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The Massive Disruption and the New Normal

by | Jul 11, 2020 | Podcast Blogs

coach tim disruption

If you knew what will happen tomorrow, what would you change about today?

Welcome to the new normal.

I hate that phrase.  But I think in this case it appropriate.

At the start of the global pandemic, we did not know how long or how bad it would get.

To many it felt and indeed still feels like a gas lighting attempt. As what we are told, and what is evident,  seem starkly in opposition with one another.

But even as we are coming out of the shelter period, we indeed may be going back as new cases spike.

Future Shock is a 1970 book by the futurist Alvin Toffler,in which the author defines the term “future shock” as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies.

The shortest definition for the term in the book is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time”.

The book, which became an international bestseller, grew out of an article “The Future as a Way of Life” in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue. The book has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock
“Too much change in too short of time, disposability of products and people… the death of permanence.”

  • “Change is not merely necessary to life — it is life.”
  • “Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible.”
  • “The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.”
  •  “Change is the only constant.”

Toffler was correct in predicting the Internet and Youtube and even cloning and human-like bots.

The point in predicting the Future is more about the shock in Future shock, than the actual product that emerges.  And in knowing the shock that has come from the global shutdown has been massive unemployment and even suicide and global riots. 

But also new behaviors that could be new opportunity to serve emerging markets.

In the talk, I also discuss other futuristic soothsayers named Faith Popcorn  of the Popcorn Report, and James Dale Davidson author of Blood in the Streets: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad. 

So what I hope that you get out of the talk is that the shutdown was a tipping point. A moment where many businesses already on the fence. And only needed a slight push over the edge to experience an emergency.

Habits were broken and new ones made.  Eating out became delivered or picked up.  Or…gulp… homemade! 

Trips to the grocery store once a favorite for me, became a dystopian parody.

People joked on the socials that they were getting 2 weeks to the gallon in car mileage.

We heard that there would be a baby boom.

But I warned that we are putting husbands and wives together in the same space perhaps for the first time in years. And for more than a few hours. I think divorce rates will boom too.

Sadly.

But the two huge trends that I wish to mention. Is the death of commercial real estate and along with that public schooling and many of our youthful traditions.  Enjoy and adjust and find your new niches and profit!

Update

Since first publishing this some interesting things have happened.

Stanford University cancelled 11 sports teams,  while many conferences have cancelled Fall sports.  Many colleges like USC have determined a remote schedule for the Fall while raising tuition.

Locally at the high school level it is still not clear how school will happen. And many kids are not practicing for Fall sports. While some defiantly are.

The PAC 12 conference has determined that they will only play Fall sports against Conference schools.  However, like Major League Baseball, it is a matter of time before players say no thanks. I do not want to risk getting and or spreading the virus. 

The social construct of distancing as a safety measure does not seem consistent with most sports. Does it?

Masks are a big deal to people for and against.

There will be a time soon that demand for non mask stores will be made known to proprietors.  In other words currently  in Los Angeles, diners are eating outside spread from one another. However, even in LA the weather will make that impossible in the near future.

I recently read two similar social posts where an actress friend and another was a realtor. Both on the elliptic machine at their gym.  They both were asked to run with masks. But also to put gloves on.  I doubt either still belongs to their gyms. 

So these are examples that you I am sure have experienced in various ways.  In this update, their are several opportunities to serve markets.

I cannot foretell the future. But you and I both know changes are coming.

What opportunities are out there for you to serve you market?