By now everyone has felt it. How everything changes so fast, how we get bombarded by new information, new inputs from every direction, and how this new world somehow expects us to keep up with it spinning faster and faster. In the last couple of years I, for one, have experienced in my surroundings an incredible upswing of entrepreneurial spirit, of the ideals of creativity, individual expression, going out and making a dent in the world. We now live in a world in which we can put together lifestyles where we get to embrace and dance with these ideals, if we choose to. Instead of specialists, the now and the future will favor “amateurs” in the true sense of the word: They’re “doing it out of love”… but on a meta level.
In this post I’m illustrating the three concepts “ideas/organizations/resources are fluid” with three examples of more or less extraordinary individuals who have created or found ways to exchange their value for money.
1. Ideas Are Fluid
Did you know that the Black-Eyed Peas front figure Will.I.Am is a bona-fide eclectic business development genius? There’s the fascinating story about how the popstar transformed into an idea oracle for high-paying, prestigous clients. It shows in a great way that ideas, put into the right context through the right connections, are the most valuable commodity there is. Because ideas are truly everywhere, free for you or me or anyone else to grab and turn into reality.
2. Organizations Are Fluid
“Ok”, you say. “But what if I don’t exactly have the doors wide open to the corporate board rooms like that famous popstar? I just have a traditional job in a big/middle-size organization.” Great for you, then! You don’t have to step outside the playing field, because you can instead choose to do some heavy duty “resource re-allocation” within said field/organization. This isn’t true for all organizations, but through effective and informal steering from the inside any organization can be moved closer to this level of openness towards utilizing their people’s strength in optimal ways without clinging to set responsibilities / job descriptions / credentials / hierarchies.
Here’s how the big, let’s call it “corporate-y startup” company LinkedIn let star employee Matthew Shoup create a truly cross-disciplinary job – a great solution for the “round pegs in the square holes” that I’m sure will inspire you:
How LinkedIn’s “Hacker-In-Residence” Transformed An Ordinary Job Into A “Dream Job”
3. Resources are fluid
airbnb (Photo credit: Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta)
When there emerges an option to pay for a resource being in the right place at the right time rather than ownership and perceived control over it, new micro-opportunities arise. This is Lean Production or “just-in-time” on a societal level. With new platforms such as Ebay, Gidsy, AirBnB, Fancy Hands, etc, now people can customize a lifestyle that adapts to their needs and long-term desires, working with microtasks/microtransactions and not even taking the notion of “one employer/one workplace” in account. The “good-enough job” might be a combination of multiple super-flexible gigs where you get to play with your strengths and still have spare time to pursue your bigger dreams, like in this example from a different kind of job-hopper in San Francisco:
Will you leave your job to join the sharing economy?
Thanks for reading! So, which one out of the three “fluencies” is closest to your situation? Or are you more scared than attracted by the new lifestyles/workstyles? Share in the comments.
