“‘Begin’ - it's a great word. Many of us are often in short supply of this precious resource.” - Futurist Jim Carroll
On stage at the Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut in July 2017, with a talk on the future of manufacturing. It's an odd industry - I found myself on the very same stage with the very same topic, albeit with a different company, just one week later. Much of my focus in both talks was the need to start aligning to fast-moving trends in the sector - rapid design and fast prototyping, additive manufacturing, IIOT, new material science.
But a key part of my underlying message was that they should start working with the future immediately - as our world accelerates, there is no time for delay!
And yet, most people and the organizations for whom they work excel at delay - indecision and inaction permeate each and every moment. Excuses provide a pathway to defer action, fear of failure freezes motion. We often postpone our actions for a myriad of reasons - and so initiative is often the best resource that we might have going for us.
Begin! Merely starting something - even if you aren't sure of the path it will lead you on or the outcome that will result - is one of the most important things we can do.
As I would often observe on stage: "we don't know exactly where we are going but we are making great time!" In a world in which the future - and the trends that define it - are coming at us with staggering speed, it is often best to at least begin the process before knowing what the actual result might be.
