The Choice Is Yours
The truth is, someone has to drive the forklift, someone has to drive the truck, sell cars, and so on. There will always be a need for manual labor no matter how much technology invades our world. There will always be a need for human interaction. While 60% of sales may be online, we will still have big box stores and specialty shops, and someone has to work in them.
No matter how advanced we get, no matter how smart, no matter how close we get to the singularity, there will always be a need for people to look each other in the eye, and for humans to do manual labor. The question is, are you one of those people, or do you believe you were meant to do something different, something your parents never had the opportunity to do because they had to provide the basics of survival.
We all have been conditioned to believe that there is one way to organize work, to be creative, and to deliver goods and services. Today, we come to realize that’s not the case anymore, we have options. I didn’t have the same options as a young man, Microsoft started in 1975, the year I graduated in a small town in Northern BC. I had never heard of or seen a computer, just a handheld calculator, who knew we would be where we are today! We all have the same 24 hours, and we all have to provide the basics for our families. Once you have those things in perspective and under control, the choice is yours.
Do you continue to do manual labor, there is no shame in it, or journey into the world of an entrepreneur, where security has a different meaning. You have it in you do either one.
Security Is A Dream Stealer
It’s easy to look back, to remember what it was like when you were a teenager, wishing somethings never changed. It’s easy to wish and wonder, but it’s much harder to look ahead and see what you must do to prepare, I know it’s harder, because most of us didn’t give the future a second thought when we were 17 – 20 years old. We might have thought, I wonder what I’ll be like when I’m 30, 40 or 50 years old, but that’s about it. I know, because I did it. The numbers are low for those who knew what they wanted to be when they grow up, and the numbers are even lower for those who aren’t in the profession they went to school to learn how to do. So it’s comfortable to look back, to reminisce about what might have been, or what you miss as a fully grown adult years removed from your youth.
One thing I’ve discovered about looking back, it has yet to move me forward, and it has yet to solve anything but bring about a sadness within. So why do we do it? It goes back to our collective human behavior, we love to be comfortable, where everything feels good, and is in its proper place. We say, I remember when…and it takes us back to a warm feeling, and puts a smile on our faces. I’m generalizing, but that’s most of us, some revert to unhappy places, but most of us want to remember happier times.
Looking ahead is much harder work, because we have trouble seeing the world in front of us, what it’s really like, and what it will be like 10, 20,30 years from now. Most of us can’t see next week let alone 30 years down the road. When looking ahead, it gets uncomfortable, and then it begins, the resistance, and the reason why we tend to get ready to get ready and never actually do anything. Because we are addicted to being comfortable, we can’t see, we can’t look ahead because what we fear is the unknown, and that makes us very uncomfortable.
You’ve heard of people being called change agents, they love change, they love making new things happen. The majority don’t like these people, because they set fear into their hearts of the comfortable, because they know something uncomfortable is coming. To embrace change agents, or the future, takes courage, and we all have courage, we tend use it when it’s safe to do so. When looking into the future, we tend to look with the wrong filter, we look for a preferred future over the one we don’t have control over. Control is the root issue. If we can’t control our future’s, we don’t want to think about it, we don’t want to open our eyes.
Building a business that will be a legacy, requires giving up control at some point on the journey. We have to see the world differently to design this business that last 30 years or more. Maybe you’re not building a lifetime long business, but if you are, you need to use the right filter, and see the world differently. The comfort zone we love holds us back, it prevents us from creating, differentiating, and delivering. Embrace the unknown future, and break the comfort zone pattern.
The comfort zone was built by the Industrial Age work and school system, it conditioned us into believing it feels like security, and we are seriously addicted to the feeling of being secure. That security is wrapped in money, which misleads us and takes us off course when our journey’s get difficult. That security immobilizes us, and it’s a dream stealer to.
If You Must Write A Business Plan
If you must write a business plan, you just can’t move forward without one, keep it simple. Don’t think in traditional terms, just do a simple business plan, something you can refer to as a guide. Here are 8 points to consider if you MUST write a business plan:
- Executive Summary – I would write it after you’ve done the next 7 points. Keep it short, one page.
- Company Description – Legal establishment, history, start-up strategy, etc.
- Product or Service – Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
- Market Analysis – You should know your market, customer needs, is there a need, where they are, and how to reach them.
- Strategy & Implementation – Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you track results.
- Internet Strategy – For E-Commerce, include development costs, operations, and sales & marketing plans.
- Management Team – Describe the organization, and the key management personnel.
- Financial Analysis – Include your projected profit and loss, and cash flow tables.
You could have someone review this plan to ensure it’s a viable business, be sure this person or firm is capable of doing so. Be careful here, you could get stuck trying to make it perfect, don’t, just write as briefly as you can, unless you’re applying for funding, they want all the details.
Take The Drive
Last night while I was driving home, I couldn’t help notice the different types of businesses there were along the way. There were hundreds of buildings, warehouses, and mini-malls, not to mention the large storage centers and big box stores, and that was on one highway! I was wondering how much all the bricks & mortar leasing, rental and mortgage payments might be, I know it’s an odd thing to ask yourself while driving.
When you think of starting a business, or maybe taking over an existing business, do you consider buying, building, or leasing? Or do you consider building something that doesn’t need the large asset, and the huge debt attached. As Bricks & Mortar becomes more and more Clicks & Pages, how do you see the future of these monstrosities?
If you truly want to start a business, take the drive. Drive down main street, drive down any highway or street that has businesses on them, ask yourself one question….what’s missing? Then ask yourself if it can be built with Clicks & Pages rather than Bricks & Mortar, the traditional business building model. How would your idea make your communities life easier, what problem would you solve, and does it need to be solved. Once you know the answer, don’t wait, just start making it happen.
The Future Of Business – Your Profession May Not Exist
It’s entirely possible, that the profession you’re now in, won’t exist or will be dramatically different in the next 5 – 10 years. What you should be learning is, economies, big business, even small business, the financial infrastructure of business doesn’t care how long you’ve been with the company, it doesn’t care if you’re the best at the job, it does care about making money, and you mostly cost them money. Cut backs are almost always in the form of people, rarely have you heard of a business reducing the size of the building or plot of land before they cut back people, it just doesn’t happen, and it’s easier to let people go than to the other cut back ideas.
Many authors have written about the new big being small, because so many people are finding themselves being released all types of jobs, even the long careers that we think are safe and secure. The business world is not compassionate, it’s a bottomline beast, the margins matter, and you’re easier and cheaper to replace.
Soon we will have no choice but to adopt to the new work landscape, and that will be a world with fewer jobs and more self-employed / entrepreneurs. The Industrial Age system is fighting that movement, it wants you to stay where you are and to do as your told.
The biggest challenge with new world order of work, it’s a scary place, the level of risk is higher, but the rewards are also higher if you choose the road less traveled. The reason many don’t step out is because the old system provides you with just the right amount of something called security. That system also has just the right amount structure to make you think no one else could do what you do, you couldn’t be replaced. You must know that’s an untruth. This system we call the Industrial Age is crumbling, and soon we will speak of it as something that didn’t work well for people who were creative, and entrepreneurial in nature.
Your profession, should be you, mastering the best you, providing the best service you can offer, your investment will need to be in you. The term profession now takes on a new meaning doesn’t it, it’s not what you do, it’s who you are, and how you execute who you are. Leaving the Industrial Age behind is hard, but eventually, it will disappear, and you’ll have to figure out how to manage without it. Consider what your profession looks like, and build that.
