Some people see the future with fear – you should see it as something full of opportunity!
Here’s an edited clip of my recent keynote for 2,000 people in San Diego at the 2019 National Safety Council annual conference. Words to live by.
by JimCarroll
by JimCarroll
“Choose to be your better self – because what you will see in your future memories are being actively recorded at this very moment!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Do you really want to look back at some point tomorrow and see what you see today?
An angry person upset with everything in the world around you, and yet unwilling to do anything about it?
A whack job who subscribes to the craziest of conspiracy theories?
Someone denying an obvious reality because you choose what you want to believe, not what actually *is*?
An individual who has abandoned the purity of the scientific principal for ridiculous information simply because you feel smug?
Are you all too eager to shout and not ready to listen? Full of bombast and screaming emotion rather than quiet understanding? Too absorbed in your own success and comfort and devoid of any soul and degree of caring for your fellow man and woman?
Is that really what you want to look back on?
History judges harshly those who embed hatred in their soul in their rush to try to make things great again.
Somewhere in the last few years, many people have lost their sense of what it means to be a human. They seem to be so focused on making their world “great again” that they have lost every element of morality in their soul.
And when you look around, it’s really not that great. The weak are punished. The poor are disparaged. Those who are different are shunned. That’s great?
People are so busy crushing the meek around them on their way to the top that they don’t yet realize that they are really in a race to the bottom.
The things you are doing right now are what you will look back in the future.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer a retrospective that is positive, hopeful, respectful, and full of both personal and business integrity.
Define yourself with kindness; embed your soul with thoughtfulness; manage your actions with goodness; live each and every day with tolerance.
Because really, you probably want future memories that show you as your better self.
by JimCarroll
“Your absolutely worst failure? It’s also your biggest opportunity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
It’s when you hit the bottom that you can rise to the top!
People have known this reality for a long, long time – because quite simply, with determination, resolve, effort and focus, there is nowhere to go but up!
But there are different types of failure. One comes from the sin of inaction.
Organizations that fail at innovation don’t take enough risk. They have fear of failure embedded in their corporate culture. The status quo is an objective to be preserved rather than a barrier to be broken.
The result? They don’t try to do new things, explore new ideas, or pursue new concepts. They become stuck.
People do the same thing – they to try to avoid failure, and never grow at a personal level as a result. They wake up years later and wonder – “what happened?” They look around and fret about the fact that the world has passed them by.
Yet both of those examples involve the type of failure that comes from inaction. Failure from inaction is a terrible failure to witness, and yet can be simply avoid.
And yet, there’s another more insidious, pervasive, challenging and destructive form of failure that comes not from a lack of action, but as a result of often deeply challenging circumstances. A mindset, pattern or routine that is hard to break. Patterns of behaviour that become ingrained and automatic. Habits.
This type of failure is more difficult to deal with and complex to rise from, because it can dig deep into your soul, burn through your psyche, challenge your resolve, and destroy the essence of your soul.
Guess what!
It’s when things are at their worst that the biggest opportunity to rise above it becomes real! That’s because once you discover the pathway to success and become focused upon it, work the path that it offers, and live by its concepts, that you turn your era of nothing into something…
by JimCarroll
This organization brought together 300 of their members who are focused on advancing, discussing and negotiating drug plans with all 50 states throughout the US, and had two days of hard care sessions on the intricacies of their industry. They decided that they should open the 2nd day of this intense conference with a futuristic look at where the world of healthcare might go next, to help to put a little bit more context on their discussions.
by JimCarroll
We live in a time of massive challenge and opportunity. Every industry is impacted by business model disruption, the emergence of new competitors, the impact of technology, the collapse of product lifecycle, political volatility and customers that continue to challenge businesses with their increasingly complex needs.
The very things that have worked for us in the past could be the anchors that hold us back as the future rushes at us with ever increasing speed.
That was the message that I brought to this group, with a talk that focused on the key trends and issues that affect medium sized business, family-run organizations. The EFBC program, established by DePaul University, provides multiple opportunities for these companies to keep up with the trends and opportunities that impact them – and they invited me in to headline the largest event in their annual calendar.
Here’s a clip I filmed moments before going on stage. It was in a fantastic location, a car museum!
by JimCarroll
“Stupid is not a strategy!” – #Futurist Jim Carroll
And so the trade war escalates.
I have a running folder with screenshots of headlines involving industries that have seen their exports plummet. Lumber exports to China collapsing. Soybean farmers in distress because of destruction of their overseas markets. Manufacturers beginning to lay people off because global sales opportunities are shrinking.
People always look for an easy way out of a complex situation, and choose a path that seems to offer that path, but is essentially stupid at best, unstably non-genius at most.
The thing is, people voted for this path. It’s going to take a long time to dig out of this mess.
I wrote about the idiocy of this situation – in which people are bringing destruction on themselves – in a blog post 18 months ago about my personal experience with the US soybean industry.
Take a look, and have a read:
——
“I opened the annual meeting of the United Soybean Board in St. Louis, a group that represents most of the US soybean industry. I was on stage with a message for over 300 soybean farmers about opportunities for future growth. In addition, I spent 2 hours in a private session with the Board of Directors talking about opportunity.
We talked a lot about China and global markets as a big opportunity. Today, the industry is struggling with the fact that they while they spent a lot of time developing China a key market, the country has now targeted their beans with tariffs. They are in the front line of the new global trade war.”
Who would have thought? Well, people vote, and votes matter.
——
And then I wrote:
“Here’s the thing – I’ll bet you dollars for donuts that most soybean farmers voted for an agenda that would supposedly ‘make America great again,’ but in the long run, certainly won’t help them. The conundrum is this: most of them voted for a path that placed restrictive ideas in the face of opportunities for innovation. They are now seeing the results of such a path.”
Seriously stupid, is not a strategy.
"*" indicates required fields
GET IN TOUCH
Jim's Facebook page
You'll find Jim's latest videos on Youtube
Mastodon. What's on Jim's mind? Check his feed!
LinkedIn - reach out to Jim for a professional connection!
Flickr! Get inspired! A massive archive of all of Jim's daily inspirational quotes!
Instagram - the home for Jim's motivational mind!