"Being unique will get you to your future faster!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
I'm starting a new series with this post.
I don't know exactly how it will unfold, what course it will follow, or when it will come to an end, and certainly don't know how often I will post within the series each week. Let's just say it's an indeterminate project with an uncertain outcome based on an end goal not yet fully defined on a timeline that is rather flimsy with a somewhat unclear objective!
Sounds like most corporate projects, doesn't it?
Here's the backstory. For quite some time, I've been working on the idea for my next book, with the tentative title How to be Unique (And Why It Will Get to Your Future Faster!). I've written several chapters, but find myself tackling it in a stop/start format, to such a degree I am wondering if I might ever finish it!
With that being the case, I decided through the weekend that one way to take on the project is to work it into my Daily Inspiration post, one of which you are reading right now. I enjoy writing these each day - the process of crafting together this daily message gives me time to focus my ideas and get those thoughts to paper, as it were.
The entire premise of the book should be obvious - the future involves innovation, a different style of thinking, and often, an offbeat ability to align to dramatic change. It's usually the case that those who think differently, who do the unexpected by chasing the unknown, are those who define the future or who succeed in the future. That's because they refuse conformity, don't follow the crowd, and challenge conventional wisdom. They don't base their thinking on preconceived notions - because they are unique.
And by doing so, they define the trends that define tomorrow.
In my mind, uniqueness has always involved the ability to understand a different type of tomorrow and insight into what it takes to get there. What if we could do a better job of capturing that lightning in a futuristic genie bottle? What if we could learn how to better empower our inner uniqueness to help us better understand tomorrow - and therefore, get to that future faster? What if we could learn about the power of being unique, and how we might foster this unique form of unique thinking?
That's my goal.
Now look, I know this is a tall order. We can't teach uniqueness - maybe you either have it, or you don't. The fact is, not all of us are born with the unique skills, capabilities, or insight that might allow us to be the next Steve Jobs or Richard Branson - both of whom were and are very, very unique. But what if we had a guide path, an action plan, and a roadmap for how to align ourselves in the same way that they've thought about tomorrow? Some insight on how we could be 'an oddball, a rebel, a freak' - because those are the ones who get the future done?
That's the premise of the book and the background for this series. And with that, it's also the origin of today's quote!
At this point, I've got a chapter structure, several chapters in various states of completion, and a lot of other material rolling around my desk and found within my head. Not only that - but I've fed almost 8 years' worth of these daily inspiration posts to an AI, and have been learning to query it to find the nuggets of information where I've covered this topic one way or another - because much of what I have been writing about for the last 8 years has involved what it takes to be unique.
So stay tuned - this will either be an interesting exercise that will lead to my next book - #40 for me - or it will end up as just a series of blog posts that are all about the power to be found in being unique! I'll aim to post at least 2 or 3 items in the series each week, leaving one or two other days for thoughts on some of the other things going on in the innovation and future world around us.
Be unique!
Futurist Jim Carroll realized quite some time ago that he doesn't think like other people do.