Reinvent Yourself For The Future

In a few days’ time, the world will be celebrating the start of 2022. However, the celebrations will likely be overshadowed by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that originated from Wuhan, China in December 2019. Millions of people around the world have lost friends, loved ones and colleagues, yet the resulting socioeconomic impact of the pandemic is still to be fully quantified. With that said, lying in the wake of this global pandemic is an opportunity for survivors to rethink and reinvent themselves. The reinvention of oneself is perhaps one of the most daunting experiences, given the fact that reinvention speaks of change and evolution.

Some obvious questions on the mind of any reader may well be: why should I reinvent myself? When would I know I need to reinvent myself? Why bother reinventing myself when I am happy with the way things are? 

I would suggest that whatever the case may be, the reinvention of yourself is of utmost importance especially if you are to survive and thrive in the future that awaits the globe. Alvin Toffler puts it best when he said that the illiterates of the future “will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” This suggests that even if things are going well, a lack of readiness or adaptation for the future will result in extinction. Studies tell us that over the next 10 years, around 50% of the companies currently on the Fortune 500 list will be replaced, because the life expectancy of large companies is rapidly declining as start-ups enter the market at a rapid pace. 

The final question on the reader's mind may well be: what qualifies you (i.e. me) to write on reinvention? I can address this now.

On the 10th of May 2021, in the middle of an engineering meeting, it entered my heart that I must make a bold choice between a life solely dedicated to my engineering career and a life solely dedicated to positively impacting lives through my work as a leader of Europe's fastest growing movement for young people. I had to choose between focusing on my intelligence and career or on the impact I can make on the young people of this generation, albeit intelligence and impact are not mutually exclusive. This realisation has led me down the path of reinvention, hence my resignation from a financially lucrative and fulfilling engineering career after 12 years, to focus on engineering from the perspective of using laws and principles in the development of young people. It’s been 6 months since my decision to retire, and I will write about that in a separate post, however, I'd like to share some thoughts on reinvention as everyone gets ready to enter into 2022.

Firstly, I've learnt that true reinvention relies on my ability to produce something new based on what already exists and who I've become today. It is not a total neglect of what came before, albeit I would have to let go of the framework that previously shaped my view of life. I am still me in the purest sense, however, my past achievements, lessons, experiences, training, and expertise all serve as a foundation upon which I can build new future possibilities. 

Secondly, reinvention is not simply doing something new, but evolving into someone new, although still underpinned by who I have been. In my first weeks after retirement, I filled my calendar with a bunch of new and exciting activities. I admit, the newness excited me for a while, but since I was working with the same internal parts and overall approach, eventually I found myself feeling the need to make yet another change. It soon became obvious that a new list of activities does not necessarily guarantee the evolution that I sought. I learned that making changes that focus merely on surface-level aspects of my life, such as what I did with my spare time, didn't result in a meaningful or purposeful reinvention. 

True self-reinvention happens from the inside out as you realign your life with your values, dreams, and priorities. It is at this point I'd express gratitude to my mentor for giving me the simplest but important nugget during our periodic catch up. He said that my ability to sit quietly for 6 months will offer me the stillness I need for my true creative nature to form and to find full expression. Adherence to this simple yet profound instruction has led me to experience the most creative parts of me.

Every generation has an opportunity to steer the course of humanity, and I believe we are on the cusp of a major shift in how human affairs will be conducted due to the increased awareness and implementation of Web 3.0 through blockchain technology. We need not be experts in Web 3.0, in order to look through the lens of history and learn that it is during seasons of unprecedented crises that unprecedented opportunities came to light. 

The earliest form of Web 3.0 was first explored by Tim Berners-Lee in 2001 in his paper titled “The Semantic Web”, where the internet was said to become more autonomous, intelligent, and decentralised. In other words, instead of us being the source of information for centrally managed supercomputers in entities like Facebook and Google that know what we want before we want it and deploy various marketing strategies to grab our attention and consequently our wallet; we can now use blockchain to achieve decentralisation. 

Web 3.0 has introduced Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), which means that complex networks of systems no longer have a singular CEO, but everyone involved in the network is a contributor with voting rights, and the more stake you put in or the more computing/processing power you provide to the blockchain network, the more reward tokens you're given and the louder your voice. This also means that everyone can transform from being simple “users” and “products”, to being owners and direct contributors in the DAOs. 

I’ll add that although there will be companies that operate these DAOs, their influence is yet to be fully understood. Greg Isenberg a Web 3.0 expert and developer surmises that Web 3.0 is a dream come true where you can:

• be anyone

• no fancy degree

• no family connections

• live anywhere

• make major wealth

• make major impact; and

• all that matters in Web 3.0 is that you add (not subtract) from your community.

Research currently indicates that we are still very early on in the implementation of Web 3.0, with only 3% of the world being on Web 3.0, either through engagement in cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTS) or decentralised apps (as of July 2021). Due to how early this is, issues of governance remain unresolved, as governments around the world grapple with the implication of a decentralised way of transacting value. 

At this point, you may ask: where should I look? How can I be involved? How do I make sure I don't get left out? I'd suggest that one way is to look for good entry points in emerging new industries like e-learning, blockchain courses etc. Another important option is to be more involved in virtual reality (VR) conferences, where you can connect more with online communities such as The Powerbase Institute, an organisation I founded in 2017 that has become my focus since my retirement from my engineering career. 

It was not until my retirement that I realised that I did not have the time to truly renew my thinking, in order to be ready for the future ahead. Thus, as you prepare for 2022 and the world ahead where DAOs will play more significant roles in the affairs of humanity, I would make the following recommendations: 

1. Find progressive and immersive communities.

Find a progressive and immersive community such as The Powerbase Institute, where we shed light on trends and areas of opportunity that offer our Fellows with the opportunity to evolve and have a stake in the future world. 

In an age where social media platforms are ubiquitous, there is the wrong perception that we have friends and connectivity, however, thanks to scientific studies published in the Scientific American in 2019, we now know that loneliness is more pervasive and is now deemed as the “poverty of the modern society”, with evidence showing that loneliness (despite social media connectivity) kills more people than obesity; resulting in a reduction in life span by 15 years, due to its reduction in cognitive ability, dementia, and high blood pressure to a level equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Therefore a possible antidote to tackle some of these issues would be community.

2. Renew your mind. 

You can put this into practice by observing the company you choose to keep and the conversations you are a part of. Your active involvement and participation in a great company of people (either physically or virtually) will open you up to renewed thinking, which will inevitably help you in your quest for reinvention. 

3. Choose your focus.

Your future is formed by what you focus on today, and as you behold that future with focus, you are being transformed. Perhaps you sometimes feel exhausted, bored, uninspired, demotivated, or maybe you feel like you are stagnant with no obvious path to growth? Are you dissatisfied with your life and can’t seem to find a way out. I’d advise that regardless of the situation you find yourself in, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate what makes you fulfilled and explore reinventing yourself.

 I'll round this up using a quote from Plato which says that “we can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” I encourage my readers, regardless of your age, sex, background, or religious disposition to consider the light being shed on the aforementioned topic, and find your position in it, whether actively or passively.