Invent the Future

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly trying to predict the future. We want to be ahead of our competition; leaping onto the next big trend before it gets big, spotting the opportunities that are on the verge of ripe. But is it possible to predict the future? Is there any point trying?

Doesn't look too difficult

Today, global progress is faster than ever, and increasing at a greater rate than ever before. Everyone knows that 100 years ago heavier-than-air flight was in its infancy, 50 years ago the mobile phone was barely a dream, and only 10 years ago no one had ever heard of Instagram. According to the World Economic Forum, the current pace of advancement, not just in technology, but also in the way we think, will “fundamentally transform the way we live”. That’s a pretty big call.

I’ve always been amazed by the pace of innovation in recent history, but I’ve never been able to imagine what effects this will have in the future. My personal experiences have consistently defied my expectations, and I think that’s a beautiful part of life. If life were predictable, not only would it be boring, but we’d stagnate intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

I’ve never been able to predict my personal future, but I’m only a hilarious uni student. Maybe someone a lot smarter than me has worked out how to forecast the future of humanity?

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dennis Gabor is pretty smart. Did I mention that he won a Nobel Prize? He wrote that rational thinking, by the world’s greatest minds, and even by the most powerful computers, can never predict the future. All they can do it map out the current probability space of possible future events. That sounds impressive, but doesn’t even resemble predicting the future on a macroscopic scale, as the probability space of tomorrow (or even an hour from now) will be immeasurably different, once one of the infinity possible options in today’s probability space has materialised.

Imagine this tree diagram, but with infinity branches!

So it seems the future can’t be predicted, but how much power do we really have in shaping it? The world is such a gigantic, complex, unpredictable system, and we’re all just one person. Well, each of us is just one person. You know what I mean.

Another very smart person is Donella Meadows. She beautifully encapsulates the relationship between the individual and the intricate system that is the rest of the world: “The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.”

I love this quote, because it simultaneously empowers the individual, and reminds us to appreciate that things larger than ourselves also shape our future.

Assuming I haven’t yet gone overboard with quoting smart people, I’ll share my favourite one from Gabor: “The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that predicting the future isn’t the question. The question is whether we have the courage and imagination to dance with the possibilities, to appreciate the power of the world to change us, and our power to change the world.

Motivation

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while, but I’m back for another semester of Global Challenges, which means another 12 weeks of blogging fun! Starting today, I’ll be posting every two weeks, exploring a bunch of my thoughts and experiences around entrepreneurship. Hopefully the insights that emerge will be relevant and at least a tiny bit helpful to you, whether or not you consider yourself an entrepreneur.

Today I want to talk about motivation. It’s a relatively crucial prerequisite for achieving just about anything, so I think it’s worth spending a few hundred words on. I’ll try not to ramble.

We all find ourselves lacking motivation at some point. It’s a fact of life. We rediscover our mojo eventually, but we’re not sure how, or what we should do differently next time. I don’t think there’s a silver bullet, but from personal experience I’ve learned that spending time with the right people can make a huge difference.

From here

On Tuesday night, Global Challenges students across the three cohorts were lucky enough to hear from the incredible Ian Mason: an entrepreneur, Y20 delegate, and all-round fantastic guy. He’s not a ‘motivational speaker’, but I left the dialogue that night feeling inspired, reinvigorated, and ready to tackle the adventures that lay ahead.

Don’t go thinking it needs to be a big event you attend, or an accomplished speaker you hear from. A conversation with a parent or friend can often give you the boost you need. 

When I’m feeling tired, stressed and a bit lost, my instinct is to keep to myself, and wade through my problems alone. That (almost) never helps. I find myself dwelling on my lack of productivity and motivation rather than doing something about it, and I close myself off from anyone who might be able to offer support.

To break away from my default response, I try to spend an hour with a friend each day, and in that hour I focus on them; giving myself a break from the pressure and guilt of whatever I need to get done that day. Check out the Conversation section of my post about meditation if you want a bit more detail on the power of a good chat.

It might seem like this mindset puts the responsibility for your motivation on others, but that wouldn’t be fair. It’s up to you to surround yourself with the right people, and be open to the support they offer. Both of those things are a lot harder than they sound, and I’m not an expert in this field by any stretch of the imagination, so you might want to do some further research. I’d suggest starting with this article from Forbes, or the fantastic book 'Mindsight', if you’re up for a longer read. 

Let me know in the comments section below if there are any other resources that help you stay motivated!

From here