Daily Inspiration: “Every great future was once but a small, barely discernible opportunity!”

“Every great future was once but a small, barely discernible opportunity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

People want to be hopeful about the future – it’s better to see the opportunity it presents rather than the challenge it represents. That was the focus of a keynote as I opened a major annual conference for CPA Canada during this week just over two years ago. A stage! A real stage!

A hopeful vision has been the construct of many a keynote over my career as I built talks around a structure of the small trends that envelope us today that will have a profound impact on us tomorrow. Individually, any trend is disruptive. Combine them together, and it’s transformative. When everything connects, power disperses. Legacy is death: agility and speed are the new metrics for success. These are some of the mantras that should define your future. Disruption is real, it’s big, and it’s happening faster than you think.

The trends that define your future surround you today – and many of them are pretty small in scope. Watch this short clip to remind yourself of the world you find yourself in today.

What are the roots of all this disruptive change? Edge thinking, accelerated science, the collaborative global hive mind, and much more. Here’s a separate clip that puts into perspective the edge of innovation.

The fact is – it’s a great big future. But are you thinking too small?

Now ask yourself – what are you going to do to align to the era of acceleration?