The number #1 reason to become an entrepreneur right now in the 21st century is because the world has changed irrevocably. The twin waves of globalization and technology are changing the economic and employment landscape for every profession.

You will not escape. This is already happening.

In Yuval Noah Harari’s fabulous book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, he says:

“The global empire being forged before our eyes is not governed by any particular state or ethnic group. Much like the Late Roman Empire, it is ruled by a multi-ethnic elite, and is held together by a common culture and common interests. Throughout the world, more and more entrepreneurs, engineers, experts, scholars, lawyers and managers are called to join the empire. They must ponder whether to answer the imperial call or to remain loyal to their state and their people. More and more choose the empire.”

If you are a person who has business ideas in your head, you can become an entrepreneur right now and avoid being ‘left behind’ by “the empire.’  To visualize the rapidly changing world, think back to the past twenty years on earth and the impact the iPhone, Amazon and Facebook have had on business and culture. Now think forward to consider where we will be twenty years from now.   If you think the ‘rise of the empire’ is unlikely to affect you and the way you live your life, you are missing your opportunities as an entrepreneur.

The dangers of waiting to start your business

Both globalization and technology help you start a global business, and reach out to a global audience of potential customers and clients from anywhere in the world. This reality is incredibly liberating and exciting for anyone who has dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. You are free to get started on the work you want to do.

If you wait, you may face a situation where you are scrambling to start your own business because you have run out of options. If globalization and technology, replace more traditional jobs and transform your local labor market, you may find your ability to get the kind of challenging and valuable work you seek is no longer available. There is no issue with starting a business at any point in your life. But it’s more fun to do it when you are feeling comfortable about your future, and you can make good decisions based on your own timetable.

Waiting to start your business also puts you up against issues you may not understand. You may face increasing competition as more global markets develop, tighter financial markets as lenders become more selective, restrictive legislation from overzealous lawmakers, and personal inertia from the debilitating effects of your own procrastination.

But if from the beginning, you think of globalization and technology as resources you can use, you can rapidly move forward on your plan to start your own business and live your life dream.

Globalization as a resource you can use

If you are thinking about your business ideas and trying to get started, you likely feel compelled to deliver value to the marketplace through a product or service you know people want or need. Just like big businesses that must make decisions supporting the goals of shareholders who are based all over the world and expecting economic gains, you have to make decisions to satisfy your own hopes, dreams and economic plans.

To deliver your product or service to the global marketplace, you may end up hiring, for example, a Latvia-based graphic designer to create your logo, just as a big company moves an entire factory offshore to make parts for their product. The process is efficient and straightforward. Once you look at the best offers you receive for a project, the quality of the test work and prior reviews, are you going to look at the person’s location to determine whether or not to give her the job? Maybe some of you will, but it’s possible many of you will not. You’ll participate directly in the global economy by hiring the most qualified, accessible person you could find.

This type of decision-making is happening right now all over the world. You may even be directly affected if your work has been impacted by offshoring or outsourcing. As difficult as cutting jobs is for a business, managers look at what’s best for their company.

The value of global competition

As an entrepreneur, you may find yourself in the same position. But in the long-run being forced to compete on a global scale is typically beneficial to the work force. What would be the quality of the NBA brand if the league did not recruit the best players from around the world? Do we as fans, as an audience and customers really want to miss out on seeing the best in the world play the game? And do we want to miss out on becoming the best in the world through our exposure to the best competition?

In business as in basketball, competing with the best can only make you better by compelling you to improve your skills to keep pace with your competition.

Or get out of the game.

Although the reality is competition can force you out of a particular organization that does not necessarily mean you are completely out of an industry. Many tech companies were started by people who were not necessarily the most successful where they were, but could not get their ideas taken seriously until they went out on their own. You can find an angle for your product or service that creates its own market and finds its own customers in the marketplace. The experience, although painful in the short-term, will ultimately be a huge boost for you if you stay with your plans.

Technology as your primary tool

And you do not only get better on the basis of your personal skill. Your ability to use technology to your advantage is a major factor in success and the other major driver of changes in the new economy. As a rising entrepreneur, you can employ technology tools to support your business in every area from accounting, to design and email management and marketing. The new technologies allow you to produce high quality work at a fraction of the price the work used to cost. This is called reducing barriers to entry. You can enter into the global entrepreneurial workforce by using technology to ensure your product can compete.

Technology is even more certain to take direct aim at employment by humans. Technologists are all over the world. Every company must compete with bright minds in Russia, India and South Korea who can severely disrupt a business enterprise overnight. This fear does not only apply to hackers or pirates. All over the world bright minds are engaged in developing new software and innovative ideas designed to disrupt the functioning of traditional business. Since the Internet is global and most people have access to its possibilities, there is no reason to believe the technology will stop at anyone’s border.

We adapt to technology (not the other way around)

Lately some people are getting a little concerned about the influence of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. In less than twenty years, these companies have fundamentally changed the way we shop, communicate and decide where to eat. Those companies were built with rules set only by the people who built them. And we are adapting to how they are making the world.

As an entrepreneur who uses these online platforms, you have to approach your business decisions on their terms. In medieval times when ‘ancient you’ was farming a plot of land, a new landlord could come by and tell you now submit to his demands or face dire consequences. If you did not have a Knight or some other defender to help you, you were forced to do as you were told or lose your land, or at worst be killed. You effectively had to play along to get along.

The same is true today of technology’s key consumer-facing Internet platforms. In today’s world, if you do not behave on Amazon or Facebook as required, you will lose access to the site, which may mean the end of your business or your social life. Most people are not willing to take that risk. Although it’s technically possible for a new company to rise up tomorrow and replace the big names on the Internet, you have to manage your business in the world you see before you today. You will both have access to a global market through the mega online platforms, and you can lose access just as easily. Your goal is to hang on while remaining true to your vision for your company.

Your business or your job

As globalization and technology define our world, opportunities for continued employment are dependent on these twin pillars that are out of your control or the control of governments. Most people will have to try and get into a job without any hope of staying in the position for a long time. At the same time, millions of jobs go unfilled because the education system, and popular thought, cannot adapt quickly enough to the changing demands of the job market. If the teachers are not trained, the students will not be either.

Where does that leave you?

If you have a business idea in your head, you should be feeling it’s time to take that idea into the global marketplace. Globalization and technology are already here and the world economy is changing right now. The global GDP, or gross domestic product is currently valued at the $78 trillion, with a T, mark. You can take your business idea – your product or service – and deliver it to the market and take your part of that soon-to-be $100 trillion dollar pie.

But you have to get started. The time to become an entrepreneur is now when the field is wide open, your product or service idea is needed, and the available tools and resources provide access to the global marketplace.

Do you feel the urgency?

Struggling with how to get started?  Download my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life You Want through Entrepreneurship.

Disclosure: book links in this article are affiliate links to Amazon.com meaning I may be compensated if you click on the link to go to the Amazon.com website