Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1403 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Life After Covid-19 Part 4 – Ask Gramps
Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.
Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase wisdom and create a living legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1403 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday, we will ponder some of the fundamental truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.
As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time when we can “Ask Gramps.” Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, you are unable to. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.
We may mix it up a bit on our Friday episodes, but we will strive to keep them down to earth and enjoyable. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Gramps, please email them to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com.
Earlier last month, we addressed a question that is too broad to answer in one episode. The answer today is the fourth in a series that will span several weeks, which I will address on our Ask Gramps episodes, discussing the long term economic effects of the pandemic. Please make sure that you download our Friday podcast sessions to follow the complete analysis. Better yet, subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so you can gain a bit of wisdom five days a week. So here is the question…
“Hey, Gramps, I realize that after this whole Covid-19 pandemic is under control, life will take on some sort of normalcy for most people. I can’t get my mind around how life will change with so many people out of work and many businesses not being able to survive. What is your take on how life will be after Covid-19?”
Life After Covid-19 Part 4
Our analysis so far has been overall jobs in manufacturing, brick-and-mortar retail, and the restaurant industry/future dining. As I mentioned in the past three weeks, I do not have a crystal ball nor a prophetic message about life after Covid-19. That being said, I do have over 40 years of business and nearly 64 years of life experience, which help me to see what others may not.
The core of the content today and in subsequent weeks comes from a book and companion blog written by Peter Diamandis. His book The Future Is Faster Than You Think was published in January of this year before Covid-19. Peter has recently also stated that Covid-19 would accelerate his predictions significantly. I recommend his book.
Let me once again offer some perspective. It has been said that crises don’t so much alter the course of history as accelerate changes that are already underway. Exponential technology has been disrupting traditional industries at an ever-increasing pace. The pandemic has put these changes into hyperspeed. Never have we had the opportunity to rewrite entire sectors, redefine the problems they address, and reinvent their solutions. This is a scary and also exciting time to be alive! Any time we have a disaster such as this, there is also unlimited opportunity.
The next economic sector we will explore is commercial real estate & offices.
Impact: The commercial real estate market is about to take a severe hit. And the real estate domino effect can topple adjacent financial institutions as well.
As thousands of companies race to digitize, offices are rapidly migrating to digital platforms and dematerializing entire divisions and corporate campuses.
The top-performing “Executive Team Coach” Keith Ferrazzi prophetically remarked a few weeks ago, “We’re not ‘going back to work’…We ARE at work, and for many, it’s more efficient and cost-effective than ever before.”
The convergence of 5G, WiFi-Gen6, video conferencing services (Zoom, Microsoft, and Cisco) and new collaboration tools such as Slack, are making our workforce more productive at home, freeing up an hour (or more) of commute time.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Here are some ideas to consider.
(1) Go Digital/Virtual: If you are a traditional company with a few hundred employees who clock in every day and work from a desk, maybe it’s time to consider dematerializing your office.
Consider the economic trade-off...What does your office space cost you? What would happen if you canceled your lease, pumped 80% of those savings into profit, and took the remaining 20% to give to your employees as a stipend for better bandwidth in their home? Or a more comfortable desk chair?
Or, if you really want to peek into the future, consider following the lead of Glenn Sanford, CEO of eXp Realty, the first-ever cloud-based real estate brokerage firm. Glenn utilized a virtual platform called VirBELA (which he now owns) to build out the company’s mega-campus in VR.
eXp Realty demonstrates the power of a dematerialized workspace, throwing out hefty overhead costs and fundamentally redefining what “real estate” really means. Ten years later, eXp Realty has an army of 14,000 agents across all 50 U.S. states, 3 Canadian provinces, and 400 MLS market areas…all without a single physical office.
(2) Live-Work Space: If you’re an owner of commercial real estate, get ready for a rocky future. What do you do as renters cancel on you? What happens when the prices plummet?
One idea you might consider is turning offices into a combination of Live-Work space (if zoning allows), whereby you can offer startups the opportunity for their employees to live and work in joint environments. Imagine comfortable one- and two-bedroom apartments in combination with open offices, conference rooms, a central kitchen, dining area, and a shared social lounge?
Now is the time to act if you are in the commercial real estate market or industry. It will radically change and consolidate during the next ten years. There are no guarantees, but we must be wise and make decisions based on the wisdom we have obtained.
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise, you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
We are still just scratching the surface of some of the accelerated changes that we will see in the next few years. Next Friday, we will explore more areas of transformation that is to come, specifically in education.
That is a wrap for today’s question. Join us again next Friday for another question on our Ask Gramps episode. Our next trek is Mediation Monday, where we will help you reflect on what is most important in life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
If you would like to listen to any of the past 1402 daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
I am Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Everyday! See you on Monday!