FP #186: How to Be a Futurist by Looking at the Patterns of Today – Glen Hiemstra with James Rick

Glen is a futurist, speaker, consultant, Founder of Futurist.com, and author of Turning the Future into Revenue. He is a future-oriented person who, like many people, has the capacity to remember the past. He makes it his job to collect seemingly unconnected data and determines what patterns he’s seeing out of that information. In this interview, he discusses what businesses and individuals need to know to shape their future and how anyone can be a visionary and predict the future. More importantly, he shares some ways we can set ourselves up for the future with present information as a guide.

STRATEGY THAT WILL SET YOU UP FOR THE FUTURE

• PLAN ON LEARNING SOMETHING IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS

-          This is the best and simplest strategy

-          This will help you position yourself if future opportunities come up

-          You need to do this whether or not you’re unemployed or otherwise

-          This is especially true where new technology is concerned

HOW TO GET INFORMATION YOU CAN USE FOR PREDICTING THE FUTURE

1. Have a routine of reading things on general media
2. Collect information from specialized media that describe things that are coming to us in somewhat longer terms
3. Pay attention to new inventions that capture your imagination
4. Stretch your imagination by reading at least one science fiction novel per year

FINAL TIP

• In your imagination, think long term but act in a very short term

FINAL THOUGHTS

• We need to change our language around; we’re not at the end of everything

• Look for where the possibilities are, rather than the things that are going wrong

Glen has talked about predicting the future in Business Week, Forbes, Bloomberg TV, USA Today, and all over the web as well as on offline media. You can follow him and get lots of information about the future by going to his website at Futurist.com. Be one of the first 5 responders if you want to get a free hard copy of his book, Turning the Future into Revenue, by e-mailing him at info@futurist.com.

Remember to subscribe to Full Potential Show updates to get more great insights and be the first to get valuable free stuff you will ONLY find here on the Full Potential Show with James Rick! And “like” our Facebook page for a chance to enter into our weekly drawings for even more free stuff.