Is it better to live a successful life or a significant one? The better question here is: Is it better to only work in the name of bettering your own situation or to leave the world a better place than how we found it?
As an entrepreneur and advisor of organizations both large and small around the globe, I can tell you that it is much more advantageous to pursue significance over success, as significance almost certainly always leads to success.
In my Anticipatory Leader System, I define significance as what we hope to achieve for others, using our business prowess for the betterment of society and humankind. By putting ourselves at the service of others, it adds meaning to what we do, and in the age of accelerated digital transformation, the possibilities are truly endless in what we can achieve.
Pre-solve tomorrow’s problems today
In the realm of prioritizing significance over success, using Hard Trend future certainties to pre-solve problems is more about finding ways to pre-solve others’ problems, not just your own, before they become major issues.
When you implement this Anticipatory competency with significance at the forefront of your mind, you lead a successful business while becoming a positive disruptor in your industry and in the world. More importantly, you use those positive disruptions to improve the lives of human beings across the map!
Pre-solving issues by transforming how we approach processes, create products, and offer business services is what gives organizations this competitive advantage. Change is easy. Anyone can create change by making something taller, thinner, or wider, but change does not always implement the significant impacts necessary in revolutionary transformation in the service of others.
In the digital age we are in today, where technological transformation is increasing exponentially, we will not solve the most pressing problems by simply changing something that already exists. We will need to look to the future to what could and very possibly will be based on Hard Trend future certainties and transform the tools at our disposal to create something completely new.
Current technology should be adapted and evolved
As I teach in my Anticipatory Leader System, the competency of exponential thinking is vital in all aspects of business management and leadership.
Every year in the Midwest, snowstorms and subzero temperatures are inevitable. While one may assume that snow will be cleared and after a day or two the cold will subside, it is not always that simple. When the snow falls and the temperature drops, some households lose power, leaving families in the dangerous cold for days.
Now, solving power outages is a lofty goal, but current technology can most definitely guide us in the right direction when looked at exponentially!
The power grid is likely far more complicated to the average individual than someone who works directly with it. It is a quite complex system, but no matter how complex a system is, there is always a better solution to the problems it faces.
Late last year, there had been progress in the concept of smart grids. Smart grids leverage the concept of edge computing and intelligent devices in an exponential way — a way that can remedy power outages and fix them faster. This implements software and hardware in homes and other properties that measure the supply and demand of electricity in real-time, making for two-way communication between the user and the provider.
In lieu of this advancement, outages are reported faster, electricity is distributed appropriately, the power grid evolves quicker, and it even has a positive impact on the environment by making renewable energy better integrated into the system.
As you can see from this example, technology exists to make widespread changes for the betterment of society. In most cases, it just needs to be leveraged exponentially!
Be Anticipatory for the prosperity of all
Being too busy managing today’s crisis as opposed to seeing tomorrow’s opportunity disables your ability to transform the world in the most significant ways. Obstacles are always heading our way as a human race, and your organization can easily identify the exponential opportunities in solving them by using an Anticipatory mindset.
Yes, we still need to be reactionary in some cases and use agility to handle some unforeseen challenges. But we want to be careful to not stay locked in crisis mode constantly with no foothold to move forward. For many organizations, humankind depends on your services and their evolution. Resting on your laurels not only sets your organization backward, but in turn, it may have a widely negative impact on several individuals who depend on you.
Understanding Hard Trend future certainties that will impact individuals globally is a crucial starting point. This approach allows you to innovate with significantly lower risk to your organization.
Every day, I dedicate myself to encouraging as many people as possible to adopt an Anticipatory mindset and embrace these principles to meaningfully improve the world. I urge you to leverage disruptive technological advancements to your advantage and drive positive transformations today!
For more business and entrepreneurship tips, subscribe to our weekly newsletter and follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.