Will “Rapid Demonetization” Kill Your Business?

Have you heard of renowned futurist Peter Diamandis?

Or what he describes as “rapid demonetization?”

If not, you need to, as we now have many examples of businesses getting killed by it, like:

• Videoconferencing – today available for free via a wide number of mobile apps (Skype, WhatsApp, Hangouts, etc.), but was sold in 1982 by Compression Labs for $250,000 ($598,000 in today’s dollars).

• GPS – also free today (Waze, Google and and Apple Maps, etc.), but in 1983 was sold by Navastar for $119,900 ($284,000 in today’s dollars).

• 5 Megapixel Camera – free on your smartphone, but in 1986 was sold by Canon for $3,000 ($6,700 in today’s dollars).

Diamandis’ list goes on and on, and he presciently notes that demonetization like this is accelerating quickly in “big spend” arenas like transportation, food, healthcare, housing, energy, and education (wow).

Now, the cold hard truth is that most businesses have no idea how to serve customers in this demonetized world – how to meet their very low cost, very high value expectations.

Their leadership is just not talented nor flexible enough to execute upon the necessary pivots and re-inventions to do so.

So sadly, most of them will fail.

But a chosen few will win bigger than ever before.

Because the playing field will be cleared of so many failed and “lousy” competitors.

And because when we win digitally, we do so fast and big.

So how are these chosen few competing and winning in this de-monetized world?

Very simply, they are harvesting that most important form of capital of our modern age.

Intellectual Capital.

Our ideas.

Our ability to learn new things.

And unlearn old ones that no longer serve us.

Our imaginings of what our businesses might be.

And then our determination, fortitude, and stick-to-itiveness to will ourselves and those around us to make it so.

Our ability to inspire. To delight. To connect.

To not have technology distract us, but empower us to work more efficiently, collaboratively, sustainably and brilliantly than ever before.

All of us were born with vast troves of this kind of capital lying fertile within us.

And through years of education and life experience we have accumulated enough of it to enable any modicums of success we might have.

So to go to the next level of modern business success, we simply need to go to the next level of increasing and harvesting it to compete and win like never before.

It is not just possible, it is easy.

Everyday simply honor, protect and strengthen our minds, our creativity, our indomitable wills for the incalculably valuable assets they are.

Then watch the love, and the money, flow like manna from Heaven.