The Next Five Years

November 6, 2023

Good morning! If you’ve been thinking, “Where is he?!  It’s eight o’clock on a Monday morning, dangit!  Where are the Musings?!” Well, guess what?  It’s seven o’clock CST on a Monday morning. When we were not watching it suddenly became November! So, this is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into… what should now be done with our Bit Coins?!It was a grrrreat week to have been invested in stocks — hypothetically that is, after-the-fact, of course!  3,000%+ (annualized).Be sure to read and enjoy the fascinating story of Kik the Wooly Mammoth in the November 2023 edition of The Smithsonian.

• So-called amateur investors have in recent years outperformed portfolios managed by professional advisers.
  • Consumers think that in the next three to five years, (Responsible?) Artificial Intelligence and social media will:
    • Take the place of the financial adviser (11%)
    • Supplement the financial adviser (52%)
    • Will not at all take the place of the financial adviser (25%) — [CFP- Trust but Verify, August 2023]
• I heard her interviewed, Google her:  Fei-Fei Li and read her book, The Worlds I See:  Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI, 2023.
  • “As AI grows, we need to make sure we are not just exacerbating intolerance, exacerbating unfairness.”  (Li, 2023)
  • It’s a powerful, powerful tool — for evil and for good; how will we manage it?
• Where do you get your music these days?
  • Spotify is leading the way while growing from 100 million users eight years ago to 600 million today.
  • And, perhaps more importantly, 230 million of those users are paying customers vs. <20 million in 2015.  (Spotify, 2023)
  • Can you say 900%+ growth?!
• Are you an obsessive recharger?
  • Don’t be.  At least be smarter about it.
  • That battery in your phone features an unavoidable obsolescence (it’s physics)… and will become increasingly less useful the more often you charge it. (Stern, 2023)
• Prestige or money?
  • Money is winning.
  • Years ago power and prestige might have been more important in the work world; e.g., look at me, my title, my office, my firm, my MBA or Ph.D., my wardrobe, my expense account.
  • Surveys by Gallup and the Pew Research Center show compensation, always a key piece of career decisions, has become an increasingly greater priority.
  • Many workers don’t define themselves by perceived prestige or bragging rights… they don’t mind working for no-name companies — or with a mediocre title — if the pay is good.  (Borchers, 2023)
• Anyone — well, almost anyone — can bowl a strike now and again, just by pure chance if nothing else.
  • But the strike itself is relatively meaningless if you can’t follow it up with consistent spares and more strikes.
  • A bowling game filled with 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s (pretty good, you would think!) won’t even get you to a score of 100 — one-third of where you’re trying to be.
    • (Hint:  Disciplined consistency/ execution + Sustainability)
• Bring the right tools with you on your leadership journey, don’t proceed foolishly unprepared.
  • When we attend a seminar, read a self-help or business book, or when we listen to a speaker or a Podcast, we rarely think about the time it took to prepare.
  • That speech was rehearsed, probably dozens — if not hundreds — of times.
  • That book went through countless drafts in an effort to get every single word to be the right word in the right context.
  • That seminar or conference was tested and vetted — and probably used a focus group to help discern and to maximize its relevance and effectiveness.
  • Ever been to a T.E.D. or a T.E.D.x talk?  Guess the amount of time those speakers invest practicing.
  • Ask for help (the #1 reason leaders stumble or fall is not asking or asking too late), be coachable, and stop thinking you must have all the answers.
  • Here the point:  Bring realistic expectations along with you on your leadership journey while realizing the time and practice it takes to get better.  (Informed by Eades)
• “Value is especially important to consumers today; in India, 82% of consumers say they switch to a different retailer or brand when they’re looking for better value.” (Segel, et al., 2023)
  • You’re likely to be a zero consumer even if you might not call yourself one.
  • Zero consumers are omnichannel shoppers; i.e., those looking for value and bargains from anywhere — even the Dollar Store.
  • They scrimp and splurge at the same time, they’re not loyal to brands, and they care about health and sustainability…
  • Zero consumers are (so-named because of zero loyalty) everywhere… companies that don’t pay close attention to them could soon become irrelevant.  (Kuijpers, 2023)
• The following was submitted by a good friend and faithful reader from the nearby shores of Big Fish Lake (Thanks!):

Choctaw elder and retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston offers a meditation honoring different ways of knowing that have fed his soul:  

For all the great thoughts I have read

For all the deep books I have studied

None has brought me nearer to Spirit

Than a walk beneath shimmering leaves

Golden red with the fire of autumn

When the air is crisp

And the sun a pale eye, watching.

I am a scholar of the senses

A theologian of the tangible.

Spirit touches me and I touch Spirit

Each time I lift a leaf from my path

A thin flake of fire golden red

Still warm from the breath that made it. (Charleston, 2023)