“The best way to create the future, is to predict it.”
In Disrupt 2.0, you will be doing just that - predicting the future. People who have a strong sense of what the future should look like are called visionaries. Over the next few months, you will become a visionary.
Examples of visions:
- Travel long distances in an extremely short amount of time.
- Create a new transportation system using maglev and vacuums (Hyperloop).
- Merge humans and machines.
- Control machines with our brain at a high level of specificity (Neualink).
- Solve the world’s most important problems.
- Create a new human development system to train people to change the world (TKS).
- Optimize human health and dramatically increase health span.
- Constant monitoring of our health non-invasively (Synex).
Your vision should excite you. It should make you want to build the bridge between today’s reality and the world you want to create. Nobody is going to tell you what your vision should be. It should come internally.
Vision = Desire + Insight (Knowledge + Experiences + Opportunity)
Desire: this will be a natural feeling you should get from within. I don’t think you can just choose desire; it will choose you.
Insight: You need to be intentional about gaining a deep and unique insight into the area you’re passionate about.
- Knowledge: do research, understand how the tech/science/industry works. Get more information and data points.
- Experiences: talk to leaders in the industry and ask them where the biggest gaps are. If they had a magic wand, what would they solve for? Build your own things, create experiences, make hypothesis and validate them. Learn by doing things and talking to people. Ask good questions.
- Opportunity: be intentional about identifying gaps in the industry and find an opportunity that has economic incentives. The opportunity should be possible to execute. The opportunity should address a critical problem area that would disrupt the industry.
There are 3 parts to Disrupt 2.0
- Have a compelling vision.
- Build a playbook on what is needed to make your vision a reality.
- Develop an execution plan to achieve your vision.
1. Have a compelling vision
All entrepreneurs that have shaped our world have had a compelling vision. This vision for the future is something that they usually see very clearly, but others may not. To have a vision, you’ll need to combine your understanding of exponential technologies with your understanding of the world. There are no limitations, however you should have a vision that can be materialized within the next 5 years.
These are your deliverables:
Task | Due | Description |
|---|---|---|
Vision Article | Nov 5th | Write an article about your vision. This is your document to the world. An example of this could be what Elon Musk released with his Master Plan (part 1, part deux). Include breakdown of economic incentives. |
Vision Video | Nov 8th | Make a video of you talking about your vision. Show your passion and explain why it’s important for this future to exist. Assume this video will be shared to CEOs, companies that are in the industry you’re passionate about, and conferences for speaking opportunities, |
Vision Presentation | Nov 14th | You will do a 5-7min presentation on your vision during TKS. |
Vision Podcast | Nov 25th | You will record a podcast episode with a leader in your industry. You may need to record this remotely, so make sure the audio file is good. We might also upload it to the TKS podcast channel. |
2. Build your playbook
If you are pursuing an ambitious vision, you will have gaps in your knowledge. In this next step, you will build a playbook that helps you fill those gaps. In the playbook, you will outline the key components required to achieve a high probability of materializing your vision.
The playbook will specifically outline:
- Part 1: Overview
- Your vision
- Why it’s important
- Why you care
- Why now is the right time
- Part 2: Optimizing your probability of success
- Knowledge - what do you need to learn?
- Skills - what skills do you need to have?
- Network - who can help you achieve this vision?
- Part 3: Best Practices
- Identify 3 visionaries that you can relate to given your vision.
- What have they done that have improved their probability of success?
- How did they grow their companies, what can you learn from the past?
These are your deliverables:
Task | Due | Description |
|---|---|---|
Article: Thought Leadership | Nov 28th | Write about the problem area in detail. Include data, calculations, quotes, and depth into your article to explain the problem and the impact your idea could have. Create new information, not regurgitation. |
Article: Recent Advancements | Dec 3rd | Write about the latest advancements in the industry. Include what people are currently working on and their limitations. |
Vision Playbook | Dec 10th | Complete your playbook with the framework outlined above. |
3. Create your execution plan
At this point, you have:
- Your vision.
- Something tangible you want to create to achieve that vision.
- Content around the topic to give you credibility.
- Clarity on who can help you materialize your vision.
- A playbook outlining what you need to develop so you actually have a chance.
Now, you need to figure out how you’ll execute on this. To do that, your next step is to create an execution plan.
Your execution plan should include the following:
- What are the key pillars to successfully executing your vision? (i.e. mission critical things)
- If you failed to execute on your vision, why would you have failed?
- What could you do to prevent that from happening?
- Who would be the best people in the world to be on your advisory board?
- How can you validate your idea as soon as possible? (E.g. build a prototype, get validation from an industry expert, research paper/proposal, run a simulation, other?)
- Create a 30-60-90 day action plan.
Task | Due | Description |
|---|---|---|
Execution Plan | Jan 9th | Create an execution plan to help you build towards your vision. |
The following months in Disrupt would depends on your 30-60-90 day action plan. Once we have a better idea of what that looks like, I’ll develop the optimal experiences in Disrupt to support your plans.