by Case Lane

The rise of technology into every area of our lives has frightened many people into believing the unchecked advances will eventually overwhelm us.  Humans will fight the machines…and lose.

But when humans face a new fear – diseases, rodents, other humans – the response has usually been to…fight.  Throughout history, humans have challenged attackers head on.  The survival instinct has made fighting part of human DNA.

The Rise of Robots

Now comes the rise of robots.  Or more specifically the advent of robotic and artificial intelligence products and services that can replace the work currently being done by humans. The fear is that these technological marvels will render humans useless. 

People with no work lose their self-confidence and dignity.  They turn to substance abuse, violence and other harms to express their frustration.  A world where humans believe they have no work is a world no humans would want to live in.

Although many people have been faced with technological change in the workplace, to the point of losing their jobs to technology, the response has been to expect more of the same.

But the response could be…to redefine your value.

The New Hope for Humans

The rise of technology matches the rise of human freedom and independence.  Although there are many governments who will use technology to control their population, the difference with advances in the past is that those governments can also have technology used against them. 

For the first time, the people have within their ‘brain’ power, the opportunity to override government action with technology solutions of their own.  And in so doing to maintain their freedom and independence.

Aspiring entrepreneurs can take advantage of the same opportunity.  The rise of a global, high tech future means the every day person has the opportunity to live life on their terms.

This type of freedom has never existed before in history. People were always constrained.  In the beginning you were politically free but controlled by your resources, and up to the 20th century your freedom was politically controlled although resources were abundant.

Now the shackles are being thrown off, but a new fear has emerged.  The one where you are so free, you are not wanted by anyone, and your value is reduced to nothing by technology that can do everything you can do.

Entrepreneurs Do What the Robots Cannot Do

For an aspiring entrepreneur, this potentially dire fate is actually an open door.  Aspiring entrepreneurs can control of their own futures, by starting a business, defining the value you intend to create, and becoming valued for being human with the ability to deliver your product and service in a way only humans can make viable.

Entrepreneurs by definition identify new opportunities.  Sometimes the product or service you intend to bring to market already exists in form.  If you want to help people learn to paint, or sing or you want to create a new bag or t-shirt.  Those products and services exist – but they may not necessarily exist for the audience you intend to target.

For the aspiring entrepreneur, your audience is the one that wants the product or service from you because of the way you design, produce and/or distribute it.  You can buy books anywhere, but you buy books on Amazon because they are delivered to your door. 

Many companies make computers, but people buy Apple computers because they’re slickly designed.

And when it comes to fashion – t-shirts to haut couture dresses, flip-flops to high heels – the marketplace wants an extraordinary variety of products.

Entrepreneurs fill gaps in the global marketplace.  The plan for the robots is to do work that already exists.  But not all work can be delivered by robots.  Even if you believe that may not be the case someday, the chances that you living right now, will see robots do absolutely every single possible job in the world is probably zero.

Robots also do not do the most human-contact type of work from hair stylists to surgeons.  As long as humans want to maintain contact with humans in professions where human thought and interaction are required, the robots will be one step behind.

The Technology Risk to Entrepreneurs

Now obviously there are no guarantees.  Science and technology can accelerate at any moment and place your business at a disadvantage.  But that has been the prediction throughout history.  Sometimes when technology replaces an entrenched product or service, the product makes a comeback, or evolves to fulfill a new need. 

Vinyl records now sell for 5 or 10 times the price people used to pay for them because the once ubiquitous item has become a novelty people purchase as a gift or collector’s item.

Other items like the 8-track tape player are not expected to return, ever.

But as an aspiring entrepreneur with one eye on the global marketplace and the other on your niche audience’s demands, you can hedge your own bets about what may or may not work by focusing on fulfilling the need your audience has right now.

The path to controlling your professional life runs through entrepreneurship.  By turning yourself into a person who recognizes a gap in the market, you can deliver value to more people who are searching for the same thing.

Because you have to find a product or service that your audience wants or needs, by definition, that product or service does not already exist.  And therefore the chance that robots or A.I. can deliver the product or service also does not yet exist.

If you are fulfilling someone else’s vision or working at a company where someone has a specific idea about how the product or service is delivered, you likely have limited flexibility within your job, and perhaps in the not to distant future, no job at all.

Any product or service that exists today is vulnerable to replacement by technology.  Robots or A.I. can do many of the activities that humans have always done. 

Which job is next for replacement?

At Singapore’s state-of-the-art Changi International Airport, one of the best airports in the world, passengers with time to spare can leave their luggage in traditional baggage storage, or self check-in the baggage at the same time as themselves.

The process involves no humans, only sensors, cameras and prompts provided to you by a screen.  An airline ticket counter agent was a position that required training.  But the functions were easily automated.  The checks and controls gate agents used to provide were covered by cameras.  And the rest of the task was left up to the passenger.

As you consider today’s employment field, focus on the positions that have repetitive and mechanical steps.  Those are the jobs that can be replaced. 

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you create the job for yourself and your team.  You are not, at least not immediately, facing the same vulnerability to replacement as existing controlled positions.  As long as you maintain your unique approach to the product or service you are delivering, you maintain your distinct advantage over the robots. 

The job you create for yourself by becoming an entrepreneur puts you in charge of a future you create.

Cherish the Value of Humans

Your vision is singular.  Can robots see the world as we do?  Not yet, and probably not ever.  Because it’s the essential humanness of ourselves that we put into our business that makes it valuable to other humans.

As long as humans value humans.  We will value what humans do.  And your opportunity to be your own boss and be part of the global marketplace comes from your ability to put something new and differentiated in to it.

You stay one step ahead of the robots by identifying the value you add to the marketplace, and making that value available to those who want and need your product.  

If you are still trying to think of an idea, or you are working on building your business, either way, you are already ahead of the airline counter agents, and those like them whose tasks can be performed by technology.

And if you continue to build on your idea and make your business successful.  You are also one step ahead of those who are missing out on the life they really want because they work on someone else’s dreams.

You get to your life dream through globalization and technology.  Even if you have been negatively affected by the twin forces of 21st century change, you can use the setback to your advantage, by leveraging the exact same forces that upended you, to make a better world for yourself.

In summary:

Stay One Step Ahead of the Robots:

• Globalization and technology are the twin forces of change that are here to stay
• Many jobs from airline ticket counter agents and beyond will be replaced by technology solutions
• You can hedge your bets against being replaced by robots or A.I., by developing your business idea
• Your business idea is designed by you to bring value to the global marketplace based on gaps and opportunities that you can see need to be filled.
• You develop your idea based on your individual uniqueness and qualities that appeal to your audience
• You create a product or service that is valued for its innovation, production or distribution – and therefore is unique to the vision you have seen
• You stay one step ahead of the robots by creating your own business, providing a product or service that is valued in the global marketplace, and continuing to deliver results for your audience