Daily Inspiration: “The future demands that you reinvent. The only way to do that is to reimagine!”

“The future demands that you reinvent. The only way to do that is to reimagine!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

If what you sell, who you sell it to, how you sell it, and essentially, what it actually is – you’ve got to change things. If who you are, how you learn, what you know, and what you need to know, you need to reinvent. That means you need to reimagine your future – because it will be fundamentally different from everything you know today.

That’s why trend #14 of my ‘23 Trends for 2023′ is Reimagining & Reinventing.

I see a tremendous amount of change within my base of global clients. Volvo/Mac trucks have had me in twice for senior-level leadership talks, with a core message that they are reinventing or transforming. The typical truck today contains more technology than a Cessna plane, and the company knows that they are no longer selling a truck – they are selling a service with guaranteed uptime because they know when it is going to break down. They can sell their clients – large fleet operators – a guarantee of uptime. They’re going from selling a truck – to selling something different altogether. That’s reinvention.

Starbucks is busy reimagining the ‘gas station’ of the future, knowing that when ‘gas’ disappears and electric vehicles become predominant, the opportunity for reinvention of the ‘gas station’ is pretty profound. People will be spending 10-20 minutes for a battery top-up, and will likely spend that time buying coffee and pastries – talk about an opportunity to reinvent the idea of a filling station! Time to reinvent and reimagine and pursue new opportunities!

Philips understands they are no longer selling relatively simple medical devices, but instead, are selling a type of hyperconnected intelligent ‘smart thing; that does medical diagnosis and monitoring. They have essentially changed what they sell – and need to challenge their sales team to think differently as to how to sell it. That’s reinvention – because it’s not a widget anymore!

Heck, the company my son works for – a building inspection firm – recognizes that his drone work fundamentally changes the very nature of an external building inspection, doing it faster, with more accuracy, at less cost, than traditional manual methods. That’s reinvention. The challenge is, it takes a lot of work to get people on the side of reinvention.

Everywhere we look, people reinventing. In each and everything case, there was a fundamental reimagination of what the future holds in store.

This is your future at a personal level too. Your career will change, your job will evolve, your skills base will change, and your day-to-day activities will be transformed. It’s implicit on you to reinvent, and to do that, reimagine.

Because reinventing and reimaging is what most adults will do for a living from this point forward.

If you aren’t busy reimagining your future, you’ll never reinvent for what comes next.