JimCarroll

“Make more of the moments that matter!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

This was a selfie I took yesterday at the airport in Sherbrooke, Quebec, yesterday, just moments after the conclusion of the full totality portion of the 2024 eclipse. To say that I was a bit overwhelmed by the experience would be an understatement – as would seem to be the case with everyone there, and all of the millions who made their way to the path.

I tried to immerse myself within the moment, rather than spending a lot of time trying to film and record the event, having read and listened to a few reports from various eclipse veterans. But my good friend and pilot of our adventure, Osama Arafat, did manage to catch the moment in all its glory.

I won’t try to wax poetic about what I witnessed and the beauty of the moment, other than to say it far exceeded all of my expectations. I am so thrilled to have put in the effort and drawn upon the information resources I had to end up at a tiny little airport in Southern Quebec, traveling there in a private plane.

My original plan was to head down to Fort Erie to visit a close friend; however, a health issue that emerged for him last week put this out of the line of action. Not only that, but the weather forecast for the region started to look pretty dismal.

For days, I’d been relying on every powerful cloud prediction model available, obsessing over the potential accuracy of a difficult weather forecast. I ended up relying on a fantastic site that a Ph.D. in meteorological science had put together that gave detailed, up-to-date forecasts for every city along the path.

I began to look at options – it was becoming evident that Southern Ontario might not be the best-case scenario. The weather models told me, “Go east, young man!” So I began working on options. I bought a train ticket to Kingston, Ontario, and a flight to Fredericton, New Brunswick, the weather forecast carefully.

And then, on Saturday, I sent a text to my good friend Osama – we go back some 30 years when I wrote his company – an Internet service provider – into the 2nd edition of our Canadian Internet Handbook, and a year later, did a custom ‘mini-book;’ with him that included a floppy disk (!) that people could use to sign up online. Osama went on to build a cloud server company after that project and did very, very well. He also took up flying as a side project and hobby, flying charters, personal trips, and medevacs. He told me he had no real plans, but that I wanted to go somewhere to see it, and he’d be pleased to get me there.

I swung into action – it was back to the weather maps, and Sherbrooke, Quebec, kept staring at me with blinking lights, with all the models almost giving a guarantee of clear skies in this region in Southern Quebec.

And away we went on his TBM-850 – the fastest, highest-altitude single-engine turboprop in production – on a fast, one-hour flight at 28,000 feet, landing at this small, usually sleepy regional airport.

And it was wild, bustling with activity, as it seemed a lot of private pilots came to the same weather conclusion that I had! There were dozens and dozens of arrivals of private aircraft of every size, shape, and form – we only managed to get in by the seat of our pants, getting a tarmac reservation at the last moment before it filled up. There were now 4 of us involved in this adventure, with another buddy of Osama’s flying in from Toronto on his helicopter with 5 others – because he couldn’t get ramp space for his jet!

The scene was indescribable – with perhaps one of my favorite moments when this jet came in from New York City, a couple of families tumbled out – and proceeded to set up an eclipse picnic right at the edge of the tarmac.

And with all that – what a day, what a moment, and what an experience.

As they say, it’s one that I will never forget – and I am so glad that I put in the effort, with the help of my good friend, to make a moment that matters, matter more!

“Your potential lies on the other side of your inaction!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I regularly meet people who are stuck.

Often they are trapped in situations in which they are doing things they don’t want to do and are chasing the same excuses every day about why they want to escape and set themselves free.

Yet they never do. They end up defining their future by their inaction rather than their initiative.

One of the worst things you can ever do when it comes to aligning to tomorrow is to let your inaction drive your decisions – the only way to move forward is actually to make the steps to go there.But what is holding you back? Fear of failure? Could the dread of disappointment be paralyzing you? Do you doubt your ability to succeed? Is it the warm embrace of your comfort zone, your safe space, or the fact that doing nothing drives your decisions? Are you endlessly procrastinating, deferring the decisions that might get you moving? Are you overthinking each step of your escape, letting analysis paralysis guide your inaction?

Maybe you should do an inaction inventory. Identify the uncertainties that are immobilizing you, the negative self-talk that chips away at your confidence. Is it fear of the unknown? Lack of resources? Self-doubt? People around you are negative influences, feeding you the message that what you are thinking about can’t be done.

Moving forward can often be overwhelming – but standing still, in the long run, will be even more overwhelming because you will come to define yourself by your inaction rather than your initiative.

It’s Motivation Monday, folks! Get motivated, and get moving!

“Yesterday’s ideas won’t work for you tomorrow!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Someone asked me yesterday about my comment that Chinese automotive companies will likely own the automotive industry of the future.

Sadly, I think that it is true – the reason for that being that most auto manufacturers seem to continue to be busy fighting the battles of the last century, using product designs, ideas, and concepts involving the vehicle architecture of that era. The other automotive company that has the opportunity to own the industry in the 21st century has a CEO in place who has no focus on the battle ahead.

Case in point? How about this:

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest carmaker, has since been a frequent EV skeptic, funding misleading advertisements, and lobbying against government policies that promote them around the world.

How Three High-Tech Countries Became Laggards in Electric Vehicles,
Japan, South Korea and the US have fallen behind their peers in EV adoption — despite meeting the criteria to be frontrunners.
Blooomberg, April 4, 2024

I could dig out a zillion articles like this from my research service that play into this theme, but why bother? Many folks have an ingrained belief that the dominant companies of the 20th century will be the dominant ones of the 21st. It’s their right!

Rather than doing that, I went into one of my research services and dug out this article from 1962.

Read it, and think about where we are today.

Market for Buggy Whips Diminishes
Morning Sentinel, Waterville Maine, December 29, 1962

The market for buggy whips has diminished to a tiny fraction of what it once was. The formerly flourishing industry has been hard hit by decreased demand and foreign imports.

Manufacturers of buggy whips report steadily declining profits.

At the risk of anti-trust prosecution, they have formed the Association of Buggy Whip Manufactured of America so that they might petition Washington for aid with a stronger voice.

The employees whose livelihood is threatened are represented by the Amalgamated Buggy Whip Braiders of America. They insist they must have a further pay raise to match the increased cost of living. So the Buggy Whpe makers squeezed between increased costs and decreased demand, have petitioned Washington for a subsidy.

The manufacturers of buggy whips ask that the government agree to purchase and stockpile all buggy whips not absorbed through regular market channels. And that the government agrees to pay 90% of the party price for such buggy whips.

Further, the A.O.B.W.M asks the government for long-term, low-interest loans for the purposes of purchasing new machinery, expanding operations, and increasing production.

‘The union, In a parallel petition, reminds the President and the Congress that the Amalgamated| Buggy Whip Braiders represents| a solid bloc of votes and Wat bloc can be even more impressive if expansion plans are expedited.

The Association further states that, though the present demand for buggy whips is negligible, a serious situation might develop in the event of a national emergency if our nation should be the only nation with an inadequate backlog of buggy whips.

Further, if the buggy whip industry is allowed to atrophy and fail, the stability of our wage-price structure would be seriously threatened. The gross national product would be affected. Unemployment would be increased. Government tax revenue from this source would be sharply reduced.

The Association of Buggy Whp Manufacturers recognizes that their labor force is comparably a minority. But asks, “Is it not the essence of our American Way of Life that we recognize our obligation to minorities?” The buggy whip braiders ask night more nor less than a fair shake, a square deal, as much consideration as the next fellow

The slogan of the Association of Bugy Whip Manufacturers of America is, “Progress is Our Most Important Contribution to the Nation.”

Americans, you read through most of the above — perhaps all of it — unaware that it was a literary invention intended as satire.

I come away from reading this article with three conclusions:

• I must get in and do a keynote for this association!
• the reference to minorities would certainly be somewhat politically incorrect today!
• I could probably recycle this article, and substitute in many an industry of the 20th century who is busy whining rather than reinventing

The future doesn’t like old ideas. It likes new ones. Find them, and chase them.

That is all.

“Anything can be accomplished with courage!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I drew a blank this morning.

Most days, I pull together the next day’s quote the previous day and then spend some time thinking about what I’m thinking about. For some reason, I didn’t manage to do that yesterday – the result being that as I started my day today, I went into my mindset folder of unused quotes (it’s in Gmail) to find something to think about. And I found this one – ‘anything can be accomplished with courage.’  It looks like I sent it to myself on December 21, 2021 – I don’t remember the context of the time, but obviously, something was on my mind!

Courage? If that’s the theme, here’s a key thought for the day – “Courage is the secret to strength!,” something I shared way back in 2019.

Courage? Anything can be accomplished with courage – it’s the thing that gives you the power, strength, and fortitude to push through those tough times.

But it’s not just the tough times that you need to draw upon your reserves of courage – you need it in your everyday life. All of us are being buffeted by change, disruption, volatility, and uncertainty – it always seems relentless. That’s why every morning, it might be a good idea to fortify ourselves with our secret weapon – our courage to continue to face the unknown, battle the ambiguity, and innovate our way through it.

We need to make sure that we always dare to buck the status quo, dismiss the naysayers, and make big bold steps.

To do that, we need to draw on our courage reserve – and then take a deep breath, and dive into the deep end, both eyes open.

Because even when you have nothing, you always have something – your courage!