"Stop whining. Start doing." - Futurist Jim Carroll
Herein ends my rant for the week.
It all started when I heard the phrase, "not going back." For me, that encapsulated what I've witnessed with some of those in the audience with my keynotes over the last decade. It seems that the audience has bifurcated into those who are eager to move forward, and those who want to go back to where they were. It's been a dramatic schism and is often reflected in the reaction to my talk - leading me to realize that the job of a futurist has become far more challenging because many simply do not like the future and what it represents.
It's the reaction to tomorrow that some people have that mystifies me. To the latter - is it possible to be so devoid of ideas that all you can do is complain about the state of the world - and yet offer up no ideas? Is it your belief that a litany of excuses will somehow better position you in the race that is innovating for the future, instead of doing something about it? Is your reality such that all you think you need to do is constantly complain about things, and everything will suddenly go your way?
It's easy to whine when things aren't going your way. Yet even so, this doesn't get you anywhere.
Innovators don't complain. Innovators don't whine. Innovators don't make excuses.
They act.
This happens at a leadership level too. Gosh knows I've seen too many situations where a company has been faced with dramatic new forms of competition - a fast-moving new company with a killer product that is set to take over the market as a result of bold moves. I've witnessed a few clients of mine suffer the ignominious fate of failure as they thought that a culture of complaints might help them survive this onslaught of innovation. "It's not fair." "But we own this market." "How dare they invade our space." "Who do they think they are?"
In some cases, the whining goes straight to the process of regulatory or legislative action - they whine to those who can pass the rules, laws, and regulations, in the hopes that a few well-timed laws and regulations might somehow stop or delay the inevitable onslaught of tomorrow. This never ends well - after all, the casket industry learned this lesson.
I'm not trying to preach - I'm working to share my views of what I've seen happening out there. In doing so, I might tweak in your mind the depth of the reality that excuses are the oxygen of the weak. Those who act move forward, not back. Our current news cycle has a huge number of people who are so busy complaining about the state of their world, that they fail to realize that they are devoid of any real ideas as to how to get to tomorrow. They are being spoon-fed a diet of victimhood that does nothing to elevate them into the process of adapting to tomorrow. History has taught us that this never ends well.
Stop whining.
Start doing.
As I keep saying, we live in 'interesting' times.
Futurist Jim Carroll spends his time sharing ideas on how to move forward, not back.