Today I’d like to challenge you to think about whether are you are truly equipped to win in the future :-)

We all know that getting ahead of the curve is absolutely crucial for any professional. Our ability to look into the future and assess what really matters will define our career.

But if the future ‘happens to you’, you will always be scrambling to catch up. Not always a good place to be...

However, if you think too far into future you risk starvation. There are so many businesses that never made it because they were too far ahead of their time. Thinking too far ahead has another risk: people might think you're crazy. They may stop inviting you over for dinner or put on disturbing facial expressions when you tell them about your ideas.

The trick is to think far enough ahead to be more than competent in a world of exponential innovation. It makes me think of surfers. Catch the wave too late and you’ll miss the ride. Do it too early and it will come crashing down on you.

The difference between a futurist and a billionaire.

A while ago a good friend of mine told me something that was so spot on that I will never forget it. He said ‘the difference between a futurist and a billionaire is that the billionaire is a futurist that took action on a vision’.

I'm not saying that I have the formula to become a billionaire, because if I did I would be one myself I guess. The thing is that there is a big difference between just contemplating talking about the future and actually getting ready for it by taking action. If anything, I hope this episode will put you on that kind of trajectory.

Our technological evolution keeps accelerating.

It is moving so fast that it sometimes seems unbelievable how much innovation really takes place in a decade. It's crazy when you think about the fact that most of the devices we can't live without today only first appeared between five and seven years ago. The iPhone came to the market in 2007, the iPad was first seen in 2010. One year later Google gave us Android. Facebook first opened to the public in 2006 and already acquired its first 500 million users in 2010. Finally, LinkedIn only went global in 2008. These are all tools that we use on a daily basis. If they would be taken away today, it would severely disrupt the way we live and work.

We can’t even imagine what lies ahead.

Amazingly, the things that we cannot live without today were difficult to envision only a decade ago! This only makes you wonder what lies ahead in the next decade. Just as before, we probably can't even imagine the kind of inventions that will become mainstream must-have applications.

We are great at adapting to innovation

Charles Darwin famously said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”

The good thing about us humans that we are actually quite good at adapting to new things. We've always found a way to thrive on innovation. We harnessed the power of the printing press, the steam engine, the invention of medicine, telephones, air travel, personal computers, the Internet and even mobile phones.

All these breakthroughs were initially criticized and dismissed as fads that wouldn't persist. We are trained to be skeptical of innovation, then again those who embrace status quo never thrived as much as those who were early in adopting new technologies. It usually pays off to be ahead of the curve.

Here’s a rhetorical question: Are we less human because we have medicine, telephones or the ability to travel to the other side the world and less than a day?

The biggest human mobilisation ever

And although it may not seem that new, one of the biggest transformative innovations of today is the proliferation of the Internet. More specifically the connectivity it brings. There are already 3.2 billion people online as I write this. This number is set to double in the next five years. This is the biggest human mobilization ever!

Shortly, most Internet users will be from emerging markets in places like Asia and Africa. In fact, today almost half of the worlds Internet users are from Asia and because penetration rates are still fairly low when compared to the USA and Europe, more than 70% of the online population we'll probably be from those developing markets.

But why is this so important? The reason is pretty simple: both of the workforce and the consumer base we'll be predominately located in these regions. This is where we will find the majority of our customers as well as our talent pool.

These are billions of new voices and minds. Many will be digital newcomers with more ‘native’ relationships with technology because they come of age into a world that is already hyper connected.

This also means that we will have an even larger and more connected global talent pool, one that comes with major advantages such as operating from at a lower cost basis, local language skills and an understanding of their native cultures.

What you really need to do is think hard about how you can benefit from this opportunity instead of becoming its victim.

In addition, there are other developments at play that will further break down barriers:

The end of language

First of all we soon see the proliferation of instant translation technology. We already have applications that allow us to speak with our devices, combine that with the major advancements translation technologies and it is only matter of time before realiable instant translation technology will allow us to have conversations with anyone in the world in their respective languages.

Seamless transactions

Another major game changer will be the rise of electronic (crypto) currencies. The blockchain technology that underpins this new paradigm is probably as transformational as the internet itself. What this means is that we will be able safely and seamlessly transact with anyone in the world while eliminating the concerns associated with credit checks, fraud and the cost of international transfers or credit card transactions. I won’t get into the topic of blockchain technology right now, but this will change finance as we know it forever and make it possible to directly transact with anyone in the world.

Knowledge as a commodity

Everyone will have access to the same information. Online education is probably one of the fastest growing industries of the next decade. Why this matters is that with an online connection, these billions of newcomers will be able to acquire the same skills as anyone else. This will make the global landscape a very competitive place…

The end of jobs as we know them

As a result of all this, we will see a tectonic shift in the job market. We are now seeing the beginning of the end of employment as we know it because technology connects millions of motivated freelancers around the world, especially those who live and work in those emerging markets.

We are already seeing how the corporate world is shifting from working with employees to hiring freelancers. So if you consider a falling language barrier and the ability to seamlessly transact with any professional, regardless of their location, the world will soon become a much more competitive place than it is today.

Is this an opportunity or a threat?

It depends on your mindset. What is for sure is that in the short term there will be more qualified experts than jobs. From that perspective this looks more like a threat. However, if you take the perspective that these billions of new connected professional are also potential customers. Therefore, in the medium term, the opportunities that these billions of newly connected consumers bring probably outweighs the threat of a disruption in the global job market.

If fact, this is an unprecedented opportunity because in less than a decade we will more than double the amount of consumers thanks to connectivity. Just thinking about this makes me dizzy…

How to benefit from the disruption?

This all brings one major challenge for all of us: How to position yourself online to stand out in a crowded, noisy and hyper-connected world?

A few years ago I came across one sentence that changed my entire perspective on what truly matters to get ahead in business:

“It is no longer about who you know, but all about who knows you”

Think about that for a moment. Isn’t that what it is all about in this crowded globally connected market?

The main questions you should always be asking is ‘Am I visible enough to stand out in this enormous crowd? And if so, does it help me attract business’..?

That is what the next lesson is all about: Stop chasing business…Start attracting it instead.