JimCarroll

“Don’t be afraid of doing something. Be afraid of not doing it at all!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Let’s talk about the “Bench of Shame.”

It’s over on #12.

One must go and sit there when, on #11, they curve their first ball into the river, and then in a fit of pique or anger, hit their second one from the Drop Zone into the same river. By that point, the hole is pretty much over for you since you’ve hit your max.

The “Bench of Shame” is a place for quiet reflection on your inability to confront your emotions, deal with your fears, or reflect on your lack of progress. Once you’ve calmed down or can display some emotional maturity, you are allowed to return to your group. There is a bit of time for you to do that since they will cross the bridge, finish their shots on #11, and proceed to the tee box for #12.

They’ll catch up with you soon enough.

The “Bench of Shame” was inaugurated by my good friend and fellow golfer, Ian Bates. Being a Grade 5 teacher, he knew exactly what to do to deal with my ridiculous challenge on this hole of my home course, Credit Valley Golf and Country Club. In our early years together, I spent a bit of time hanging my head in shame and going to the Bench.

Today, it’s become far less frequent – primarily, because rather than facing the river with fear, I have faced it with a newfound sense of determination. (Moving up a tee box and playing to my abilities certainly didn’t hurt!) I’ve shifted it from a place of fear to a moment of determined opportunity. I am aware of the ever-present Bench off to my side vision to the right and have developed a fair bit of confidence that I won’t have to visit it. If golf is a mental game, the Bench of Shame defines its’ essence.

We do the same thing in our business and professional lives. We avoid difficult things because it is the easiest thing to do. We don’t take on the real challenges we face because we fear abandoning our complacency. WEe refuse to motivate ourselves to move forward because we are scared of leaving the place where we currently. The result is that we don’t adapt, innovate, disrupt, or change – we end up on our own business-oriented Bench of Shame.

Sometimes golf metaphors run deep, particularly in the summer months. As a late-in-life-golfer – I only became crazy passionate about the game around the age of 50. In the early years, I’ve had to spend some time on the Bench of Shame – until I turned around my attitude thanks to the intervention of my good buddy Ian.

I’m out for an early morning round. I know the Bench is there – but it’s not dominating my mindset through the first 10 holes as it has in the past.

Fore!

“If you worry too much about the future, you won’t enjoy the present!” – Golfer Tom Francis

I’ve been writing this ‘daily inspiration’ for close to 5 years; in that time, I’ve rarely featured the direct quotes of other people. And yet, yesterday’s comment by my good friend Tom was just too appropriate not to share!

It was an early morning tee time – first out. There were significant storms in the forecast – but three of us decided to go for it. I grabbed a radar shot as we headed down the first hole after our tee shot – the sky was ominous. By the time we got to the green, there was thunder above, and the lightning warning on my phone went off, indicating bolts of energy within 50km of the club. And yet, not close enough, because the warning sirens did not go off.

I started talking about bailing out on the day; my sense was suggesting the day was going to be a write-off because of a continuous series of storms.

And yet, Tom commented on my lack of optimism as we moved to the second tee box. “You’re supposed to be the optimist,” he joked. And he then made this brilliant observation: “If you worry too much about the future, you won’t enjoy the present!”  I immediately typed it into my phone so as to not lose it, and here we are today.

Here’s the thing – just prior to the round, Tom had returned to me the manuscript for my upcoming book, “Now What: Reinvention and the Role of Optimism in Finding Your New Future“; we had asked him to do a light edit and read through.

We ended up waiting out the storm in the cart barn while the storm moved through – which it did rather quickly. We ended up playing a wonderful round in lots of brilliant sunshine – a fantastic day out!

And I’ve learned at that moment that at some moments in time, I need to think less about where we might be in the future and more about where we are in the present.

“Have you ever noticed you are surrounded by people who have a stunning inability to confront their future?” – Futurist Jim Carroll

“It’s not you – it’s them!”

I’ve been working on identifying many of the trends that will define our post-pandemic future – we know we aren’t going back exactly to where we were before we were so rudely interrupted. One of the most significant is one that I was talking about pre-pandemic – the schism in society between those who were aligned to, and accepting the future, and those who are not. I believe we will now see a real economic impact for regions with low vaccination rates – what company is going to want to entrust future workforce investments to regions that will face an ongoing increase in healthcare risk and cost?

But it’s not just that. Clearly, the era of oil is over as we head into the world of renewables; cars based on gasoline are now from the olden days, while electric cars are clearly the dominant future. Brute force manufacturing skills are increasingly irrelevant; advanced skills are ascendant. Yet, what happens to those economic regions where people choose to turn their back on the future?

In the past, I often very carefully took on this issue from the stage with a bit of showmanship, by framing it in the context of the “Jetsons vs. the Flintstones.” That’s because this trend is not necessarily new: over the years, I have come to realize that while the majority of my audience appreciates a whirlwind ride into the future, there are others who just wish the future would go away. But now, vaccine-denialism (I refuse to call it hesitancy) is beginning to lay bare the future economic weakness of entire regions. Who might want to invest in Arkansas, Mississippi, and other regions going forward, when workforce unreliability driven by waves of illness will be a major trend going forward?

Dislike of the future? A refusal to accept the reality of trends? Science denialism? I used to worry and obsess over this challenge, often leaving a stage wondering why I wasn’t able to get through to everyone. Then years ago, I realized that no matter what I do, there will always be a core group that prefers the status quo. They fall prey to the sentiment of Ogden Nash: “progress is great, but it’s gone on way too long.”

The image below best captures the nature of the challenge!

Leaders today must steer their organization into a fast-paced future — through the shoals of disruption, the emergence of new competitors, technology, automation, and other challenges — while understanding that there is a core group that will do little to embrace that change. Consider what is happening with the acceleration of the automotive industry: self-driving cars, intelligent highways, prognostic self-diagnosing vehicles. The industry will be barely recognizable in 10 years! Cars tomorrow will be barely recognizable compared to what we drive today.

And yet, there remain folks who just refuse to participate in the inevitability of the future, and that can be a significant leadership, strategic challenge.

You are surrounded by such people. What’s your plan to deal with this fact?

 

“Never doubt for a moment the opportunities that YOU get to define!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Two years ago, I was on stage, the dinner speaker for a group of CPAs in Saskatchewan, Canada. They invited me in for a talk on the future of their profession, the opportunities in front of them, and the disruptive thinking they should pursue.

Here’s a fun fact that I don’t share too often – I’m actually still a CPA, originally a Chartered Accountant. As I will often describe, in a land long ago and a time far away, I worked for a decade for predecessor firms of KPMG and EY, doing ‘exciting’ work in the field of audit, business advisory, taxation, and accounting. In university – from which I graduated at the young age of 19 – I was actually an A+ accounting student. I guess I had a thing for numbers and logic. LOL.

It didn’t last long; obtaining my designation in but two short years, I discovered the world of connectivity the next year, in 1982, and soon found myself slowly, and then quickly, abandoning the career as I began to focus on the opportunity of what would become the Internet.  I pursued a path that let me define my own future. THAT is the key to your own success.

Regrets? None! In fact, I would not be able to do what I do if I did not have the chance to develop the unique set of skills the profession afforded me. And THAT was the key story I told on stage on this day, two years ago. Let me share with you the remarkable story of a young CA student who wrote me back in 1995; bored, he was ready to quit the profession and asked me for my advice.

Let me play out in a series of screenshots the story: starting with the original message.

I wrote him back, suggesting that he ‘stick with the program’ and get his designation:

I expanded on my views:

Imagine my surprise, years later, when he wrote me back – he passed!

And it doesn’t end there! Mathieu followed up with me almost two decades later, telling me the story of the remarkable career that he had the opportunity to define for himself.

What’s the lesson from all of this? Your future? It’s yours to own, yours to create, yours to pursue. Chase wisely!

As for the acocunting porofesion? Years later, EY invited me in to open a major conference, and I told a great little story of my own experience: