Any job that exists now almost certainly won't exist in a year. It might exist in name only, but it won't really be the same job. If you don't earn a promotion within the next year, you will be fired.
The same goes for businesses and the self-employed. If you provide the same service at the same quality level, in a year, you will be out of business and bankrupt.
You will be like the literal bank that does not develop a mobile app. Or like the bank that charges extra for using a mobile app, as if providing that seemingly extra new service was not absolutely necessary just to barely keep up. Or like the bank that has a mobile app that is not significantly more user-friendly and faster than it was a year ago, with new cutting-edge features that it did not have a year ago. All of those banks are headed towards collapse.
For example, I am not going to drive to your stupid ancient ATM to deposit my checks. Period. I will not do it. I would rather close my account at a bank than drive to their ancient ATM to deposit a check. If I cannot deposit my check easily using an ultra-modern super-user-friendly free mobile app, and thus have to drive to the bank, I won't deposit the check when I arrive at the bank; I will close my account there.
Whether you are a business owner, employee, or contractor, there are already rising standards for all tasks, products, and services. The standards are constantly rising.
A product that will get a 5/5 review today will get a 3/5 or worse in a year, if that product has not been improved. A great product today will be mediocre at best in a year, if it hasn't been drastically improved during that time. A mediocre or average product today will be horrible in a year, if it hasn't been drastically improved during that time.
A product, service, or staff member who is ultra-modern and cutting-edge today will be ancient and obsolete in a year.
If businesses and employers are competing to hire you or buy from you because your services and skills are so modern and valuable today, they will fire you in a year if you haven't drastically improved your skills by then. What's cutting-edge and valuable today will be obsolete and worthless within a year. That is, if it is not drastically updated and constantly improved during that time, so much as to be effectively an entirely new and different thing.
A staff member whose performance is above average today will be below average and fired within a year, if they haven't improved significantly during that time and functionally earned a promotion, namely by learning new skills and becoming much more efficient in everything they do.
Your job and industry as they are today won't exist in a year. If you haven't earned a promotion, you will be fired.
If you own a business and are not giving your customers much more for less, you will go out of business. That does not mean you have to lower your prices to stay in business, but it does mean you will have to continuously provide much better bang for the buck than you currently do, or you will go out of business. Every day, your customers need to get more per dollar from you than they used to the day before, or you will go out of business fast.
For example, I'll cancel my account with a company just because they want me to call them. I'm a millennial. I don't make phone calls. Step up your game or lose customers and lose jobs. If I have to make a phone call to pay a bill, I will not pay that bill. And I have a great credit score (well above 800), because that just goes to show how absurd and obsolete requiring someone to make a phone call for anything would be.
It's not even enough to just grow and improve and constantly make yourself and your skills and your business even more modern.
Instead, to keep up, you also have to constantly increase the rate at which you grow and improve.
In other words, you not only have to constantly keep growing and improving just to keep up, but you also have to constantly be growing and improving even faster than you previously were growing and improving, just to keep up.
Modernize or go out of business.
Whether you are an employee or contractor selling your time (i.e. your time and labor are your products), or you own a business and sell some other product or service, the following holds true in both cases: If you keep the quality of your product, service, or work the same over the next year, its relative value will plummet, and you will get fired or go out of business. You will get more and more bad ratings or performance reviews that you and your product deserve, due to you not improving.
Complacency is death in this market.
I say that with love, my friends. A delayed rude awakening is even ruder.
It's not my responsibility to awaken you. But I do my best not to go out of my way to keep others asleep. And, if my words or actions happen to awaken you, then that's just a wonderful blessing for us both. If I happen to do or say something that functions as a rude awakening for you, then that is excellent. It's a wonderful blessing for you, more beneficial to you than winning a literal million-dollar lottery. And, since I love you, it's good for me too. I love accidentally helping others, such as by accidentally giving them the wonderful blessing of a rude awakening.
And, if you aren't ready to wake up yet, then to you I say sweet dreams.
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
a.k.a. Scott
- "Any job that exists now won't exist in a year. It might exist in name only, but not really. If you don't earn a promotion within the next year, you will be fired."
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In addition to having authored his book, In It Together, Eckhart Aurelius Hughes (a.k.a. Scott) runs a mentoring program, with a free option, that guarantees success. Success is guaranteed for anyone who follows the program.
