Exponential Thinking

Businesses need to stop thinking so linear. It’s not only costing some companies, it’s killing them.

And worse yet, we as a society are still deep in the same ole traditions of training, teaching and governing that re-enforce linear-type thinking.

Exponential growth is sweeping the world. It’s in technology. It’s in software. It’s in leadership thinking of those disrupting traditional brick and mortar thinking.

Traditional business thinking, human thinking and in fact the entire education and government systems is still geared towards linear thinking with processes of standardisation making it even worse.

Personalisation, not Standardisation

Approximately 2 decades ago, Finland changed its evaluation and educational system in school to be based on personalisation, not standardisation. It has thrived.

Whilst America, which has scores of companies making billions in revenue for standardised testing in the hope to maintain a “no child left behind” system that is failing to keep America up to par, let alone leading the world.

Let’s look at the numbers:

NFL : $9 Billion p.a.

US Domestic Cinema Box Office: $11 Billion p.a.

Standardised Testing Companies combined revenue: $16 Billion p.a.

Companies are making billions for testing kids, not educating them. So kids daily work is consumed with preparing for tests, not learning. And the biggest thing they are failing to learn is the ability to think.

But there is push back. And some unique teachers, principals and thinkers are changing the world.

Go Where the Puck is Going

Wayne Gretzky, arguably the world’s most famous ice hockey player explained the reason he was so good when he said,

“I go where the puck is going, not where it is.”

Human kind needs to think more like this.

This year, 2016 In Australia, we had to endure “another” election. Australians were submitted to the usual arguments and the pain of head butting conversations about the rollout of NBN and its associated costs.

To explain… the NBN is a piece of hardware technology being rolled out with the goal of connecting Australians with fast internet connections. This technology is now being criticised for being outdated. Well of course its outdated. it is based on linear thinking. It’s hardware to start with. And even a 12 year old kid with a phone knows his phone will due for an upgrade in 2 years.

The project begin rolling out physical lines years ago. And with a world accelerating with wireless technologies and sensors at a rate that no human can possibly lay cables in a competitive way against, it is destined to fail with a stench of outdated air.

Main streets in regional areas are being sidestepped because they want to focus on the “regional areas” of regional areas which means all the business who pay the highest rents along the most popular and central streets to a town are being side stepped.

Moore’s Law – Understanding the Start of Exponential

The complete failure of the people running this country to understand Moore’s Law which states “technology is doubling every 18 months” means we now have an ego problem. People who are too scared to kill the project because of their own personal agenda to be voted in and kept in power. And the opposing thought process which sees the cost of completing the project juxtaposed with the technology being inevitably overtaken by wireless technologies before its even completed.

Size Does Matters, But Not How You Think!

Organisations are getting smaller. Not bigger. In the next 100 years we won’t see businesses with 10,000 employees because there are more entrepreneurs entering the market every year with business ideas that dwarf this NBN type thinking. Automated processes are reducing the mundane, repetitive tasks from farming to factory work to answering customer service calls with AI (artificial intelligence) software that outperforms humans who hate their jobs and wish they were doing something else.

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Predictions are 50% of jobs being performed in 2016 will not exist in 5-10 years.[/tweet_box] And whilst the fear inside people screams with “it’s unfair”, it’s actually an opportunity for those people who hate their jobs to finally go do something they love. The entry level into business is the lowest in human history. There’s a world of true experts putting out great instructional wisdom every day on podcasts which you can learn from for FREE!

Sidenote: a government that does embrace exponential growth knows it needs much less staff. So the increasing conflict of interest when it comes to embracing technology means potentially rendering yourself obsolete and out of a cushy government job which is no longer cushy or safe anyway.

Past vs Future

There are currently 2 LEO (lower earth orbit) projects underway to have satellite technology provide connectivity to the world – and one of them will likely offer it for free in order to capture an untapped user base. Boeing are showing incredible promise with just 4 satellite constellation and use of their 1,200 aircraft that fly daily around the globe. The NBN will die a cold, lonely death. Wireless technologies streamed globally at GIG’s per second, not Megabytes per second will be the norm in the not too distant future. I feel for the Australian tax payers footing the bill. But my goal here is not to slam any single organisation but rather highlight the opportunities. There are 3.5 Billion new people coming online in the next 2-5 years. They are all starting from scratch online so the internet is still essentially in Chapter 1 of a long book to read.

October 2016 in India saw Billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his company, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. announced they will be offering mobile phone calls for free. Competitors share priced are free falling. The population of India is celebrating as this de-monetisation of services, commodities and goods globally continues to be shifted by disruptive thinkers who focus on adding value like never before.

Exponential thinking leads to exponential growth. And these breakthroughs are disrupting the entire world.

So what’s the problem with linear? Why don’t more people learn about exponential principles? At what point do we begin having this taught in schools or will the students learn it before the teachers do, which renders the teacher obsolete. What is it costing you by not quitting, changing and speeding in another direction?

Reward Failure – What Schools NEVER Do!

Astro Teller at X.com, the man behind Google’s X program celebrates and rewards his people for killing a project. Why? Because it takes courage to honestly admit, “this isn’t going to work, let’s kill it before it costs us”. The money it saves killing the projects early is worth celebrating. The cost of champagne and financial rewards to staff would make most linear minded entrepreneurs cringe at the cost. But it’s the cost saving mindset that is saving the company.

Imagine an education system that shifted its focus from maths and english – an outdated system designed to separate soldiers from officers more than a century ago.

Imagine your business 5 years from now, established as a world leader in educating and training the 3.5 billion newbies online. Building villages, communities, food systems, clean water, health practices, banking re-designed all by you – the new entrepreneurs.

Geometric Growth, Exponential Growth – it all means the same thing!

Jay Abraham was the first great business educator teaching geometric growth strategies decades ago. Geometric is a term akin to exponential. The principle of compound growth. 10X is a term we see everywhere now.

Business and even our elementary educational system needs to get their heads around exponential growth. The ability to use and capitalise on resources you don’t own or need to own.

The ability to generate a return and add value to people’s lives in geometric proportion to the size of you. Small is the new big. Being small gives you flexibility, speed and keeps you nimble. Google and Apple work with small teams of 6 people for a reason. It enables the speed and nimbleness to remain inside a large organisation. What does your business look like? How has your business model changed? Or has it at all?

Instagram built a business with a 1 Billion valuation with a dozen staff. The average 30 million a year company that started in early 2000’s has between 30-50 full time staff, all expected to rock up to a single location, Monday to Friday, 9-5. Linear thinking is at its core. And with a ceiling based on turnover per employee, these old metrics and old business models are at the cross roads. It’s change or die.

So what’s the takeaways here…

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Exponential growth is NOT about technology. Technology simply helps you bring exponential ideas to life. It comes from the mindset first.[/tweet_box]

If you are business understand this, government is reactive and slow. Just look at how they illegalised Uber in Queensland and eventually had no choice but to legalise it, because it’s what the masses of people want.

In health, research comes after a product is popular, otherwise there is no money to fund the research.

Innovation and foresight will always be at the forefront of product creation. People trusting their guts, aligning with universal principles and going at a speed that others simply cannot keep up with.

Look around for the human motives and human desires and you will see habits of people that need a better way of doing things. When you begin to see it, your brain will be on the exponential path. Look for the problems. This is not negative. This is what solution makers do. Find the very best way to solve problems and you will be rewarded in proportion to the number of people you can help solve it for.

Exponential strategies and exponential thinking is not about money, it’s about principles.

In fact, at the end of the day, it’s about caring. [tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Care enough about people to centre your world on helping them improve their lives.[/tweet_box]