Author: Jeremie Averous

Why You Should Seek Rejection

“Without rejection there is no frontier, there is no passion, and there is no magic” – James Altucher, in ‘Choose Yourself‘.

Your Rejection is Your DirectionThis is quite an unconventional thought. People fear rejection. Some do manage rejection in a defensive manner so as to achieve certain goals (for example, salespeople). Many people believe that rejection certainly shows that what we try to do is not the right thing, and pushes us to try new directions.

Should we go further, be fully contrarian, and embrace rejection as a welcome hint that we are on the right way? That is exactly what James Altucher suggests.

On the same level as suggesting that we should push beyond our comfort zone, getting rejection requires that we have done something and that it is not conventional. It is a great result – although maybe a bit discouraging – that shows that we are passionately on the path of magic and creation. It just shows that we need to be persistent in our efforts, that we are creating something new.

Seek rejection with passion as you seek to go beyond your comfort zone. Eventually you’ll be recognized for what you are doing. Rejection shows you are on the right path.

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How Joint Teamwork is Key to Success on the Long Term

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships” – Michael Jordan. The star basketball player certainly experienced what he talks about.

winning-JordanOn the long term, team work and collective intelligence is the key to success. Even if on the short term, sheer talent or luck can decide the individual day.

I confirm this observation as well in large project teams. Effective teamwork, lack of a blame culture when there is an inevitable setback, that is what makes victory possible on the long term.

Even when there is a setback, concentrate on teamwork and getting clever about the situation. Let yourself not be beaten by bad luck or insufficient talent. You can still win on the long term, if you rely on the joint effort of the brains of your team.

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How to Change Your Life: Change Your Story

I got inspired by the following sentence: “We all become the stories we tell ourselves” – Tom Asacker in the Business of Belief.

personal story and lifeIt is so true that there is a direct linkage between the story we create for ourselves and our actual life.

Change the story you tell yourself and change. Or, if you want to change, you first need to change the story you tell yourself.

In the end, we become the legend we create for ourselves. To change, we need to create a new legend. That is how we will express ourselves to the world.

If you want to change you life, change your legend, your story first. Change the way you talk about yourself and your life. Promote yourself into the role you dream for yourself. Do it, now. You are worth it.

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Why Understanding Beliefs is Essential to Implementing Change

“What we believe is what we desire, and what we desire is ultimately what we do. It’s the human condition.” – Tom Asaker in ‘The Business of Belief’.

Desire emotionallyThis sentence left me quite thoughtful. Tom Asaker establishes a strong link between belief and action, through desire. Desire necessarily includes an element of emotion, which compels to act. Belief might be what actually brings that element of emotional motivation.

Tom Asaker continues “Effective leaders know that the essential first step to changing people’s behavior is to understand their perspective and embrace their desires and beliefs“.

To change people’s behavior (their daily actions) it is thus necessary to understand people’s beliefs and build from there. It is absurd to try to change people against their beliefs.

When embarked on a change project, first understand people’s beliefs. And build change on them.

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How the Fourth Revolution Now Touches all Age Categories

The graph below shows clearly how the social networks now touch the majority of people in all age categories.

social media by age groupSocial network adoption is visibly increasingly widespread with all age groups. Older people also do increasingly use social networks to communicate with family and extended relationship.

This might even lead some providers like Facebook, Twitter and the like to have to change a bit their offering or the format of their interface.

These statistics are for the US, from my personal experience I don’t see why it would be widely significant worldwide even in emerging countries.

The power that is being released in terms of social communication is massive as it now pervades inter-generational links. Watch for more amazing consequences and value creation!

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How to Thrive Personally through the Upcoming Societal Changes

‘Middle class’ disappears as a result of the Fourth Revolution. We have also described the society issues we are facing with  the disappearance of ‘middle class’ and how we can resolve them. In this post we will examine the consequences of this event from an individual perspective.

Middle class becomes poorer

While society needs to find solutions to deal with the increased inequality which will necessarily happen as a result of the Fourth Revolution, what should an individual do to be more certain to be part of the people who will benefit from the change?

“Choose to commoditize your labor or choose yourself to be a creator, an innovator, an artist, an investor, a marketer, and an entrepreneur. I say “and” rather than “or” because you have to be all of the above. Not just one” says James Altucher in his book ‘Choose Yourself‘.

Choose to be creative. It is a skill that can be trained and developed, and you should start now. On the long term, developing your creativity and being able to show it to the world is the key to your success in the Collaborative Age.

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How to Deal with the Societal Consequences of ‘Middle Class’ Disappearance

‘Middle class’ disappears as a result of the Fourth Revolution. In this post we will try to describe the society issues we are facing with  the disappearance of ‘middle class’ and how we can resolve them. In a next post we will examine the consequences of this event from an individual perspective.

Demonstration against disappearance of middle class
Societal issues brought about by the Fourth Revolution

As ‘middle class’ shrinks the outcome will be a higher inequality, which will result in a higher number of people having a lesser and less secure income. This might result in significant social imbalance that needs to be resolved for our societies to enjoy harmony. If not managed carefully, in particular in our democratic societies, it could be the source of significant social troubles, which could create a very difficult transition. Also, from the economy perspective, a lot of our traditional economy still depends on massive consumption and investment (for example in real estate) by middle class; if that was to falter, the entire economy could be jeopardized, at least temporarily, or have to undergo a dramatic shift with widespread consequences.

How is it then possible to maintain sufficient buying power for a large proportion of people, as well as sufficient visibility and stability as to future income? Possible collective solutions include:

  • Redistribution policies, which could include a minimum guaranteed income for everybody or a negative tax system,
  • Income security schemes between employment periods (funded by fees paid during employment),
  • Comprehensive social security schemes.

One of the major issues is that these collective systems  need to be governed carefully, and require sufficient financing. This financing will depend on a newly established taxation system where the value from the creativity of the Collective Age will need to be taxed adequately so as not to stifle the economy, and in a fair manner. This is the most pressing issue to be resolved today.

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Why the Disappearance of ‘Middle Class’ is Linked to the Fourth Revolution

There are more and more converging papers, posts and books about the disappearance of the ‘middle class’. The ‘middle class’ actually is quite a specific concept linked to the Industrial Age – it did not exist before: employees of corporations with a significant buying power and certainty in future revenue and position, that could hence spend in a number of consumption goods and invest in property, own their own house…

The income of the median population is significantly shrinkingIt seems quite visible from the available statistics that in effect, the wealth of the ‘middle class’ is diminishing; that less and less people can be described as being part of this group (as shown by the graph above); and that the very characteristics that described it – job security, relatively good buying power etc – seem to be disappearing.

As many authors today, I believe it is a structural change brought about by the Fourth Revolution – and not just the result of increased inequality that would be due by globalization (low salaries elsewhere…). It is due by a shift in value creation. The relatively repetitive and often bureaucratic work of the middle class is increasingly being taken up by automatic systems and soon by robots. Value concentrates in the creative work that gives life to these systems and tools.

This will pose a number of problems to our societies:

  • the consumption economy is in great part based on the buying power of the middle class
  • value creation will concentrate on a smaller percentage of the people, which will require a revamp of the redistribution policies to maintain social harmony.

This shift is probably the most critical societal shift created by the Fourth Revolution. Are you ready for it?

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Why Perfectionism Kills Schedules; and Reasonableness Saves Them

“Perfectionism kills schedules; reasonableness saves them” is a quote from Gerald M Weinberg in ‘More Secrets of Consulting‘. I find that this is pretty true from any project, be it personal or professional, be it small or large.

grass-cuttingIt is always a constant battle to keep people from the decreasing yields of additional analysis, workflow definition etc to keep to the 80% of information that is really needed to take the right decision and move on.

It is possibly the fear to take a decision that drives most of us to be excessively perfectionist in gathering all possible data, when the issue and the possible solution is already visible for a long time. And this problem does not improve in our age of Big Data and possibilities of unending data mining!

Fight perfectionism and excessive analysis. Be reasonable, overcome your fear, and act.

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What is the highest courage?

“The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is” – John Lancaster Spalding

mask2Authenticity is the toughest and at the same time, possibly the most rewarding action, in particular in social environments.

What prevents us from appearing as we are? Social pressure, personal pressure, time pressure…

First start being authentic in safe environments, with people you know and that know you very well, and progressively extend it to other social situations.

Do it. It is worth it.

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The Intrinsic Long Tail of Online Education Graduation Statistics

With the Fourth Revolution comes this new challenge to traditional universities: online courses and degrees. We have mentioned this transformation in the posts ‘online universities are becoming mainstream!‘ and ‘Another institution under siege from the Fourth Revolution: Universities‘.

online-coursesIn this excellent article in Fast Company, an interesting statistic become apparent. “As Thrun [the founder of Udacity] was being praised by Friedman, and pretty much everyone else, for having attracted a stunning number of students–1.6 million to date–he was obsessing over a data point that was rarely mentioned in the breathless accounts about the power of new forms of free online education: the shockingly low number of students who actually finish the classes, which is fewer than 10%. Not all of those people received a passing grade, either, meaning that for every 100 pupils who enrolled in a free course, something like five actually learned the topic. If this was an education revolution, it was a disturbingly uneven one.” Further, “a recent study found that only 7% of students in this type of class actually make it to the end. (This is even worse than for-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix, which graduates 17% of its full-time online students, according to the Department of Education.)“.

Online education does mean effort, and there is probably some kind of long tail effect at work here: not all of those that say they intend to go for the course will go for it at the end, as it entails a significant commitment. This number should not be a surprise; and as the number of online registered students will increase dramatically, even if the percentage of those that graduate remains small, the number of people who will have benefited will still remain large – and above all, anybody, anywhere in the world, can now take the opportunity. People will simply drop out by themselves if they don’t show the necessary commitment.

The low number of graduates is not a limit of the system, it is but an intrinsic long tail effect. It does not mean failure; the sheer number of graduates does mean success of online education.

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Want to Change the Culture? Change the Conversation!

“If you seek to change the culture (or a tiny tribal element of the culture), your timeframe and what you measure have to be focused on the conversation” – says Seth Godin.

Culture_conversationThis is quite a powerful statement that can apply to a variety of organizational situations – in particular when it comes to organizational transformations.

Changing the conversation means in particular:

  • changing the words (and what they convey)
  • changing the conversation’s topics and dynamics
  • changing the conversation’s participants

Looking at it this way, organizational transformations take another shape and seem less daunting.

Change the conversation. And you’ll change the world!

Inspiration for this post from Seth Godin’s blog post The tribe or the Person?

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