Why Creatives, Generalists, Polymaths, Obsessives, Original Thinkers, Storytellers and Trailblazers will Dominate The Future of Work
Our world economy, global commerce and business is being radically transformed at a faster pace each day in no short part thanks to digital technologies and digital transformation. I have spoken about these technological shifts, business disruptions and the new passion economy that is emerging because of the speed and the velocity of these changes.
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We are entering a world in which tech entrepreneurs combined with powerful digital technologies and agile mindsets will quickly disintermediate and disrupt older companies, businesses, or institutions for that matter which fail to stay relevant. And it is a world that will become increasingly borderless.
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I also believe that there will be certain groups of people with certain skillsets but more importantly mindsets or perspectives that equip them better than most people to thrive in this new digital era. People who are more creative, flexible and adaptable will thrive in the new digital era because they will always know how to learn and how to pivot. Knowing how to learn and how to pivot are very important skills in an age of constant disruption and fast paced change so generalists who are lifelong learners will be successful in the digital era, because the rate of change is increasing so fast and because the half-life of knowledge and information is decreasing so fast.
Workers who are more entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial and who are able to take a step back and look at the bigger picture or the forest for the trees and spot both the potential problems as well as the business opportunities available with those problems and the mindset, skillset and passion to learn and problem-solve will be the most successful in the new economy we are entering which is becoming more volatile, uncertain as well as more automated and digitalized.
The obsessives who love what they do will be the ones who succeed regardless of what sector or industry they are in. Because obsessives are so passionate about their work, they are intrinsically motivated and they will be much more driven to excel and to dominate their respective sectors or industries.
Gary Vaynerchuk also is an inspirational entrepreneur who talks about the importance of passion and converting your passions into your job or career or entrepreneurial calling. It’s quite simple but most people don’t do it, because we are taught not to do it because of a schooling system designed for the industrial era and not for the digital era. In the digital era or age of the internet we find ourselves in we can do literally anything. So why not find creative ways to monetize your passions? Why not do what you love? If you do what you love, chances are you’ll live a much happier and more meaningful life and attract better things, better people and most likely better money in the process because you’ll genuinely become great.
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And people who are able to connect dots faster, take inspiration from a variety of different fields and who can synthesize information more crisply tend to be generalists who can work across different domains and completely dominate their industries. In an age where Software, Artificial Intelligence, Low/No-Code Tools such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will automate many repetitive and mundane tasks and remove alot of old factory-like or industrial era jobs, they will increase the value of creativity as productivity becomes redefined for the digital age and the future of work.
Work will become more and more human again as software, machines, robotics, and artificial intelligence handles the drudgery. We can already see the writing on the wall as we look to Silicon Valley and many high-tech companies as well as their highest revenue generating companies, divisions, sectors and jobs. The pace of change in technology and innovation is itself accelerating drastically in the 21st century hyperconnected and networked world we live in. Human intuition, judgement, creativity, empathy and decision-making are the skills of the future high-tech economy and the future of work.
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I think that creatives and generalists therefore tend to be more entrepreneurial and will also dominate navigating the increasingly digitalized world we find ourselves entering. The startup and agile mentality of “Move Fast and Break Things” is the driving ethos of Silicon Valley and has led to much of the pioneering success of the startups, big tech companies, entrepreneurs and executives who work there. By running many experiments and constantly failing forwards, they are able to drive innovation and “Disrupt” Competitors and stay alive at a far better pace than counterparts who are more resistant to “Disrupting Themselves” or willing to try new things and fail. In Silicon Valley, many entrepreneurs are extremely innately driven because of the culture of collective problem-solving and innovation. They truly believe that they are changing the world. Their mission is what drives them to success, or to at the very least risk-taking and that is what drives innovation in technology, business, entrepreneurship and society. Silicon Valley and the tech industry is a big one that comes to mind, because of the level of creativity and design thinking involved in the innovation and startups scene. However, Silicon Valley and Tech is just one example of a highly creative industry. There are others such as Acting, Making Music, Making Art, Podcasting, and more. We can’t imagine the types of jobs that will be created out of the 4th industrial revolution. But there will be alot of creative industries and creative jobs created out of the 4th industrial revolution. More people will need to go through a change in mindset because of the level, scale and speed of disruption that is coming. And the future of work will definitely be more human and passion-oriented. We might have hybrid career paths or paths where millennials and younger generations in particular work many different careers, hold many different jobs or create new entrepreneurial lanes to success where they combine their own passions in unique ways in this new passion economy.
I think the focus on problem-solving and innovation that creativity nurtures is crucial and is one of the most transferable skills of our lifetimes, especially in the 21st century where we face cascading problems at an accelerated rate. Because the rate of change and disruption is increasing so fast, so must be our willpower to solve these problems such as automation, climate change and wealth inequality. We need more problem-solvers and broader thinkers who are able to combine STEM and business skills with the humanities and who are able to learn skills and help not only themselves and building their own skills, knowledge, wisdom, health, wealth but helping others build their skills, knowledge, wisdom, health, wealth and helping build a better and more sustainable and flourishing world. Having the ability to both zoom in on the mechanics of solving a particular problem but also the quality of zooming out and looking at the world is crucial to create a broader positive impact. Human intuition, judgement, creativity, empathy and decision-making are the skills of the future high-tech economy and the future of work.
System-level thinkers, creatives and original thinkers who can think and reason from first principles and constantly ask the right questions will move very far in today’s knowledge economy where things are changing so rapidly because of constant tech disruption.
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Specialists who don’t try to learn more about other domains may have a harder time seeing the bigger picture and may have a harder time therefore building mental-models that can help them in the long-term with navigating the increasing pace of change. Specialists will also have a tougher time adapting to new roles if they don’t become lifelong learners themselves.
Jack Ma, the Founder of China E-Commerce Giant Alibaba has said that our education system has become antiquated in the digital age because it doesn’t teach independent thinking and many students who view school like a curriculum view their entire lives as a curriculum. And that’s a massive problem because while that may have worked in the 20th century factory age, it doesn’t work in 21st century digital age where business moves alot quicker and where we have constant technological disruption. The problem is people who stop learning and stop thinking for themselves will have a lot of trouble navigating in a world that changes faster and faster.
Furthermore in a world of increasing disruptive innovation and automation, the highest performers will always be those who can synthesize information across different domains and then apply them accordingly and who can build better mental models. Seeing what others miss, connecting those dots faster and faster, and cutting out the noise that is irrelevant is increasingly important and valuable in a world of increasing information overload and anxiety about the future. This is why the next generation of entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk who anticipate these transitions and know how to properly coordinate people and capital with the right technologies along with the correct vision, mission and purpose will always succeed in this environment of hyperchange. Its also why entrepreneurship and creative skills will become very highly valuable for creating wealth in the coming decades and even over most regular 9-5 jobs (which are more repetitive and susceptible to automation).
Because anything that can be automated, mechanized, or replaced by machines, robots, software or artificial intelligence will be and so repetitive jobs with many repetitive tasks will be gone in the coming few years with the pace of change.
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