Know the Future.
Food, shelter, and clothing are considered as 3 basic needs of human life and have been for what seems like forever. But like everything else, these basic necessities are changing as well or should be if not already. Human life has evolved so much over the last few centuries that I wondered why these three things were even considered basic needs. I mean even during the early ages when mankind was hunting for food, the parental figures were teaching their youngsters what and how to hunt and how to keep safe i.e. not just providing 3 basic necessities but also were teaching how to obtain them so they never run out of them.
This begs the question — what happened that we stopped teaching but instead started providing only? When did this happen and why? Isn’t knowing how to do it more important than just getting it?
Now no one can predict future but knowing or at least have the vision to know what lies ahead is very important.
As we are growing, we ought to know. We don’t have to be the techie type but knowing how something can become big is very important and the ability to know this, is the key.
Growing up in a large metro of India, I had such an opportunity and I let it go to waste. In my early teens back in mid 80s, I saw my parents price shopping before actually buying any stuff. That gave me an idea. I started keeping tabs of what was being bought for household. Then once I had a good understanding, I started predicting what will be bought and when. Once I had that nailed down, I started price shopping in my spare time. I started going to the bazaar close by and getting the prices from various shopkeepers. Then I drew up a table and started putting the prices on a regular basis. Once I compiled a whole list, I shared it with my parents and they were surprised. Not believing my data, they started price shopping and found that my list was accurate. After that, they didn’t have to do the price shopping.
Then, I started compiling lists for my neighbors and relatives living close by. Their household stuffs mostly were same as ours. I started sharing my list with them as well.
Afterwards I reached out to other shopping centers and bazaars for the comparison shopping. I also started keeping track of how many kilometers a particular shop was and how much time it would take to get there from various different points at various different times of the day and week. I also started to keep track of how much petrol (gas) and time a scooter, a car, and a motorcycle would take, and how much money a taxi would cost during various times of the day and the week. This gave a pretty good insight to anyone whether they can go far away to purchase a certain item or whether it was more fruitful to purchase close by even if that item was more expensive.
In essence, I was doing big data when no one was.
I created my list on a weekly basis. Later on, I even started to introduce promotions from various shops. My list became very popular among my family, relatives, neighbors, and friends. But I didn’t have what it takes to convert that into a business. I didn’t have the knowhow and the ability. I was alone doing all this stuff and it was taking a lot of my time away from my other activities. I didn’t think to enlist my friends’ help in this. I didn’t enlist my parents’ help in creating this into a business.
Overall, I didn’t have the ability to know that this could become a big business.
You see, I didn’t grow up in a business environment. For me, it was study hard, get a good job, get married and live happily ever after.
Times have changed since then. I would like all of us to have a different mindset as we always should have. I would like all of us to have this ability and start teaching our kids the ability to know and/or to understand. It’s never too late to know what is or could come in the future. Even if we work for a company, we should work as an entrepreneur. We should seek out new ways of doing business, new revenue stream(s), new ways to package and sell existing products, etc. anything that could make our life easy by being smarter at our job.
If we work for ourselves or would like to, there is no shortage of ideas. A small thing can make a difference. You don’t have to reach out to stars anymore to make a difference. You don’t have to create a product or service that takes years and millions of dollars to complete.
But do something and if you believe in it that’s all that matters. There will always be doubters. You should listen to critics but listen to your gut also. It knows and can guide you if you listen and pay attention.
Take charge of your life and start to live outside your comfort zone. That’s the only way you’ll achieve success.
Knowing future isn’t just for fortune tellers, everyone should listen for it.
Just remember if this isn’t the right time then it never will be.
