Daily Inspiration: “The future will happen — whether you like it or not. It’s your choice as to what role you will play when it arrives!”

“The future will happen — whether you like it or not. It’s your choice as to what role you will play when it arrives!” -Futurist Jim Carroll

A photo from my keynote in San Diego yesterday for NSC2019 – the annual National Safety Council conference with 15,000 safety professionals from across the US and around the world.

What a wonderful stage!

The photo is from my closing moments, and my key takeaway mantra – think big, start small, scale fast!

People are always looking for a dose of closing motivational guidance, and it is found in that phrase. It’s the way that I close all of my talks, regardless of the audience. It’s the title of my next book (update: it’s actually coming out this fall!!!!) It’s a powerful construct:

• think big: have big goals and understand how significant the transformative trends are that surround you. Think really big about the trends that are underway, the ones yet to come, and the impact these trends will have on your industry, your company, yourself…
• start small. Make sure you go home with some of the ideas you’ve heard at the event, and commit to a number of small scale projects that you should pursue – not to necessarily accomplish something great, but simply to learn about the things that you do not know. Build up experience – it leads to experiential capital!
• scale fast – be ready to move quickly, because in this world in which the future belongs to those who are fast, any one trend can suddenly become real, massive, disruptive – you’ve got to be ready to go when that happens!

The fun thing is that up on stage, I can always see a bunch of people taking a picture of this particular slide – it’s a concept that resonates with them, and gives them a bit of structure as to how to go forward with the trends and insight that I have just shared with them.

The key point in my closing moments? There might not be much we can do about the faster future, other than choosing to be an active participant in it!

Each and every day, it’s our choice as to the role that we will play within it, the success that we might discoed, and the opportunity that it will present to us.