Food grains were the early form of exchange. Money was invented during recent times. Businesses used to happen within the community then expanded across communities.
Business is a process where we exchange values. Humans want to improve their state but individual efforts are limited. Each person is unique at exhibiting different qualities. So we needed to help each other for collective growth.
Industrial revolution has heavily affected how humans work and do business, it brought time-based work, management processes. It had a great impact on day to day life. Average income and population increased, leading to an improved lifestyle.
Massive urbanization happened during that period, since people from rural communities migrated to urban areas, giving rise to great cities.
The Industrial Revolution was followed by communication technologies. With the advent of communication technologies we can now serve people across the globe. This has affected how we live and do business, common language has emerged to help people easily interact with each other.
Let’s say, previously if you were good at drawing, you could only sell it to people within your locality. If there are no buyers, you are stuck with other jobs for survival. With communication technologies, now you could sell it to someone on the other side of the globe. You don’t have to do a job you don’t like if you have unique talent.
Food habits are becoming common across communities. The differences will continue to reduce because human species survival needs good coordination among people. We will continue to invent new technologies to help us survive and thrive.
Has new form of of business affected our way of living? The answer might be “yes”. Businesses depend on a predictable outcome, with predictable dependencies. That why business processes are in place to control the variations. Humans involved in the businesses need to act in a same particular way to help achieve the target. Like specific work timing, lunch time, weekends off. This is, in fact, against the human nature where we love variations.
A research done on 17,000 civil servants, the result was that the status of a person’s job was more able to predict their likelihood of a heart attack. Stress levels rise in response to how much you are ordered about by other people.
"There are only two dangerous drugs, heroin and a monthly salary" - Naval
Business and jobs will continue to evolve and today’s job may not exist in one or two decades. Sixty-five percent of students who enter primary school today will not have have the same job we do now. The constant invention of new technologies will continue to impact our jobs, where boring manual jobs will be handled by machines and softwares. Humans will have only creative jobs. Jobs will not go away, the type of jobs will just vary.
We have seen that throughout our history. Invention of wheels did not take away jobs, in fact, it created more jobs but in different forms. Invention of steam engines created more opportunities for people to serve a wider territory. This produced more job opportunities. Similarly, new technology will further create new demands, which will offer people jobs. But people who cannot relearn by themselves to the new tools and technologies will suffer.
"People spend too much time on doing not enough time thinking what they should be doing" - Naval
Education will undergo dramatic changes. Previously, the only way to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) was to go to a university and learn. Now, internet has made the information and teachings easily accessible from across the globe. I have seen people with a very minimal education qualification excelling as a Software Engineer overshadowing someone with a higher qualification. This can be attributed to the quality of public information available, Wikipedia, SME websites, video courses offering platforms like Udemy, Teachable, and SkillShare.
New age jobs will have a different take on how we work. Gig-based work will take prominence, more people will start working on their own comfort. They will work when they want with what they love. Thanks to the internet, you can serve people easily without even having to meet directly. Tim Ferriss, author of the famous book The 4 Hour Work Week defines a new term “New Rich” (NR), which are people who escape the 40 hour work week and instead work when they want. Ofcourse, it’s never easy to achieve it, but with right knowledge and doing right thing at the right time can make you the NR.
He argues we should develop the strength to bold things not the strength to suffer. Our society has created boundaries, and will suggest you to choose the popular options like 9 to 5 job as it has minimal risk. But he would say, everything popular is wrong. We must understand that some randomness (not so popular decision) is essential to be different from the herd.
I know it might look like a dream, but welcome to the digital age, if you can handle information effectively, anything is possible.
As Hector puts it,
Let’s see some examples, Google does not produce content, it only makes searching existing content created by others easily accessible. Alibaba has no inventory. Wikipedia depends on its contributors to provide content. It’s all information. Information is the new wealth.
“You will see more change in the world in a decade than the last 20 generations have witnessed — combined!” - Hector Quintanilla, Founder at DigitalAgeEducation.com
In this new age, your digital identity will be more important to grow. Look for patterns, demands and then offer great value that people will need. How can you achieve it?