & every other river hole with ease. #11? I cleared the river by a huge margin!
It was a huge moment for me, recovering from my own personal Tin Cup mental challenge!
To me, there is much innovation inspiration that can come from the game of golf, to such a degree that I have an entire speaking topic built around it. CEOs will often take their leadership team or key clients to an offsite location for some critical business insight – and will often include a round of golf as part of the networking agenda.
And as I note in my speaking topic, Driving the Future – Linking the Acceleration of Golf to The Speed of Business:
“The game of golf involves the perfect combination of creativity, insight and innovative thinking. Jim Carroll, a 12 handicap, uses the sport as a metaphor for leadership, on the stage and in his trends analysis. In Jim Carroll, you’ve found the perfect playing partner!!”
Learn more at https://jimcarroll.golf – and invite me out for a round!
Daily Inspiration: “When nothing else works? It will work!”
“When nothing else works? It will work!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
I spent a bit of time yesterday with a long time friend who was at an important milestone in his life, and what a wonderful bit of time it was!
I’d argue with the guy all day long until the sky is orange, given his relentless and ongoing pessimism about the world around us, but I will say this for him – he knows how to find a plan and stick with it.
And maybe that’s what you need when confronted with a challenge. You’ll find a massive number of options, different roads to follow, lots of ideas to pursue. You might cast around for a time, trying this concept or that one, and yet never achieve any type of success.
And each attempt will set you back, leading to “ongoing, continual incremental failure” – there’s a phrase to ponder! Each and every setback builds upon itself, convincing you that there is no way out, no solution, no road to follow…..
Until, you find that one thing. The one you knew about – the one you had in the back of your mind – the one that you were convinced would never work….
Skeptical, you give it a try….
And years later, you look back and realize that – guess what – it worked! Did it ever!
The innovation lesson from my friend? Never give up. Keep looking. Keep trying. Don’t let past failures get in the way of your future opportunity for success.
Because when you eventually start to think that there is absolutely nothing that will work, you are at the point where nothing else will work.
And it is at that very moment that you have found the thing that will work – because you have no other choice!
Daily Inspiration: “The message from a motivational speaker is like Chinese food…”
“The message from a motivational speaker is like Chinese food – after an hour, you’ve lost your inspiration. But my futurist insight will excite your imagination for a lifetime!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
I actually use this storyline on stage – in this particular case, I’m speaking in New York City at the annual partner conference for one of the world’s largest law firms.
They didn’t want an inspirational ‘go-conquer-the-world’ message – they needed detailed insight on trends impacting their global clients, and what that might mean in terms of future legal & risk issues.
They didn’t need motivation – they needed insight!
One of the most challenging things for me is when people ask me what I do for a living.
“I’m a speaker” I explain.
“Oh, a motivational speaker?”
“Not really.”
I then try to delicately explain what it is a futurist does…..
I’m not disparaging the need for a motivational message – being inspired each & every day is a critical part of how people move forward in a complex world. Heck, here I am with my morning coffee putting together this ‘daily inspirational quote.’
But having said that, over a 25-year time span I’ve been to a lot of conferences & have seen a LOT of motivational speakers. Some are great – but some carry the same, tired, canned message. It’s warmed over, repurposed, the same old.
The best motivational speakers are those who build into their inspirational message useful, critical leadership and strategic insight.
This brings me to my good friend Scott Kress – a fellow Canadian who has summited Everest, conquered the ‘7 Summits,’ and the only guy I have ever had to call to tell him that his ski chalet was burning down! (True story.)
Scott somehow manages to combine his message of daring mountaineering with an inspirational storyline and spin into it actually useful messages on team building, leadership strategies, forward-oriented planning and so much more.
His book, “Learning In Thin Air,” would stand on its own as a leadership tome even without the fascinating (and scary) stories on his expeditions.
Like my wife and I, Scott and his wife Susan Bentzen-Bilkvist have been working in a home office forever. Scott does his work on the mountain and on the stage – and like my own wife Christa, his remarkable wife keeps things organized, manages the complexity, and somehow keeps his busy mind and active planning for his next adventure at some sort of realistic level.
Learn more!
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