There are two imaginary words humans invented that are holding us back as individuals, as companies, and as a species. We created them back in the days out of necessity but they have become so prominent in the way we see the world that instead of serving us they now threaten our existence.
FOREVER & NEVER
Battling Change
All other creatures, until we humans arrived at this earth, “accepted” change. They were living within an ecosystem that was not predictable and did their best to survive.
Humans, unlike how we like to look at ourselves today, started our journey as an inferior species. We were weaker than other animals, we had less protection against the elements, we were slower and we lacked the protection of numbers.
Left alone to fend to ourselves in a “random” world we wouldn’t survive. We had to be able to CONTROL & PREDICT. And the best way to control and predict is to eliminate the variable. To minimize change!
So we invented two words. FOREVER & NEVER.
Creating “forevers” and “nevers”
Humans became so good at minimizing change (first in caves, then agriculture and small communities, then cities and industry and so on…) with each stage of our evolution our belief that we can fight change and randomness got stronger.
A pandemic strikes? No problem we will find a vaccine.
An earthquake hit? No problem we will build earthquake-proof buildings.
OurdFood grows in seasons? We will grow it all year round.
There is no limit to human ingenuity when it comes to creating nevers and forevers.
The paradox of human change
In our quest to eliminate change and increase control and predictability we have developed increasingly better technology. That same technology kept reducing the cycle of change.
It took us tens of thousands of years between the invention of fire and agriculture.
It took thousands of years between the invention of agriculture and the industrial revolution.
It took only hundreds of years between the industrial and the information age
And it amazingly took only tens of years to evolve from the information to the connected age
In our quest to eliminate change we have increased the rate of change exponentially.
To survive we will need to evolve into a change seeking adaptable creature
For the first time in human history, humans now have to go through multiple change cycles in the span of a single human lifetime.
We are not equipped for that. We are genetically and biologically triggered to fear change yet we find ourselves in a reality where in order to survive as individuals and companies we MUST evolve and become adaptable creatures.
Vision is our superpower
Gábor Dénes, Nobel prise winner and the inventor of the holograph once said
We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it.
For as long as we existed humans did their best to increase their control and ability to predict the future by battling change.
Now that the rate of change is so fast we can’t keep up with it, as individuals or companies, our only way to predict the future is to ensure we are one step ahead of it. To survive we need to create the our own futures by visioning it and creating them.
Forget about never forever
We need to become a species of entrepreneurs. Of reality shapers, if we are to survive as individuals. We need to embrace change. We need to FORGET ABOUT NEVER FOREVER!
What is the change you as an individual or company fear the most? What can you do today to create a future where that change is your opportunity?