TMRW/TDY
The Future’s Playbook
Leadership ⏀ Healthcare ⏀ Innovation
Read time: 7 minutes
Hey Reader,
Why Tomorrow?
Someone asked me recently why I re-branded around the concept of “Tomorrow.” Simple: I disrespect convention. I think status quo is Latin for bullshit (don’t quote me on that). Our best thinking has created a world on fire. And I can’t take it. I’m not unlike Blake at the end of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (spoilers ahead): structures become shackles.
If you can’t envision your TMRW, you are bound to waste TDY.
We all need Tomorrow. It’s the basis of hope. It’s why humanity has survived as long as we have. It’s why we get up in the morning. It’s why my parents left their family and friends in India to go to America all those years ago. And it’s why I am blessed to have a son now.
I have always admired people who are trying to create Tomorrow, whether in tech, art, fashion, business or more. Innovation is not just the latest iPhone app. It’s anything that allows us to see through the miasma of our current way of thinking. In fact, much tech nowadays is not innovation but just regurgitation of old products with a superficial Apple like sheen.
Man’s mind, stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
That’s real innovation – the ideas, tools, businesses and mindsets that break through the dogma that creates our blindspots in our worldview and lets us fall short of our potentials.
The sad thing is that innovation is often co-opted as a way of whitewashing otherwise bad or stagnant behavior. For example, in healthcare, it’s a running joke among those in the know that anyone who holds a leadership position in “innovation” is unlikely to be making real change. But hospitals and clinics and insurers need it to cover up their recalcitrant, atherosclerotic business and care delivery models.
Why is this the case? Because innovation is HARD. Like HARD HARD. It’s hard to see the future because, well, the present is so overwhelmingly present. Clayton Christensen, the late Harvard Business School professor, summed it up the best in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma.
Incumbent companies serve their existing customer base with higher end products and ignore services for lower end customers that would benefit from new technology. This leads to the disruption of markets.
In essence, we are beholden to our success and so we become failures. Innovation mandates constant rejection of comfort and convention.
We live currently in the Interregnum. It is the liminal space between the old and the new. Every business, every person, every nation must go through it. It is the dip, the valley of despair. Joseph Campbell, the sociologist, called it the Abyss. Christensen called it the dilemma zone. The future hasn’t been created but the past is gone. You are alone with only your stories to guide.
We are now in a time when are existing stories are collapsing and new ones are being created. That, by definition, is chaos and was captured brilliantly in the dream heist Inception by Christopher Nolan in this scene:
The recent US elections demonstrate the heated upheaval of a society struggling to move through this space. It is a place where prophets and predators enter the polis or the board room.
We need torchbearers to craft a vision for people to follow during these times. That’s mark of leadership. But why would anyone take on this burden given the potential pitfalls and pratfalls? The answer lies in one of my favorite quotes of all time
“It’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.” – Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
The companies, therefore, that can craft the most compelling stories will win marketshare, capture hearts and minds, and write the first draft of history as they say.
In the energy drink ambience of social media, we now have an attention war. Algorithms compete to push our dopamine circuits, trigger our outrage and “otherize” everyone. Eyeballs = money.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter/X over a year ago for 40+ billion dollars, everyone pounced on him for being an idiot. It was overvalued, Twitter usage was declining, his leveraged Tesla shares were nose diving, and TikTok had far exceeded it.
But now, post election, Twitter is more popular than ever and Elon has helped buy/elect the new US President, a new Cabinet position and likely billions of dollars in new Tesla government contracts.
For now, Twitter is the most influential social media platform in the world. So when Elon tweeted after Trump won:
He is right. This last election was the podcast election because of the rise of influence of people like Joe Rogan who endorsed Trump. Established media outlets like NPR and CNN were widely discredited and disbelieved despite their onerous ojec
This comes on the heels of last year’s GameStop stock buy fashioned by reddit users in order to stick it to institutional investors. Call it rage buying and rage voting.
In retrospect, Elon may have been more insightful than we thought. Having control over a major media outlet seems to be de riguer these days ( Bezos and the Washington Post, Patrick Soon Shiong and the LA Times). And in each case there were notable controversies regarding political censorship. Both Bezos and Shiong directed their papers to not endorse any candidate because of likely future governmental contracts affecting Blue Origin and the war in Gaza.
It is a dangerous form of soft power but incredibly effective. Theorist Joseph Nye first coined this concept in the era of geopolitics but now it is on our phones, changing our dating habits, co-opting our entertainment, and even leading to new currencies (crypto).
Storytelling is the most important skill in the world, but one AI can only mimic (for now). That gap is where human leadership, wealth and fulfillment can flourish.
Don’t believe me ? Just trust Ben Affleck:
Learning to craft and deliver compelling stories is the best way to future proof you career, enhance your life and relationships, and re-shape society for better or ill.
That’s the creative irony of the age of AI, smartphones and social media – the most ancient and analog of human skills is now the most relevant
We are a story telling species.
The stories you tell yourself –> Identity
The stories you tell others about others –> Romance/Friendships
The stories you tell your kids –> Parenting
The stories you tell your neighbors –> Politics
The stories you tell about sharing –>Ethics
The stories you tell about Life –> Science
The story you tell about where stories originate –> Religion
The stories you tell about emotions –> Art
The stories you tell about resources –> Money
No one can see past their own stories.
You question all the stories you believe, except the ones you really believe – those you just call “reality.”
That’s why newsletters like mine are so valuable. I’ll introduce to creatives and contrarians that will force you to think anew.
The obvious question remains: what makes a good story ? Famed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has this key insight
A Want + Obstacle –> Drama
Drama + Villain –> Story
The reason Trump won is that he was unrelenting in his masterful ability to craft a story of a villain that was to blame for the ills of America. It may not have be true, nor humane, but it was effective.
Something core to the Democratic ethos makes it anathema to do so. No villains means no animating force to drive people to attend rallies, donate and go to the polls. The result? Democrats were seen at the standard bearers for the status quo, a position we’ve discussed you should never ever be in (bad marketing)
Interestingly, the same Aaron Sorkin had something to say about all this in his movie the American President played by Michael Douglas
So what’s the business playbook with all this philosophical jargon?
- Craft one central story to share
- Choose the medium that best leverages your strengths – video, blogs, podcast, Tweets etc
- Spread the gospel
- Create evangelists not just customers
- Leverage your brand equity for premium profits and repeat customers
Whether you’re a plumber, a doctor or graphic designer this is the skill you need to find your tribe, make your brand and stand out.
And stand out you must. Because the world is not finished. And only we have the tools too see it through:
With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own. – JFK, 1961
The future needs to be created.
We need stories and storytellers.
Become the Hero of Tomorrow.
I’ll show you how.
Forward,
