David Goldsmith - Forecasting the Future & Redefining Your Future: Paid to Think

What you should know about your Paid to THINK Single

Here are a couple of tips you should know now about the Paid to THINK Single. The Paid to THINK Single is being offered to decision makers as an educational tool, designed from a long history of people seeking to use portions of content in their quests to do their jobs better. Over the years, countless leaders have received and utilized single chapters from Paid to THINK effectively to solve certain challenges and create opportunities, and now they are available to you, too.

Although each Paid to THINK Single stands on its own as a proven educational resource, be aware that within the content of certain Paid to THINK Single books, you may come across references to other Paid to THINK Singles or to the full edition of Paid to THINK. In these instances, you may want a full edition of Paid to THINK on hand to clarify terminology and concepts not fully described in this particular Paid to THINK Single.

Regardless, leaders and managers have used Paid to THINK Singles as cost-effective means of sharing information with other leaders and/or stakeholders. For instance, if you want to get six managers and 34 group members up to speed on a particular topic rapidly, you dont have to purchase 40 copies of Paid to THINK and ask everyone to read only one chapter within the larger book. Instead, you can economically teach your people by simply securing six copies of Paid to THINK for your leadership team and 34 copies of a Paid to THINK Single and achieve the same outcome!

Paid to THINK Singles offer additional value to people working in NGOs (non-governmental organizations), NPOs (non-profit organizations), and in emerging markets where the need for leadership information is great but where budgets may not be ample enough to cover pricey educational tools and methods. Luckily, Paid to THINK Single gives more people the opportunity to learn and develop..

Paid to THINK Singles make great gifts, and theyre convenient for those who dont want a full book. Whatever your purpose in choosing a Paid to THINK Single, youll find it to be an economical and easy way to learn.

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about business and leadership. Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services, by publishing this book. If any such assistance is required, the services of a qualified financial professional should be sought. The author and publisher will not be responsible for any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of any information contained in this book.

This book contained single-subject material from the book Paid to THINK. Content within this Paid to THINK Single, therefore, does not necessarily cover all the terminology or descriptive material referenced within that pertains to the comprehensive resource Paid to THINK.

Copyright 2012 by David Goldsmith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

BenBella Books, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title.

978-1-937856-00-0

Editing by Lorrie Goldsmith

Copyediting by Shannon Kelly

Proofreading by Cape Cod Compositors, Inc. and Rainbow Graphics

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Cover design by Jelena Mirkovic

Text design and composition by Maria E. Mendez, Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.

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THE SPEAKER AT THE PODIUM announced the ten-minute break to his audience of 1,000 or so retailers and exited the stage. The venue was in Colombia, South America. I was slated to speak to the same group later that day, but at this time, I blended in and appeared to be another retailer attending the conference. (Oftentimes, I like to sit in on presentations to hear what other speakers are presenting and how the audience is responding to be sure that my presentation addresses participants most current and pressing challenges.) I stood up to stretch my legs as three managers of big-box home-improvement stores who were seated behind me started talking about how they didnt get much out of the presentation, because, Its impossible to plan for the future. I guess the reason for their comments were that several of the speakers had asked the audience to think about the future, to be prepared for the future, and to consider the future. I couldnt help but ask one of the men, How do you plan for the future?

I dont have time for that, Im so busy handling everything else, answered one of the three who each managed just over 200 employees. When I try to look into the future, I cant plan any further than a month at a time. Moments later, he added that to plan a quarter of a year in advance was impossible in his line of work.

Mind you, these men didnt yet know that I would be presenting later on, so we were chatting as retailing peers. I knew that he could look much farther into the future than one montheven farther than one year; hed just never learned the tools to do so. When people talk about the future, they put the topic into one massive outlook without knowing how to approach it. My Macro Tactic would quickly show him and his colleagues that they could see and predict the future. After all, he was in retail, an industry of predictable annual cycles and seasons: the Christmas holiday season, the spring and summer landscaping seasons, etc. I decided to try something to help him by changing the subject very slightly, because I knew that in order to help him understand this next concept, I would have to slowly pull down some of his mental barriers.

Do you have children? I asked.

Yes, three sons, (ages) 7, 4, and 1.

When you learned that your wife was pregnant with your first child, did you think about what it would be like to be a father? Did you start planning for the arrival of your new babysetting up a nursery, selecting a pediatrician?

Sure. We had the whole baby shower thing and got the house ready.

And when your son was born, did you begin to imagine where he would attend elementary school and whether he would attend college one day? Maybe you pictured him as an adolescent, and you even thought about how he would one day marry and have children and grandchildren of his own.

Yeah, I guess I did. You know, you cant help but think about how their life is going to be.

So what youre telling me is that you were able to think up to 50 years into the future about your child, but you cant think more than one month into the future of your business?

As a smile crept across his face, I knew that he understood the connection; he probably could extend his thinking forward beyond a single month at a time. When you look into the future, you obviously cant predict every detail, but you can extend your thinking forward much farther than you believe you can. For example, this man might not have known exactly which school his children would one day go to; some details come into view as you approach certain time frames. But he realized that by having a vision deeper into the future, he could make better decisions today.