When we look at our world over the arc of time, we have to acknowledge that we have made a lot of progress. We have seen reduction in all cause mortality and poverty, we have seen workforce expansion and the invention of new tools and had massive breakthroughs in science and technology improving health, reducing costs and expanding access to information and discovery.
Of course, we have also created unintended consequences and a variety of problems we have later had to try to solve. And we all know and feel the acceleration, things seem to be speeding up both for good and bad – at the same time.
We often even disagree on which are the good and which are the bad – thus is the complexity of the human condition.
It’s easy to think that this is out of our control and that we are passive recipients of this change, holding on for dear life trying to avoid irrelevance.
I choose to tell myself a different story one that leans on agency and optimism, and not just because I understand that optimists make money, it is because I believe that optimists invent the future.
In fact, I’ve been building my entire life toward this opportunity and I understand why. I believe deeply that the impacts of our lives are like pebbles on the water and I am here to make the biggest splash I can. It is not that I believe the future I plan to invent can be made by myself alone, it is that I know that my ability to galvanize action is a superpower and I need to use that to the fullest effect.
I understand that much of my work will be invisible to most, and that only a percentage will be attributed to me, but I also know that the world needs me to bring my gifts forward to push the future toward one that expands opportunity.
I have long known that I am a force of nature (do you know that you are too? If not you should discover that quickly) and I am all in to make the best use of my time, moving away from complaining and toward doing.
As part of my 2024 goals I made a commitment to myself to define my next big life goal – one that would set the northstar for the third quarter of my life. A goal that I would need to grow into, but was worthy of the effort.
So I set out to invent the future. A future where we value and engage the contributions of all to help humanity thrive.
I am not interested in incremental change, I want to see quadratic hypergrowth. I will invent a future that is abundant, expansive and one that values our shared humanity – even the messy bits.
I will invent a future that I want to live in.
I hope you will join me.
Comments