In part one and two, I discussed with you how the world has changed drastically ever since the 911 attacks. We no longer live in a country that supports the factory worker life and yet our educational standards haven’t really changed much to support this new paradigm. The sad truth is, todays youth still believes in the ideology that a good education will provide them with a good job – unfortunately, that old belief is no longer the case. In this last part of this three-part series, I will write about new opportunities & benefits that can come our way if we can only learn to become more independent and indispensable.

Adaptation and its necessary ingredient

The most necessary ingredient for change is discomfort. Although I have some thought provoking articles on this web site that has the potential to change almost every area of your life, I know you won’t put any of it to use. You know why? Because most people are comfortable with themselves and their lives. Real change only happens when we find something we don’t like or if a bunch of people don’t like our situation or something about us.

As an example, I lost my job in 2001 and became very uncomfortable at working for other people and decided to start my own business. Then in 2010, Googles algorithms badly hurt my rankings and as a result, my web sites were producing very little. Since I always wanted to blog about my experiences, my downfalls and triumphs so that others can benefit from my mistakes and achievements, I thought I needed to reinvent once again and here I am.

You too, can reinvent and adapt. It takes a very strong will to decide that today is the day! Today is the day that I won’t wait until I am uncomfortable because on the other side of comfort is mediocrity. However, anything worth doing today is going to require lots of effort and getting used to. What if today was the day you decided you will become an independent thinker, lose 100 pounds, quit the job you hate, find the job you love or start the business you’ve always wanted to have?

Its time to make a decision. Everyone has a choice. You either wait until your back is against the wall or decide to make changes before that happens.

Seek independence

One of my favorite quotes is ” No man is free who is not a master of himself ” which was written by the greek philosopher Epictetus. The meaning of the quote is that so long as a man’s passions and emotions are not under his control, he is not free.

Millions of people around the world are great artists, musicians, writers, poets and great businessmen and woman, however, they are not living out their true passions. What if you decided today that money was no object that you were going to live a life of fulfillment instead of a life of success? There is a big difference. Most people put success as their number one priority and completely disregard their passions. The sad truth is, success to most people is all about money and yet, no matter how much money they earn, they are still not contempt with life or themselves.

What if we became more self aware and decided that today is the day that we will live our passions? Guess what would happen – the money will come too! Everyone is an expert at something and everyone has something to teach. If you’re an artist, you can teach art and if you’re a musician, you can teach how to play the piano. Not only will you be doing something you love but your willingness to be of service will also fulfill one of your most basic needs “contribution.”

Look at the New York TImes best selling authors, all the musicians on TV and the radio – do you think someone gave them permission to live out their passions? They could have been anything in this world but they chose to live out their passions instead. What we see is the glitz and the glamour but behind every success was misfortune, these individuals had a lot of hardship and failure before they rose to the top.

It doesn’t really matter what your passions are – to seek independence is to embrace risk and reward. There are no guarantees that you will become successful but through the many books and articles I’ve read about some remarkable people, I have not read a single story about someone living their passion and not feeling good about themselves. The key is persistence and doing what you love – the money and success will eventually follow.

Becoming indispensable

There are some really remarkable companies to work for out there. Some of the tech giants like Google, Apple and Samsung give their employees creative expression to build new and exciting peripherals or ways to make the lives of those using their products better. While these jobs do exist, they are far out of reach for the average individual with no background or experience in such tasks.

However, for the person not skilled enough for Apple or Google – there is still hope to becoming indispensable in todays economy. Just what is being indispensable? Being indispensable is the opposite of being replaceable. The manufacturing era built replaceable cogs who were promoted for following instructions, showing up on time, working hard and sucking it up. However, to be indispensable, we need to make judgement calls, connect people and ideas, be remarkable and generous at the same time.

Want a few good examples?

  • Tim Ferris
  • Pat Flynm
  • Brendan Burchard

These three individuals don’t have a resume. While they once had a job, today they have learned to become indispensable. What use does a resume have anyway? Its just an excuse for the employer to tell you that you’re not qualified for the job and its an easy way for them to say no. If you’re remarkable at what you do and connect with enough people, you will always be gainfully employed.

some day, there will be more machines, robots and overseas companies doing your job – Isn’t it time you became indispensable?

new opportunities

Our economic engines are no longer working as they did before. The internet has made it a lot easier to do business. At the same time our economic engines are faltering, something else is happening. Huge companies and mass markets are being replaced with micro-markets. Tech giants like Google are connecting buyers with sellers everywhere around the globe. Companies like Odesk and Elance connect employers with employees. The huge amounts of exchanged information for products and services is creating tremendous value, meanwhile, commodity prices coming from cheap labor overseas is getting cheaper.

Every individual regardless if self-employed or having a boss is now more in charge of his or her destiny than ever before. Sure there are risks to take and a lot of uncertainty but this opportunity is the biggest in our generation.

This opportunity is for anyone with or without a job to connect globally to billions of other human beings all over the world to tell a story, spread an idea or a word and to change everything.

However, all of this comes at a cost – there is risk, reward, pain and uncertainty. This evolution is new, exciting and risky but not guaranteed. However, with any risk, there are huge rewards.

The big question is – will you adapt or one day be forced to make changes?

Thanks for reading this 3-part series. Please leave comments below and let me know what you think!