as a result, led to his return to Apple when
they bought NeXT from him. During Jobs’
time away with NeXT, a certain gentleman
by the name of Tim Berners-Lee felt more
could be done with the internet. Tim
set off to create the World Wide Web -
the foundation for everything we use on
the internet today. To embark on this
disruptive journey that would change the
internet forever, Tim Berners-Lee used a
certain computer to bring this vision to life
- it was a NeXT computer. This makes me
wonder - would the internet exist as it does
today without Steve Jobs’ contribution?
We can take this train of thought further:
As a result of Tim Berners-Lee starting
the World Wide Web, Google was started
in 1998 becoming one of the early dot com
disruptors. They further grew to become
one of the most profitable technology
companies in the world putting them in
a position where they were big enough to
buy whichever startup they felt could add
value to their company.
They stumbled upon Where 2 Technologies
- a mapping related startup based in
Sydney, Australia and acquired them in
2004. In 2005, this same product was now
released to the world as Google Maps.
In 2009, the digital taxy disruptor Uber
was launched to the world. Uber’s very
existence was built on the foundation laid
by Google Maps and today, is valued at
around $120 Billion.
Would Uber exist without Google’s
contribution? Would Uber exist without
Steve Jobs contribution? Would Uber exist
without the contribution of Benjamin
Franklin? Some of these questions, we
will never have an answer to. What we
can establish is that our world today is the
product of yesterday’s disruptors.
Every disruptive company on earth today
can be traced to the mind of someone in
the past who created a platform for the
next big thing to exist - with or without
knowing it. Tim Berners-Lee may have
never imagined that his contribution
would create a platform for the wealthiest
companies on earth today and as a result,
new industries. Google may have never
imagined that their contribution to the
chain would create multi-billion dollar
companies and change how we perceive
and use technology on an everyday basis.
The future is a reaction to the experiments
of today - a chain of endless opportunities.
What then are you contributing to the
chain? What will be contributed to the
chain as a result of you stepping out to
capture a piece of the future for yourself?
If you are not adding value to the chain,
you will always remain at the mercy of
those that do.
The future is now, the future is tomorrow
and the future is every moment ahead,
but the currency for cashing in the
opportunities of the future is value. A
mind that doesn’t create value for the
innovators of tomorrow is a wasted one.
The future is not a destination - it’s an
endless staircase. History may forget
those that walked up on the stairs, but
will never forget those that added a step
along the way. Where will you be found?
Creating The Future For
Ourselves
It is essential to know where you lie
because at the end of the day, there will
always be 3 types of people - those who
create templates for a world we can live
in, those that create it for themselves
and those that inhabit the creations of
others’ minds. You see the 21st century
is beyond any reasonable doubt, the best
time to be alive. We are living in a world
of possibilities and opportunities our
forefathers could only have dreamed of -
we are living in the future.
We are living in a future so full of
possibilities, it is easy to get caught up
living in the dreams of others at the
expense of our own. It is so easy to get
comfortable living in the imagination of
a mind responsible for a world we had
no role in contributing towards. It is so
easy getting sucked up into consuming
the creations of another mind rather
than creating things for ourselves - the
21st century seems to conveniently have
everything we need.
Our world today however wouldn’t be
the technological utopia we have gotten
so used to without the efforts of the
20th century. The 20th century created
the foundation for everything we use
today. The personal computer, radio,
the television, cell phone, the instant
camera, pop-up toasters, microwave
ovens, automobiles, airplanes and the
internet among others were all fruits
of this era. Today, the evolution of the
aforementioned inventions are all integral
elements of 21th century experience.
This 20th century is where Hanna-
Barbera created an accurate depiction of
the future through their animated sitcom
The Jetsons in the 1960’s. They imagined
what our world could be - others followed
their template and the rest is history. We
are literally living in the products of their
imagination.
No matter how active our imagination
is, nothing about our world will change
until we actually do something about it.
Until we turn the future in our mind into
reality, we will never truly see the power
our mind is capable of. So let’s take a
take a journey to the early 1900’s - to the
beginning of the 20th century where it
all began. Let’s look at a few disruptive
minds that created the foundation for the
future we live in today.
Take the airplane for example. I believe
this is one of the greatest inventions of
all time. Every destination has become a
possibility because we can jump through
time zones in just a few hours, explore our
62 MAL28/19 ISSUE
To set the rules and
as a result capture
the future, you
must also be ready
and willing to un-
learn everything
you know about
the past. If we
only see our world
from the vantage
point of the past,
our creations will
be irrelevant an-
tiques.
world, and surf the clouds thousands of
feet above the ground in a gravity defying
metal container created out of the mind
of a human being. We can all trace this
disruption to the minds of the Wright
brothers. While they are credited with
flying the first airplane, they were not the
first team on the journey to make man fly.
They found the missing link others before
them couldn’t, and as a result changed
humanity
forever.
Hanna-Barbera
imagined and created a template for the
future, the Wright brothers on the other
hand created it themselves.
So how do we then create the future
for ourselves? We first of all need to let
our imagination run wild! No one had
ever flown an aircraft before. There was
no template for the Wright brothers to
follow. They had nothing to benchmark
but their imagination. If we don’t let our
imagination run wild enough to think of
things others have not done before, we
will continue creating alternate realities
of our present. If your mind can only
create ideas that resemble the things in
our world today - they will have an expiry
date. When you create what hasn’t been
done before - you set the rules.
To set the rules and as a result capture
the future, you must also be ready and
willing to unlearn everything you know
about the past. If we only see our world
from the vantage point of the past, our
creations will be irrelevant antiques. A
digital typewriter would have seemed like
the most logical step to follow as the 20th
century began. The personal computer
however didn’t just come to enhance the
typing experience, it provided a world of
possibilities.
The personal computer was the prerequisite
for the internet to exist. The internet
was the prerequisite for companies like
Google, Facebook, Amazons and Netflix
to be built. This means some of the
biggest companies in the world wouldn’t
exist if the first creators of the early PC
decided to just make incremental changes
to the Typewriter. They unlearned what
they knew about typewriters and the
past and as a result, created the path for
the technological development we are
experiencing today.
Everyone can dream of some sort of
future. Very few act on those dreams.
Those that do, are responsible for the
wealth of opportunities we now have in
our world today. The Wright brothers
had no access to the internet to help
them with their research on aerodynamic
control. The early PC creators had no one
to benchmark but themselves. Internet
companies like Google didn’t have a
‘template’ for what an internet company
should be like - yet they all still changed
the world.
If people living in an era with less than
what we have access to were able to
contribute to the future we all enjoy
today, we living in the 21st century have
no excuse. Not every idea can change the
world, and not every idea has a place in
the future. How then do we capture the
future in our world of opportunities?
Until we start to take control of the
future we desire, we will live our lives at
the mercy of those who have. History will
never forget those that create the future,
but those that merely exist in the future,
eventually become history. Where will
you be found? The choice is entirely yours.
Dr. Akinyemi is the Chief
Transformation Officer, PowerTalks
Corporate & Personal Development
Consultants. You can commune
with him on this or related matters
via email at: [email protected],
or via his twitter handle at: twitter@
waleakinyemi.