Daily Inspiration: “You’ll get to your future faster once you accept the reality of where it is taking you!”

“You’ll get to your future faster once you accept the reality of where it is taking you!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I was invited to keynote a 100th Anniversary Celebration Gala Dinner for Nikon in Tokyo, Japan – and the message was that was running through my mind was that it doesn’t really matter what you’ve done in the last 100 years – it’s what you do in the next 5 that really counts!

That became an undercurrent to my talk – but I also spoke a lot about the necessity of accepting the disruptive rate of change that is swirling all around you. I opened with a story on when NASA invited me in (twice!) for a talk on the disruption of the space industry, transformative leadership, and fast-paced trends – and the need to accept the fact that the space industry of yesterday is forever gone. Today? It’s NASA, SpaceX, BlueOrigin, and a few hundred private space startups!

The talk in Tokyo was certainly a thrill – my audience consisted of people from 37 countries, with simultaneous translation into Japanese and Chinese. It was held at Happo-En – a wonderful Japanese-themed garden facility.

We were there for about 6 hours for stage prep and logistics coordination. I had a team of 6 handlers – and I must admit, for a time, I felt just like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, particularly as they spent 20 minutes quietly discussing whether I should enter stage left or stage right!

The main point in my talk? You don’t get to be a company with a 100-year history without constant, relentless innovation and reinvention, and so it was an honor to be invited to headline this prestigious event. Even so, I hammered home the idea that complacency kills – it’s the root of so much failure!

As in – are you the Pokemon GO in the room? Remember how quickly that reality came and went?