We’re all familiar with the concept of the entrepreneur. The maverick and his startup trying to shake the world. The conscientious small business owner trying to strengthen her community. The service that entrepreneurs provide the world isn’t in dispute. The resources they manage and the manner in which they manage is commendable. Most of the time. They should be hailed as heroes. Most of the time. Entrepreneurs risk all to provide products and services to the rest of the world, and they do so knowing that the odds are against them. Like really really really against them.
Access to markets and materials have always plagued entrepreneurs. The industrial revolution opened up that access in incredible ways, but the underlying cultural structures still prevented the bulk of potential entrepreneurs from stretching their wings. Most were shut out of the market. The information age has opened up that access even further. The major access changes however, were not realized on the producer side of the equation but rather it was the consumer that now had unforeseen access to products and services. The greater consumer access sent a signal to the world that budding entrepreneurs scrambled to fill. And fill they did. Products that were science fiction just 10 years earlier are now delivered by drone.
You see, that’s the interesting thing about entrepreneurs. They look out into the unknown and attempt to make sense of it. Like ancient stories, the entrepreneur rushes headlong into the chaotic underworld, fights the dragon (or tricks him), gets the gold, and returns to the structure of our culture to deliver the goods. Many an entrepreneur has seen their end in the belly of the beast. Some return with their lives, but little treasure. Other’s return with a hoard. Unfortunately, even in this expanded access state there were still just a few brave souls that attempted the foray into chaos. We were content to let the brave continue their journey. We were content to stay safely in the walled city awaiting their return. We were content with our ignorance.
In reality, the chaos is always around us. We fight off that realization and the anxiety that comes with it by building up cultural barriers that provide order. Sometimes those cultural barriers get out of hand, but that’s a subject for a different essay. Part of that cultural barrier that keeps us from exposure to chaos is “the firm”. The business structure (the firm) that entrepreneurs create serves as a proxy for our chaotic exposure. The firm enters chaos and attempts to create products and services that provide structure. Until now, most of us have been more than happy to let them do it.
If the internet expanded access to the fruits of chaotic exploration for the consumer, then blockchain will expand access to the chaos itself. Whether real or imagined, a defect in the system, or just not feasible prior to now doesn’t really matter. The fact is that the trust protocol opens up the possibility for greater and greater sums of people to flock to the edge of chaos. Steemians know this better than most, have embraced the coming influential wave, and are starting to put it into practice. Steemit is just the beginning and we all know it. I don’t need to predict the future to know that blockchain will have a decentralizing influence on the greater global context, and that influence will thrust many unprepared souls into chaos.
We’re already seeing the rise of the new prophets of the decentralized future. Tony Robbins sits as the inspirational Zeus to the likes of Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Tim Ferris. I’m sure that each of these men have organizations that they manage, but I don’t know the names of those firms. I know the personal names. These are the Solo-preneur pioneers. Solo-preneurs are an interesting lot. Solo-preneurs engage the unknown and tell you about it as it’s happening. The best we’ve ever had before have been tales after the fact. If you weren’t directly involved, then you had to read about it after the book came out. If anyone wrote the book in the first place.
These trailblazers of the unknown concentrate their message. Like leaders before any journey they focus on courage and motivation. A more cynical me might think they are coordinating, but we’ll never know. I think they see the changes on the horizon. I think they know that we will once again be forced to face the chaos. I think they feel it at least intuitively. They know that you can’t take the people of the world and push them out into great unknown without a pep-talk. I like that. I could use a pep-talk every once in awhile. We have a great leap ahead of us and we need to bridge that motivational gap.
There is another gap to fill before confronting chaos. The knowledge gap. This isn’t the knowledge gap that we’re all used to. We’re all familiar with knowledge gaps like when you start a new job for instance, or a new project of some sort. You need to brush up specific categories to complete the task. This is the knowledge gap that exists within the existing structure. This is the problem within the city walls. The knowledge gap that I’m referring to is the Resource Management knowledge that is required when dealing with the unknown. Out there in the chaos, the rules are not the same. This type of knowledge had previously been the purview of the firm. When they did it right, they tended to succeed. When they did it wrong, they failed. The problem remains...the mass of people that will be influenced toward chaos are ignorant of even the need for this knowledge. No one is really talking about this. Until now.
Stay tuned and follow for more.