what it is you really want to do.
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
You might have an itch.
Life is short.
If you've got something you want to do… now is a good time to start.
Here are four reasons why…
The FIRST reason to start something now…
YOU CAN
Our connected world makes it possible for people to actualize dreams, ideas and initiative in ways our forebears could not even dream of.
Put a couple of these into a search engine and see what comes up.
How to collect fountain pens from around the world
How to collect truffles
Mobile phone app builders in India and China
How to cycle across the world.
1. Whatever you want to know is accessible instantly.
Want to collect fountain pens from around the world, want to learn how to collect truffles, want to find someone to build a mobile phone app for you in another continent, want to retrain, want to research how to bicycle across the world…? No problem. It's all at your fingertips.
2. Need to locate expert help?
Then connect with people who can help you. The soaring development of the social web has demolished barriers between you and the expertise you need. It empowers you to ask friends of friends (and friends of friends of friends) if they can offer advice, make introductions, share experiences.
Who do you know who's already doing or has done what you want to do? Get in touch with them. Ask to meet them, talk on the phone or email them and find out how they did it. What are their top tips?
3. Tribe up.
Whatever it is you want to start doing – a business, a work of art, a social project, setting up a partnership of website information architects – there are people somewhere in the world who share your passion. Want to find people to trade antique fountain pens with? There are thousands of them. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find people who share your passion. You can support each other, learn from each other, do business with each other. The author Seth Godin2 calls these groups of shared passions: “Tribes.”
Here's a few ideas to find your tribe:
Meetup ( www.meetup.com ) – an online networking site that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. You can find and join groups unified by a common interest.
Facebook groups – these provide a dedicated space for people to communicate their shared interests, so a great way to find and connect with like-minded sets of people.
Peoplehunt – an app which connects individuals with reciprocal interests. For example, you can find someone to practise another language with, or give you guidance about online marketing.
4. The “barriers to entry” have collapsed.
OK, so that's a business term and we're not just talking about business. But the point is that the cost of setting up many businesses or even non-business projects has collapsed. Most digital start-ups don't even need an office but work from shared space or coffee shops. This has, for example, had an impact on the venture capital world. The power used to be in the hands of the VCs because you needed money to set up a business and they would exact a heavy price for the cash. Now that it doesn't cost so much to start up, the power is with people who have ideas and the “gumption” to make them happen.
Viva la Revolución!
Viva gumption!
5. You're already at the centre of the universe.
And if in fact you are starting a business or collecting fountain pens from around the world, the global markets are wide open for business. From your front room.
The SECOND reason to start something now…
Unconventional is Conventional
The conventions of society that dictated the correct way to behave and whose arched eyebrows used to hold people's dreams in check are vanishing. In the big cities they're already long gone. The world is too connected for that and it moves too fast.
1. Sixty years ago a gentleman wouldn't go to work without a hat on; ten years ago they stopped wearing ties. Now you don't have go into work to go to work… so who knows what people are wearing. But the point is: who cares?!
Society cares less about conformity than it used to. This makes it easier to swim against the current. Easier to do something different, to challenge convention. If you want to give up your job and travel round the world, learn to juggle, join a commune – your neighbours might cough and shake their heads but you can cope with that…Or they might just tell you how they always wanted to do the same thing.
2. The concept of a job for life is long gone. The tramlines that used to confine a career from start to finish; from apprenticeship to grave aren't imposed by anyone but you. It's not unusual to hold down three part-time jobs at once or to shift jobs every couple of years. In response to the absence of job security we have had to become more agile in our approach to work. Self-employment is soaring.
3. You are going to live a long time. Life expectancy goes up and up. If you're going to be around a long time you might as well do something you enjoy for as much of that time as possible.
Some examples of how lifestyle, work, society and leisure are changing.
The most entrepreneurial country in the West is built on failure
The net number of U.S. startups versus closures is minus 70,000. (Source: US Census Bureau, Longitudinal Business Database)
Folk managing themselves and themselves alone
There are over 22 million non-employer businesses. Meaning they have no boss and they have no staff underneath them.
They just get up and do.
(Source: US Census Bureau)
Locations where work was conducted during the past month
(Source: Telework 2011 by World at Work using data collected by the Dierenger Research Group Inc and World at Work)
Folk escaping the cubicle on a daily basis
3.7 million employees (2.5 % of the workforce) now work from home at least half the time.
(Source: Based on an analysis of 2005-2014 American Community Survey (US Census Bureau) data conducted by GlobalWorkplaceAnalytic.com)
Folk escaping the cubicle for a long time
Of the 2014 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies, 72 % offer sabbaticals.
(Source: