Futurist Jim Carroll

Daily Inspiration: "No one cares about your complaints. They only care about your ideas" - Futurist Jim Carroll

No one likes the whiner, the chronic complainer, the person who just drones on with how unhappy they are. It's tiresome, annoying, and downright disturbing.

That should be pretty obvious, but we all are guilty of it at times despite our best efforts. That's why it can sometimes be a good idea to focus on being initiative-oriented rather than complaint-focused. You can do that by reminding yourself of the differences.

Here's a good list to get you started!

- ideas are constructive and lead to solutions. Complaints? Negative - and they show that you tend to focus on problems.

- ideas foster innovation and progress, while complaints are there to maintain the status quo. They demonstrate to others that you aren't prepared to move forward

- ideas inspire action and change, while complaints breed inaction and stagnation.

- ideas open doors to new possibilities, while complaints close those doors.

- ideas allow us to access our creativity engine, while complaints tend to shut it down

- ideas bring together people who are willing to collaborate; complaints divide and alienate and chase people away

- ideas are oxygen, creating the fuel of opportunities, while complaints drain energy and resources and smother potential

There's more - keep reading!

https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-no-one-cares-about-your-complaints-they-only-care-about-your-ideas/

“You don’t need to know how AI works. You need to know about its impact and opportunities!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I’m down in Fort Worth, Texas this morning; after lunch, I’ll speak to several hundred retail and supply chain executives about the future impact and opportunities of AI in their industry sectors. I’m here at the invitation of BNSF, the rail and logistics company – it’s a Warren Buffet company!

The keynote is heavily customized to trends in those sectors but is heavily modeled on my AI Megatrends keynote – i.e. not a lot around ChatGPT and other large language model technology, but more on robotics, last-mile delivery technology, warehousing, and autonomous vehicle tech, deep data analysis and more. Considering that Amazon sets the pace in this industry, and has deployed a lot of AI-based drone technology, a lot is going on!

This is all built around my AI for Leadership Teams keynote framework too.

While people want to know how to use all the emerging day-to-day AI tech – chatting with documents, new forms of search engine use, and such – they seem more eager to understand the medium and long-term trends that are at play here.

And while I’ve seen many other speakers focusing on ChatGPT and such, they seem to be spending too much time explaining how ChatGPT works, and not enough time on what are the broad disruptive impacts of all this fast-moving technology. How will it change the competitive landscape? What cost savings, efficiencies, and workflow restructuring opportunities exist for me?

They need to understand these impacts and opportunities to understand how to link AI to their existing and evolving strategies and plans – they don’t need to implement AI for AI’s sake. My keynote will give them a roadmap as to how to start thinking about that.

It should be fun!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-ai-leadership-you-dont-need-to-know-how-ai-works-you-need-to-know-about-its-impact-and-opportunities/

Daily Inspiration: "Bring on tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Like the sign says.

Bring on tomorrow - because if you don't, your tomorrow might not work out so well!

The photo is from my stage setup yesterday - an exhilarating day in Fort Worth with a keynote for key customers of the rail/intermodal company BNSF. I probably had every major US retailer in the room, as well as logistics companies like UPS, FedEx, and many others.

The topic? The acceleration of supply chain, retail, AI, logistics, warehousing, shipping and last-mile technologies, and more. I was hard at work up there!

I liked the theme - "Bring on tomorrow" - and that's the approach I took in my talk. In one section, I took them on a fast-paced tour of just a few of the fast-moving trends impacting their world today. I captured that portion of their slides into a little video here. Give it a watch to get the rest of the context below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfcOP_cfPr4

Consider just a few of the trends I'm covering in this keynote. These are direct from my slide deck. There's a lot of context in every point.

(read the rest of the post here)

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-retail-supply-chain-logistics-bring-on-tomorrow/

Daily Inspiration: "Don't be yesterday's vibe" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Today's post is short and to the point, because I've got a 6 AM call with KPMG Dublin to talk about the keynote I'll do for them in just over a week.

And then I've got a 7 am tee time!

Fore!

Here's the thing that I know about the work that I do - as a futurist, I see a lot of people who get left behind.

Don't let that happen.

Here's how.

Don't be stuck.

Don't stagnate.

Don't become stale.

Don't go out of date.

Don't let people view you as someone with old ideas.

Don't develop a brand that screams irrelevance.

Don't chase irrelevance.

Don't dwell on the past.

Don't be complacent.

Don't settle for mediocrity.

Don't lose your spark.

Don't cling to old habits.

Don't resist change.

Don't be yesterday's news.

Don't remain in your comfort zone.

Don't fear progress.

Don't be a has-been.

Don't stay behind.

Don't be a relic of the past.

Don't let time pass you by.

Don't be outdated.

Don't fear tomorrow.

Don't fear futurists.

Don't fear your fear.

Don't hold onto old grudges.

Don't make new grudges.

Don't discount new ideas.

Don't discount the oddballs.

Don't abandon your initiative.

Don't get left in the dust.

Don't live in your glory days.

Don't be a shadow of your former self.

Don't let opportunities slip away.

Don't be irrelevant.

Don't be yesterday's echo.

Don't be a broken record.

Just don't.

Gotta go!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-dont-be-yesterdays-vibe/

Daily Inspiration: "Construct your opportunities by demolishing your fears!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Here's a fun one I've got coming up in October! Five Chicago area construction associations representing unionized workers are bringing me in for a talk on the impact of AI in construction. I'm eager to put into perspective the reality of the future for these hard-working folks - because after all, if you listen to the hype and hysteria, all these folks will be out of work because, well, robots will do their job.

What a bunch of crocked-up foolishness!

There's no doubt that AI will have a pretty significant industry on the construction sector. Right now, we are already seeing the arrival of a lot of digitized construction tools, such as the T1 digital tape measure. Essentially, a traditional tape measure on digital steroids! This type of fascinating technology adheres to one of the most important phrases we need to think about the digitization and introduction of AI into industries - "work smarter, not harder."

All of this will involve new ways of working, interacting, and in essence, constructing. The challenge for the typical construction worker, then, regardless of their field of operation, will be to understand these new capabilities and align with the opportunities they present.

If they subscribe to the hysteria that "AI is going to take away all of our jobs," they'll be in the wrong frame of mind to pursue the opportunities this new world presents. But if they banish the buzz and don't let fear drive their actions, they'll be better positioned for tomorrow.

With that in mind, it's critical not to let fear drive your actions - banish it, destroy it, remove it from your mindset. That's part of the story I will share as I take them on this AI voyage.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-ai-construction-construct-your-opportunities-by-demolishing-your-fears/

Setting up an older machine with Unraid for a better NAS solution. Advanced drive cooling strategy. Reallocated some things around and drive was getting no airflow so I fixed it. I call this the "GolfBallSolution."

Daily Inspiration: "If you aren't prepared for acceleration you aren't prepared for your future!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

On March 19, 2012, Amazon acquired the robotics maker Kiva. It had 1,000 robots. Today, it has more than 750,000 in use, with plans for many, many more.

In 2007, in the year of launch, there were about 6 million iPhones in use. By 2012, there were 145 million. Today, it's estimated that there are some  1.4 billion in use around the world.

One year after Facebook was launched in 2004, it had 5.5 million users. By 2012, there were 1 billion worldwide. today? About 3 billion.
In 2013, there were about 25,000 Tesla vehicles sold. By 2018, it was 1/2 million, and last year, almost 4 million.

There were 10 million users of Instagram in its launch year of 2010. Today? Nearly 2 billion monthly active users

Airbnb? 21,000 guest stays in 2009. Five years in? 2 million. Today, more than 1 billion.

ChatGPT? Check the graph - it's the fastest-growing technology adoption rate, ever.

How about the cost of sequencing the human genome - which has a profound impact on medical science? In 2001l, it was about $100 million. By 2012, $10,000. Today? About $200.

The cost per transistor in an integrated circuit in 1971? About $1. Ten years later, ten cents. Today? Less than $0.000005.

Solar energy? In 1977, it cost $76 per watt By 1997, $5 per watt. Today? About 20 cents.

3D printing? In 2010, about $50 per cm³. That dropped to $5 per cm³ by 2016,. and about 50 cents today.

Battery storage technology costs were about $1,100 per kWh in 2010, dropping to $156 per kWh by 2019 and less than $100 today.

The point of all this is that we live in exponential times, faster is the new reality, and slow can be a corporate and career death sentence.

When guys like me say 'the future belongs to those who are fast,' we aren't just stating it for the fun of it. We're speaking to reality.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-velocity-leadership-if-you-arent-prepared-for-acceleration-you-arent-prepared-for-your-future/

Daily Inspiration: "Never accept for a moment that you have to accept their belief that it can't be done!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

You've got to stop letting other people tell you how to live your future.
It's your future, not theirs. Make it your own. This means tuning them out.

 Refusing their suggestions that it can't be done. Your attitude should be: "Because I was told it could not be done, I did it anyway!"

Here are 10 things I've learned about the power of believing in your ideas about tomorrow:

1. Keep going at it despite the noise

2. Tune out the negativity of the detractors - focus on your belief in your optimism

3. Be relentless on your goal - don't give up

4. Don't accept that your idea won't work - make it work

5. Listen to your inner self - it's YOUR idea, not theirs

6. Learn to bounce back - get over the small hurdles along the way

7. Modify your goal in small ways but stick with the big picture as long as you can

8. Learn from each misstep - build on each small failure as a win

9. Banish the doubts that will endlessly invade your mind

10. Enjoy the ride!

Never accept for a moment their doubt.

It's your future. Not theirs!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-personal-motivation-never-accept-for-a-moment-that-you-have-to-accept-their-belief-that-it-cant-be-done/

Daily Inspiration: "Be bolder, sooner!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

I'm off to Alberta, Canada, later today, where tomorrow I will be the closing speaker for the Canadian Petrochemical Summit.

This is one of many events I've done in this industry - I've headlined leadership meetings for BASF, Dupont, the American Chemistry Society, CF Industries, Dow, and many more.

I've also written extensively about trends & opportunities in this sector, such as this post as to how Saudi Aramco was chasing its future, "The Amazing Math of Chemical Acceleration - And Why a Saudi Oil Giant is Realigning Its Business!"

The sector has a series of complex challenges but amazing opportunities in front of it, the latter of which are exacerbated by the fact that much of Alberta's oil production is landlocked. It's faced with complex geopolitical and transport issues, and challenges with growth with the evolution of an economy that is less reliant on carbon.

This means that companies in this sector must reinvent and innovate to find new and different pathways into the future, generating new forms of revenue where revenue has not existed before. The temptation though, will be to seek out a political solution to a trends problem - which, in the long run, only buys a bit of time, not a solution.

That's why I'll carefully work into my talk the key leadership attributes that will members of this organization -- CEOs and senior executives of major petrochemical companies - into those opportunities - and take a look at the mindset that will get them there. One of these is to 'be bolder, sooner!"

Companies get ahead not by deferring and delaying an inevitable future, but by grabbing onto it, innovating around it, and defining tomorrow before it defines you.

Be bolder, sooner.

It's a good phrase for the rest of us too!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-leadership-disruption-be-bolder-sooner/

Daily Inspiration: "Never underimagine tomorrow! Over-imaginate it!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Creativity based upon unlocking your imagination is the key to unlocking tomorrow. We don't do enough of it. We should. Which starts with inventing new words! But you should also have a deep understanding of the link between creativity and success - and with that in mind, here are some useful facts about creativity, and how it links to your future.

Innovation Drive: Companies that prioritize imagination and creativity are 3.5 times more likely to have higher revenue growth than their peers. Innovate more, and you'll get to the future faster.

Employee Engagement: 78% of employees who feel encouraged to use their imagination at work report higher job satisfaction. Motivated employees are more open to the change that comes with chasing tomorrow.

Market Leaders: 60% of market-leading companies emphasize creativity and imaginative thinking in their business strategy. New strategies define tomorrow's success.

Problem Solving: Organizations that foster creative thinking solve problems 30% faster than those that do not. Getting to the future often involves solving the problems that get in the way of getting there!

Competitive Edge: Businesses that integrate imagination into their strategy are 50% more likely to be first to market with new products and services. That means aligning tomorrow's trends with today's actions.

Revenue Growth: Imaginative companies experience 1.5 times higher revenue growth rates over 5 years. Much of aligning to the future involves generating new revenue where that revenue has not existed before.

Long-term Success: Imaginative businesses are 2 times more likely to be industry leaders for over a decade - in other words, thriving tomorrow.

That's a lot of success - so never under-imagine.

Imaginate more!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-creativity-innovation-never-underimagine-tomorrow-over-imaginate-it/

Daily Inspiration: "Make your team work!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Much of my work around trends and tomorrow involves the skills of the team that will help take you there.

Many organizations have a big problem in this context. They don't have the right type of people who will open up opportunities, chase big ideas, and implement change. That's why I sometimes counsel that they need to fire the folks who are barriers to the attitudes and actions that will define success in the context of rapid change - the whiners, the complainers, the naysayers. They need to hire more of the people who provide the oxygen of initiative and the spark of action - the dreams, the doers, the innovators!

This brings me to my good friend Scott Kress - a fellow Canadian who has summited Everest, conquered the ‘7 Summits,’ and is the only guy I have ever had to call to tell him that his ski chalet was burning down! (True story.) His book, “Learning In Thin Air,” would stand on its own as a leadership tome even without the fascinating (and scary) stories on his expeditions.

It's the teambuilding part of what he does that has always fascinated me. His work delves into what makes for an effective team above 29,000 feet, at the summit of Everest, when every single decision of a team, but which can be a life or death determination. He talks about such things as the circle of influence and the circle of control, and what the active strategies are to build an effective and cohesive team in that context.

But team-building in our modern economy goes beyond issues like that - we've got to make sure that we've got the right attitudes, ideas, and mindsets that will help to take us into a faster future. That's why a careful audit and rebalancing of your team might be in order - because, in a world in which the future belongs to those who are fast, you've got to make your team work!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-skills-innovation-make-your-team-work/

Daily Inspiration: "Never give up on a great idea!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
There's power in persistence!

With that in mind, don't let others shut down the great ideas that you might chase! Fight the obstacles that might get in the way and stay focused on achieving your long-term goals.

Don't let a lack of progress or a slowdown in your efforts get you down - bounce back from setbacks. Know that it's when you overcome the challenges that are in your way, that you enhance your mental toughness, giving you more of an ability to keep going.

When your idea starts to fail, keep at it - know that failure is critical to success. You'll enhance your problem-solving capabilities and reinforce your mindset of positivity - which is crucial above all else.

Know this fact: every great idea is attacked, belittled, and dismissed - and if YOU are convinced it's a great idea, run with it with persistent persistence in your mind!

Original post:https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-the-power-of-persistence-never-give-up-on-a-great-idea/

Daily Inspiration: *“An epic commitment to quality will always achieve epic results!”* – Futurist Jim Carroll

I'm in Dublin again!

I've probably flown over Ireland at least 100 times to and from keynotes and family trips to Europe and the Middle East, and yet, until this year, I'd never found myself fortunate enough to visit the country. Now, I'm in the midst of my second visit this year!

Earlier in January, I was over for a keynote for a CEO-led strategic planning meeting for ICON plc - a company in the clinical pharmaceutical trial space. They led the 64,000 global patient trials of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and so they are major players in the global healthcare space. They needed a realistic overview of the role that AI might play for them in the short, medium, and longer term. Like many, they've heard the hype and hysteria but needed something beyond the hype - and so they organized a two-day corporate offsite meeting of all their key staff, about 300 people.

The marketing and event agency in Dublin, the Energy Group found me and thought that I might be a good fit to open this event. That led to an exploratory call with the Icon team - and for that, I did a lot of prep work, digging into my research service to get concise insight into the role of AI within the industry, and to enhance and update what I already knew about the industry.

Further heavy-duty research and customization led to an extremely well-received keynote, with this comment coming back from the key person who booked me: "You were phenomenal... wow the feedback on your session has been fantastic!"

When you put your effort into delivering an epic quality product - in this, my keynote - you often end up with epic! results. So what brings me to Dublin again? The folks at KPMG Ireland heard about my talk and arranged to bring me over this week.

Original post:https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-keynotes-customization-an-epic-commitment-to-quality-will-always-achieve-epic-results/

Daily Inspiration: "You'll never know how to unlock your true potential if you don't know how to unlock tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Let me pause for a brief bit of promo material.

It's a new keynote topic I rolled out for a client that booked me a few weeks ago. In the exploratory calls with them, it became evident that they were less focused on understanding the trends that might impact them and more on needing to understand the implications of trends they were already aware of, and how to implement them. With that in mind, I pulled together a new keynote topic that has already drawn the interest of some others - Unlocking Tomorrow: How to Get To Your Future, Faster.

In the lead-in, I state the obvious:
“Companies that do not yet exist will build products not yet conceived using materials not yet invented with methodologies not yet imagined. Will you be part of this tomorrow, today?"

This leads to this observation:

"Innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of the new high-velocity economy. In a world of accelerating trends, they do this by understanding what it takes to align with fast-emerging opportunities!"

They can join in some good company:

"Futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll shares his critical lessons on achieving growth in an era of acceleration, with his  10 Rules for Aligning to Your Faster Future, Faster. Derived from Jim’s experience providing senior leadership guidance to over 2,000 organizations and 2 million people worldwide, the rules will provide you with the insight you need to align to an era of acceleration - valuable lessons from global innovation leaders."

You can be sure that I'll be sharing some insight in posts to come on the '10 Rules' - after all, my client list has allowed me to observe what organizations are doing well, and not so well, on their path to 'unlocking tomorrow.'

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-forward-oriented-organizations-youll-never-know-how-to-unlock-your-true-potential-if-you-dont-know-how-to-unlock-tomorrow/

Daily Inspiration: "To make tomorrow real, you need to be real about tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Over the last two years, I've done dozens of CEO-level corporate offsites focused on AI.

Here's what I've learned corporate groups are looking for - first and foremost, they know that they need to be realistic about where this might take them tomorrow.

1. They want strategy, not hype.

2. They want to know how AI might help them achieve other strategic goals - they don't view AI as a strategy in and of itself

3. They want to know the mid-and-long term trends, not just what's happening right now

4. They know that AI is bigger than ChatGPT - and want to know what that is all about, and what it means for them.

5. Because of that, they want to understand what's happening with AI robotics, machine vision, machine learning, and other big trends.

6. They aren't buying into the idea that AI will steal all the jobs - they want to know how to empower their workforce with AI-based knowledge and skills

7. They don't want to understand *how* AI works - they want to know its impact and opportunities.

8. They aren't prepared to invest a lot in AI until they have real strategic clarity on all these things.

9. They are looking for detailed insight that is particular to their industry, knowledge base, and skill set

10. They know that this is a long-term voyage, not a short-term hit, and so they want insight on how to approach it.

With that in mind, they are thinking about a wide variety of strategic, leadership-oriented questions:

- how will AI affect my industry?

- what existential, big industry challenges might come my way that I am not aware of?

and more!

Read the original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-ai-strategy-to-make-tomorrow-real-you-need-to-be-real-about-tomorrow/

Daily Inspiration: "Own your tomorrow" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Today's photo is from my keynote yesterday in Dublin for KPMG - what a wonderful stage!

I spent a bit of time speaking to the audience that it was up to them to master the skill of just-in-time knowledge using new AI tools - it's up to every one of them to enhance their skills by taking on personal responsibility for this new knowledge voyage.

Personal responsibility - they are responsible for their future, not someone else. 

And that's a key point that relates to a bigger issue - if you don't set your plan for the future, someone else will!
It’s your future. No one is going to hand it to you on a silver platter.
You’ve got to figure it out and direct how it will unfold. That means taking personal responsibility and ownership for the decisions that you’ll make along the way. You can't blame others for the mistakes that you might make; in the same way, you can’t think that your success is the result of the effort of other people.

Your future IS all about you.

Own it, shape it, direct it, get intimately involved with it. Because, at the end of the day, you are the one who is going to be most involved in living it.

This means, of course, you need some good insight into the trends that might impact your future. That’s why you need a good personal ‘trends radar.’ You can better shape and own your future if you have better insight into what comes next - and so learning how to become a futurist for your future is probably one of the best things that you can do.

It’s your future - it doesn’t belong to anyone else.

What you decide to do with it is what matters.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-own-your-tomorrow/

Daily Inspiration: "Get to your future faster!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

If you are going to spend most of your future tomorrow, wouldn't it make sense to understand what it will look like when you get there? And wouldn't it make sense to take a few steps right now to make sure you are ready for it, given how quickly it is coming at you? Shouldn't you try to get to your future, faster?

With that being the case, here are my steps to align yourself with tomorrow, today:

- Accept that the future will be different from today

- With that, embrace it

- Don't fight it - train for it

- Work harder to understand it

- Figure out what you need to do better in it

- Listen to the right people to understand what it will look like when you get there

- In that context, take the time to think about what you need to do to get ready for it

- Understand the new skills you will need once you arrive

- Start learning those new skills right now to make sure you are ready

- Have faith in your ability to succeed once you are there

- Know that the future is a voyage, not a destination.

- Accept personal responsibility for this voyage

- Be prepared for twists and turns that are a part of the voyage

- Battle the volatility that you might encounter along the way

- Practice the art of positivity to make sure your mindset is aligned with the opportunity it presents

- Enjoy the present while doing these things as you get ready for what comes next!

Tomorrow will be here sooner than you think.

Why not start getting ready now?

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-forward-oriented-thinking-get-to-your-future-faster/

Daily Inspiration: "Your biggest mistake is believing that you don't need to do it right now" - Futurist Jim Carroll

What does it mean if you have a great idea, and your superior blows it off by saying "we don't need to do that right now."

It means you are in pretty big trouble. 

Why does this happen? Straight to the point - it's because of these failures in leadership:

- they don't know what's next

- they don't want to know what's next

- they refuse to accept what's next

- they don't believe the imminence of what's next

- they don't think there is any hurry to deal with what's next

- their arrogance blinds them as to what's next

- they are in a state of denial as to the scope of what's next

- they are wrong about the speed of disruptive change with what's next

- their age gives them a poor filter to understand what's next.

- they underestimate the impact of emerging technologies with what comes next

- they fail to invest in innovation and research and never get ready for what's next

- they rely too heavily on outdated business models, not accepting that entirely new ones come next

- they don't engage in strategic foresight or scenario planning and never understand what comes next

All of this means that they - and you - fail.

Tell me if you disagree.

You can't!

With this type of mindset, many organizations have failure ingrained at the top! 

Don't fall into the same trap!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-leadership-your-biggest-mistake-is-believing-that-you-dont-need-to-do-it-right-now/

Daily Inspiration: "Spend too much time chasing perfection and you'll never invest enough time to learn from your failures!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Since it's summertime, a few golf stories are creeping into my Daily - because many lessons about leadership, innovation, and creativity can come from playing the game.

Yesterday, while out for a round early in the morning, I received a message from my good friend Anders Hult over in Stockholm concerning my post about procrastination:

"Sometimes people procrastinate because they are perfectionists, and are afraid of failing…"

That's a very good point, but since I read the message right after a marginal tee shot on the second hole, it got me thinking about the whole issue of perfection and success and failure and risk - in the context of golf and innovation!

We all know that success is most often the result of many cumulative failures. It's by taking risks, trying new ideas, chasing new concepts, and failing while doing so that one often can find the elusive and mysterious path to success. But what happens if we spend too much time trying to chase perfection? In the context of golf, that can come from spending too much time thinking about the great shots - and trying to achieve more and more of those - without spending time thinking about our bad shots, what we did wrong, and what we could improve.

We do better if we learn from our mistakes instead of trying to repeat our successes - never forget that!

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-the-innovation-process-spend-too-much-time-chasing-perfection-and-youll-never-invest-enough-time-to-learn-from-your-failures/

Daily Inspiration: "Are you thinking too slow and small in a great big fast world?" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Hollywood is the next to be faced with a dramatically challenged future - We are probably only years away, or less before we see an entire feature film created by AI - and it will be pretty darned good.  So too are creative industries - advertising, marketing, branding. Content creation is also in the midst of a wild ride.

AI is having its way with many industries, and if you aren't prepared to accept the speed, complexity, and reality of the change that is underway, you'll certainly have a rather unpleasant time of it. And it's not as if jobs are disappearing - it's the fact that dramatically different jobs are emerging. Of folks who know how to use the machine.....

Did you see the Toys "R" Us video commercial that was entirely created with Sora, the new text-to-video tool from OpenAI?  There is a teaser on YouTube. You can find the full video over at Toysrus.com/studios At just over a minute long, it's not much longer than the preview, but is certainly a harbinger of what is yet to come.

People have a hard time accepting that their industry as they know it is disappearing - or disruptively evolving in such a way the way they work now has changed forever. Today's era is very much like what happened with the arrival of CGI in the industry in the mid-80s. Suddenly, all bets were out the window.

Acceptance of change? I remember telling music industry executives back in 1995 that their business model of selling CDs, full-length albums, and big fat profit margins was doomed. Somewhere in my video vault, I've got a video where I'm on a national TV program and I'm being aggressively condemned by a senior industry executive - who at the same time was telling me that my ideas of a digital music industry were too far-fetched to be reality.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-disruptive-trends-are-you-thinking-too-slow-and-small-in-a-great-big-fast-world/

Daily Inspiration: "Define your day with the dignity of decency"- Futurist Jim Carroll

My wonderful neighbour has this little bit of sentiment taped up next to her computer. I think it's lovely.

"Be content, thankful, peaceful,  loved, & loving.
Dance like no one can see you,
And love like you've never been hurt."

Sentiments like this are always useful, because they help to instill in us the values of decency, hope, strength and courage that can get us through our days.

That seems particularly important right now.

Maybe try this - a few of my rules that I use to try to guide myself through the days.

- Be optimistic - banish negativity
- Reinforce your optimism regularly
- Practice kindness
- Be compassionate - know that others are less fortunate
- Be grateful for your good fortune
- Count your blessings, not your chickens
- When your anger rises, ask if it is necessary or helpful.
- Try to listen to others more
- But don't argue with fools
- Actually, try not to argue
- Put in the effort
- Don't wait for others to do it for you.
- Rely on yourself, not others
- Be practical, not grandiose
- Don't whine when things go wrong.
- Expect that things will go wrong.
- Fix the wrongs fast.
- Stay in your zone of control
- Don't try to control the things you can't.
- Stop trying to please everyone.
- Please those who matter.
- Admit you don't know everything.
- Try to learn more about the things you don't know.
- Define yourself with decency
- Carry yourself with dignity.

Be kind to each other. It's ugly out there.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/06/daily-inspiration-define-your-day-with-the-dignity-of-decency/