Your future is what you want it to be. You are in control. You are the driver of this ship.
And there is no better time than today to sit down and start planning what you want that future to be.

But – and this is a big BUT, before you take out a notebook and pen a few desirable scenarios or start pasting pictures of Lamborghinis onto a ‘dream board’, there is one very important step that you need to take first.

This is a step very often neglected – and unfortunately the number one reason why many plans, made without first doing this, fail.

And that critical step is – letting go of the past.

Now letting go of the past doesn’t mean getting rid of things that add value to your life. On the flip side of that, it does mean critically looking at all things in your life that rob you of your attention, take up valuable space in your environment or that just don’t positively serve you any longer.

It takes energy to carry these things – energy that could better be applied towards getting you to where you want to go.

If something doesn’t clearly take you towards where you want to go, it’s pulling you away from it.

So the first step is to host that garage sale, get rid of that pile of admin that just sits on your desk staring at you, throw away anything that you haven’t used in the last year.

Do it.

Artificial intelligence has been around for some time.

Back in the 1980’s chess computers used a form of artificial intelligence to comfortably beat many of their human opponents. We thought that was clever, and outside of science, paid it little attention. Thinking robots belonged in science fiction films and kids toys.

But it seems, that as we evolve faster towards the realisation that many human jobs will be taken by intelligent robots – panic is starting to set in.

For us – technology, including artificial intelligence, really is a great leveller.

Today you can create things with a smart phone that just ten years ago you needed the power of a huge corporation behind you to achieve. Technology has democratised the world more than anything else before it – granting access to the world for millions of previously disempowered people.

Artificial intelligence is the further evolution of that doorway. It promises to be yet another radical leap forward for humankind and perhaps a shift towards a new reality that many postmodern philosophers have been theorising for decades.

But, as with many things, there is no absolute in life. It’s unlikely that artificial intelligence will create an ‘us and them’ scenario like you would have seen in sci-fi films like The Terminator. AI is a tool which most likely will be used in combination with humans to exponentially increase productivity and effectiveness.

This 2014 TED talk by the futurist Ray Kurzwell – gives an indication as to what could possibly be the reality of ‘hybrid thinking’ in the decades to come.

The subject of the future of artificial intelligence is a very broad and exciting one. We haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg with what the possibilities are with it. But one thing is sure, it’s on its way. It will also bring with it a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities for the human race and certainly, is not something to fear.

If you are worried that your job is going to disappear, the reality is that jobs already right now are pointless and pretty much dead. There will be no jobs – get used to that idea. Instead there will be millions of ways that people can make a meaningful contribution to the world in the future all pretty much thanks to artificial intelligence.

More: Africa’s future lies in code – Cherryflava

What determines whether you will succeed at a task or not? Is it talent or intelligence? Or perhaps something far less measurable, is the key?

Scientists and psychologists are starting to understand that the real key to success in life has nothing to do with how clever, good looking or well-connected you are, but rather how determined you are to succeed.

In reality, you may well be super capable of intellectually understanding a complex task like mastering mathematics at university level, but if you are not inspired to achieve the learning of mathematics – chances are you will not succeed.

We found a recent WEF Agenda post, ‘What do successful students have in common‘,  very interesting in this regard.

Discipline and curiosity have an important part to play:

Conscientious people are disciplined about achieving goals. High levels of open-mindedness relate to curiosity and acceptance of new ideas. Someone with both traits approaches challenges with a determined yet flexible attitude. In other words: They try and try again.

Intelligence is something you invest in:

People either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset, according to Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, who frames intelligence as a quality that can be enhanced through persistent effort. While those with fixed mindsets believe success hinges on innate, unchanging ability — you have it or you don’t — people with growth mindsets implicitly see intelligence as something to hone. As a result, they care less about seeming smart and more readily flirt with failure, an attitude that primes them for success.

And then there’s pure grit…

But can you hone your grit and determination capability?

Sure you can! If you are mindful of how you are behaving you can manage that behaviour. Enter a long distance endurance event, sign up for a maths course you never previously thought you would be able to complete, and complete it. Life shouldn’t just happen to you, it’s your choice as to what you want to do with it.

So the real key to success in just about everything in life is: ‘Dogged determination coupled with a desirable dream of the future.’

Put those two simple things together and anything is possible.

Owning things is really a rather odd idea.

Things not only cost money, but once your own them you then need to spend more money on insurance to ensure that those things stay belonging to you.

Then over time they depreciate, become outdated and then, break – forcing you to start the whole process again.

If you had never heard of owning things before and somebody presented this idea to you for the first time – you would think they were mad and would certainly chase them away with stick that you picked up off the ground.

Truth be told, it’s not money that makes the world go around – it’s the never ending cycle of owning things that drives the world to sell it’s labour to pay for the things that we desire. Take away the necessity to pay off the debt for owning things, and you have a bit of a vacuum when it comes to convincing people to do work.

The things that surround us – that we treasure, that we value, that we yearn for ; are in fact our masters. Every time you buy something, it’s like taking home a puppy. It need to be cared for and looked after.

We are owned by our stuff.

“People buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like”.

As more and more people realise this, it’s not surprising then that innovative services like NeighborGoods, AirBNB and Lyft are in such demand. Why own it when you can rent it?

It’s like notion of owning a holiday home at the seaside. Nice idea, but in order for that investment to make sense, you need to then commit to having your holiday at the same place every single year. You need to maintain that home, mow the lawn, clean the gutters and pay the insurance on it. Most of the year you won’t be physically at your holiday home, so unless you rent it out to other holiday makers during the times you are not there, it just sits idly – waiting for you to spend more money on it.

The rules related to owning things are quickly becoming dated. Already huge waves of disruption are happening in this exciting space, but how far can we actually go down the road of zero-ownership? Will life in the future just consist of owning a small bag of a few personal effects and a whole world of open possibilities to explore with no string attached?

Heaven must be a place where you can have access to all of the things that make you happy without the need to ever insure them.

It’s no secret that one of our great interests in life is the understanding of inequality.

For many, the whole notion of income and wealthy inequality in their lives is seemingly irrelevant, something that doesn’t affect them. However the glaring reality cannot be further from the truth.

Inequality is fundamentally the most important issue of our time, and sadly the one that we pay the least attention to.

It’s a bit like a cancer with a complicated name that is dangerous and killing us, but is just too difficult to understand – so we just ignore it and hope that it’ll go away.

Luckily the renown American academic, Robert Reich, has made an amazingly enlightening documentary movie about the subject called  Inequality For All.

Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

The documentary takes you through the recent economic policy history of the United States and defines the triggers that essentially caused the 2008 market collapse and the subsequent deflationary status quo in the developed world.

In the end, you’ll be left feeling inspired and hopeful, but also with a realisation that the solutions to the problem lie with the people of the world. The question is what are you going to do about it?

It really is an amazing summary of how the world got to this point and what you can potentially do about it. An important first step though is understanding that the problem exists. And for those without a degree in economics or the patience to read the Thomas Piketty book, it’s a fantastic first step.

Watch the full movie:

Inequality for All via Amazon

Inequality for All via YouTube

Related:

I read the Piketty book – Cherryflava

White South Africans are going to have to make some sacrifices – Cherryflava

For at least the last six months, I’ve been asking myself ‘should you go to business school?

I already have a bachelor’s degree in economics and nearly twenty years of experience in building startup brands, corporate brands, financial services marketing, online retail, physical retail, project management, consulting, operations management, event management, etc…the list is endless and will bore you to tears.

But why is it then am I now looking at business school MBA programs and considering whether or not to do a CFA?

I enjoy learning, but at the same time would love to formalise the hunches, the gut feelings, the countless articles and books read, conversations had and mistakes made into something that universalises that to others and myself

So having stared at the details of some of the best post graduate programs out there, these are my conclusions so far:

1. It’s bloody expensive: If you are considering self-funding an MBA at a decent business school, get ready to part with nearly R200 000 for it – and for a globally recognised qualification, that’s actually pretty cheap. A Harvard MBA costs more money than should be spoken about in polite company.
2. It takes a lot of time: Doing a CFA [Chartered Financial Analyst] is a fantastic qualification, but even though it’s a self study option and you take the exams when you are ready, you are dedicating 2 years of your life to hopefully passing one of the most difficult set examinations you will ever face. Adding that much stress to an already full schedule is not ideal.
3. It might be irrelevant: Unless you have your heart set on being the CEO of a listed company, a portfolio manager or a management consultant at Deloitte, the degree may be overkill and perhaps just a way for lazy HR managers to filter candidates for positions that are fast becoming redundant.
4. Just because a ‘good university’ made it, doesn’t make it any good for you: Everyone is different and everyone has different interests and talents. For me, the cookie-cutter design of post graduate education is very unfortunate and seriously dates the rigid academic approach that these esteemed institutions are still determined to follow. Why I can’t cut-and-paste modules that interest me into my own custom built program, I don’t know.

I’m sure I’m not alone in my feelings of frustration and confusion in this regard. Education is such an amazing thing, but the way that I’m experiencing its flexibility and relevance is not.

So the question I ask myself still remains – ‘Should you go to business school?’

My answer to that is ‘yes’, but on my terms. So far I haven’t found a program that works for me yet. And I will not invest any amount of money or time in a school or course that doesn’t completely work for me.

So my search continues from here. I now realise that this will be an interesting journey, but one that I’m pretty amped to take.

For the life of me I can’t understand the thinking of the present South African government.

The amount of money and effort that goes into keeping economically hungry, capable, non-South Africans out of South Africa – is just plain madness.

I’m a firm believer that opportunity favours those who are hungry for it. Great entrepreneurs who create globally successful enterprises are, more often than not, immigrants who have the deep desire to make a better life for themselves. In the past and still today, these fortune seekers head to countries like the USA where they know there is the structures, legal frameworks and the support for their ideas to flourish and become successful business enterprises that can radically transform an economy. It’s the basic principle that made the US the world’s leading economy.

South Africa is the one country in Africa that has the same mix of generally working civil infrastructure, world-class universities, a largely functional legal framework and the private capital availability to be Africa’s ‘land of opportunity’. Why we are not doggedly pursuing and welcoming those who are wanting to set up a new business, attend university, contribute to our economy – is completely beyond me. It’s economics 101 and in a world where the opportunity exists in this region for a country to start being that ‘land of opportunity’, not taking that gap now is a policy decision, which will come back to haunt this country for generations to come.

Fear of foreigners taking non-existent jobs and plain ignorance are the only real things between our present reality and a thriving, dynamic economy. Questions really need to be asked of the present administration as to why this is being ignored. We are literally denying the next Google, the next Uber, the next Naspers from calling South Africa its home base.

A better life for all will remain just a pipe dream slogan at the end of electioneering propaganda unless we start seeing the opportunity of welcoming visionary immigrants into this country.

Ke nako South Africa, ke nako.