Tag: Climate Change

The Era Of Unpredictability

We usually have no snow
in my area
in April.

Usually.

But these aren’t usual times.

Climate and other systems
are broken or breaking.

We had green grass in January,
which has never before now
happened.
We could receive snow
in June.

This unpredictability
will be seen
in almost all areas
of our lives
and businesses.

If we want to be successful,
especially long term,
we should prepare
for strange occurrences,
put systems in place
to deal with them,
and monitor our situations
closely.

State The Obvious Truths

A new IPCC report
on climate change
released this week.

It was…hopeful.
The report said
we still have a shot
at sticking to 1.5C.

In other words,
it was complete
bullsh*t.

Anyone who is paying attention
to the state of the world
knows the situation is
very, VERY bad.

We see the natural disasters
all around us.
We note the crop failures
almost everywhere.

Not stating that
obvious truth
causes us
to distrust
everything in the report.

We also distrust the leaders
who are avoiding telling us
this truth.
We view them as
being
either
ignorant
or
deliberately deceitful.

If there is an obvious truth,
state it.

We all know this truth
and stating it
will increase our trust.

There Are Endless Opportunities

These are admittedly dark times.

We’re still in the middle
of the COVID pandemic.
There are possible
new pandemics (Bird Flu, Marlburg, etc)
on the horizon.
Nuclear war is becoming
increasingly possible.
Climate change is kicking
our a$$es.
Fascism is on the rise.
There are countless other issues.

But the opportunities
are also endless.

Heck, some of the darkness
brings with it
opportunities.

A buddy is an event planner
specializing in
accessible and pandemic-safe
events.
She is hiring more staff.

Another buddy
sources now-hard-to-find supplies.
She is considering hiring
more staff also.

There are opportunities
EVERYWHERE.
Look for them.

Your Audience Is Smaller Than You Believe

I was following a climate scientist.

He didn’t have a big audience.

The number of people
on this planet
who care enough about climate
to follow an expert
is small.

Then he fat shamed
a politician.

Many people,
including myself,
immediately unfollowed him.

His prospective audience
reduced again.

Because the number of people
who care that much
about the climate
AND
don’t perceive themselves
as being fat
is
TINY.

He likely believes
his reach
is broader than that.

It isn’t.

And your reach
likely isn’t as broad
as you believe it is
either.

Remember that
when you post offensive sh*t.

Caring And Time Frames

Climate Change Experts
often talk about
how the world will be uninhabitable
by 2100.

2100 is 77 years from now.
Most of us will be dead.

Many of us are trying
to get through
this year, month, day, moment.

The average person doesn’t care
about long time frames.
They don’t care about issues
their kids will face.

As soon as we hear
a long time frame,
we stop listening.
The problem isn’t urgent
and it isn’t ours
to deal with.

Remember that
when promoting products/services/actions.

Focus on the immediate benefits.
Tell prospects
how it will change their lives
TODAY.

Change, Evolution And Survival

The entities
– businesses, species, other –
that survive
over time
change.
They evolve to shifting conditions.
They adapt to changes
in their environment.

This HAS to happen
or these changing environments
render them obsolete.
They go extinct.

What we’re seeing now
in the world
is more and more
people refusing to change.

They are refusing to adapt
to a changing climate.
They are refusing to
change their behavior
to survive a pandemic.

They are clinging to the past
and, if enough people do that,
humans WILL become extinct.

Business builders like you and I
are actively fighting that.
We are encouraging people
to change a little bit,
to try our new businesses.

And if they change that little bit,
they might change a little bit more.
That might make the difference
between the survival
and the extinction
of our species.

You’re adding value
to the world
with your new business.
Never doubt that.

Sentinel Intelligence

One of the activities
I find extremely interesting
is
looking at trends
in different industries
and places
and demographics
and figuring out
how they might converge.

Many of us
call this
‘connecting the dots’
and it helps us
avoid dangers
(like food supply collapses)
and
recognize opportunities
(like awesome new products
to develop).

Jessica Wildfire
has a more professional term
for this.

She
calls this
sentinel intelligence.

She
shares

“If you have sentinel intelligence,
then your brain can aggregate and sift
through extraordinary amounts
of information
in a very short period of time,
especially when it comes to
seeing latent or hidden dangers.”

(This entire post is gold.
She talks about conspiracy theorists
and also why many people
don’t heed warnings.)

If you’re developing
new products or services,
you NEED someone
with sentinel intelligence
on your team.

You need someone
who can connect the dots.

Big Problems Require Numerous Solutions

I was posting
on social media about
how I direct some of my donations
toward planting trees.

An angry guy
commented
that I was a f*ckin’ idiot.
Planting trees
won’t solve climate change.

Of course, it won’t
‘solve’ climate change
on its own,
dumb a$$.
Climate change
is a HUGE problem.
Huge problems
often require
multiple solutions.

If you want to tackle
a huge problem
with the business
you’re building,
consider
tackling a small slice
of that problem
first.

Then build out
from there.

That’s manageable.
That’s doable.

Drought And Electricity

I can’t run
any of my businesses
without electricity.

In my city,
most of the electricity
is sourced
from hydro,
from water-based technologies.

That means
droughts impact
electricity supply.

(This is also true
of nuclear-sourced electricity
as nuclear requires
a lot of water.)

I monitor the water levels.

I have purchased batteries
to store electricity.

I plan to install
solar panels.

If you can’t run your business
without a resource,
know what drives
the availability
of that resource.

Monitor that driver.

And plan for alternatives.

This is one
of our responsibilities
as business builders.

2023 Goals And Plans

Many of us are thinking about
our 2023 goals and plans
this week.

This is your gentle reminder
that climate change challenges
and pandemic challenges
will remain in 2023.

U.N. Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres
is warning of global food shortages
in 2023.

Much of Europe, the US
and Canada
is currently facing
a triple punch
of COVID,
the flu
and RSV.

AND there are new ‘superbugs’
building in intensity.

What does that mean
for the savvy business builder?

We build these challenges
into our plans.

Our plans shouldn’t be based
on everything going right,
on perfect conditions.
They should be based
on reality.

And since everyone,
including the clients
we normally wine and dine,
needs to eat
AND
we require our customers
to be alive
to sell to them,
these two factors will impact
ALL our plans.

Factor for climate change
and pandemic challenges
in your plans.