What Can You Do In The World of Robots?

Last week I wrote an article about the Robots and Artificial Intelligence that is coming for your job. A reader (Marcela) pointed out that on the same day another respected gentleman wrote a very similar article - mine was better ;) - and within a week Amazon started offering it's workers $10,000 to quit!

People seem amazed that Amazon wants people to quit, but that's only because most people have no idea how fast the robots are coming. One of the first jobs that will be displaced is warehouse workers, as we are now seeing.

Specifically, what Amazon is offering is $10,000 to quit plus the opportunity to become a delivery driver for them. Sounds great, right? Yes, it may be a good deal for a few years, but then they are going to automate deliveries. It's already happening, they are very clear that this is their goal and it will happen in a big way before anyone is ready for it.

But the purpose of this article is not to talk about the bad news...

I want to talk about what you can do to protect your livelihood. Here's the fact: job security doesn't exist anymore, even if you have a white collar job. Any idea of security is out the window.

So what should you do?

My personal opinion is that it's time to become an entrepreneur.

Just to be clear, there's no security in being an entrepreneur either. There never has been, which is why most people have chosen jobs instead. I do believe that there will actually be more security as an entrepreneur than in having a job at some point.

What there is, however, is a tremendous amount of opportunity. But in order to take advantage of this opportunity you need a shift in perspective and many people need to overcome some entrepreneurial myths.

Here are some of my thoughts...

POINT #1: BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR MEANS SERVICE. Most people don't understand that capitalism and being an entrepreneur is about service to your fellow man. As an entrepreneur you find problems that people have and you solve them, and if you solve them well you can make a lot of money. I recommend the book, The Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks. This book outlines the fact that if you follow your highest purpose, and do your absolute best and make your product available at a fair price, people will want to buy from you.

POINT #2: SELLING IS ABOUT COMMUNICATION. I've been in sales all my life. Sales has a bad rap, but at the heart of the issue is communication. You have to be able to communicate the problem, the solution and why people should trust you.

POINT #3: SIMPLIFY. I think it's VERY important to simplify your business. To a large extent, this means lowering your overhead (monthly expenses that you incur regardless of how many sales you get). I work out of my home, so I don't have to pay rent for an office. I keep the number of employees I need to an absolute minimum. I don't keep a lot of inventory in stock. I outsource as many functions as I can. If there is a way to automate a function, I do it.

POINT #4: FIND SOLUTIONS THAT INSPIRE YOU. Don't just look for money making opportunities. Find something that really connects with you. Many entrepreneurs are successful because they solve a problem that they have themselves, and so they solve their own problem. Then they figure out if they could make some good money solving the same problem for others.

I did this seven years ago when I created the website PrepperShowsUSA.com. When I first entered the "prepper" market with my Survival Still, tradeshows were an important part of my sales process. The problem was, while there were prepper shows out there, there was no organized way of finding them. The only way to know whether these shows existed was to know people in the industry and ask them what shows were coming up. Often, I would find out too late.

So my solution was to hire someone to do some research for me and put a spreadsheet together of all the upcoming shows. After I did this, I realized that this spreadsheet would help a lot of other people too, so I turned it into a website and sold advertising on it. A lot of people love this site and have used it over the years. It's been a good business for me, even though I haven't had much time to put into it over the years.

The point is, that I created this business because it solved MY PROBLEM, while also solving other people's problems.

POINT #5: START BY DOING SOMETHING ON THE SIDE. You don't have to quit your job in order to jump into being an entrepreneur. Start with a side business. There are all types of things you can do.

My goal over the next few months is to do an article series on different ideas for becoming an entrepreneur. There are so many opportunities out there, and now is the time to take advantage of them!

Please ask me any questions that you have about becoming an entrepreneur.