Daily Inspiration: “Waking up from the nightmare is just the first step in a difficult recovery!”

“Waking up from the nightmare is just the first step!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Here’s what we know – and what many predicted: instant greatness is but the stuff of delusional dreams and provides but the worst of nightmares.

I vividly remember speaking at a manufacturing conference deep in Minnesota in mid-2016. It was pretty clear to me that many in my audience had bought into the Koolaid that US manufacturing could quickly again dominate the world – simply by declaring it to be so.

We then saw fruitless trade wars with little overall impact, a continued degradation in the manufacturing skills base in the country, massively fraudulent investments (Foxconn anyone?) and so much more. Rather than moving forward, the country has really moved backwards while the rest of the world has moved forward.

Reinventing an economy to align to the future takes hard work – not angry bombast, shrieking threats and declarations of hate. The future of manufacturing involves dramatically upgraded skills, new technologies such as 3D printing, IIot, advanced robotics, disruptive process redesign, new material innovation, rapid reinvention and so much more.

What will now become apparent to many is that real, complex and deep destruction has occurred because of a belief that the future is something easy to attain; that success comes through declarations of desire; that reinvention is but a statement.

But with that in mind – let the future recommence!