Author: F.C. Dawkins

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    Creative Destruction vs Trump’s Destructive Reduction.

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    Creative Destruction was a term first popularised by economist Joseph Schumpeter. The premise is that innovation and technology will ensure progress on the basis of replacing old industries, markets and economic structures with new more efficient concepts. The architects who accomplish this are entrepreneurs who think outside the box, question existing systems and introduce new ways and means. Never has this been more relevant with the impending impact of AI putting us on the cusp of what many believe will be a major revolution. Some believe it will bring about comparable change to that fostered by the Industrial Revolution. Regardless this change will be led by the key leaders that Schumpeter relied upon: entrepreneurs and tech genii.

    Enter Donald Trump, certainly a disrupter but only in a literal sense. The proverbial bull in the China shop. The antithesis of the dynamic innovators that Schumpeter championed. A man apparently stuck in the past. A strong proponent of returning to the ‘good old days’ of the 1890’s, his model for what the U.S. should be. Let’s call that ‘Destructive Reduction.’

    Subtraction by reduction. Attacking allies. Breaking trade agreements. Withdrawing from international organisations. Renouncing treaties. Axing social benefits. Deporting immigrants. Recklessly slashing jobs within the bureaucracy. Reductions without analysis in an ill-fated attempt reduce the national debt, offset quickly by tax cuts in his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. The man hates complexity. Give him a one pager and a burger and he’s ready to act. Rationality be damned. Right to a fault? ON and ON Don!

    Admittedly AI may help him with the odd element in this quixotic attack on well, just about everything. Forgotten is that the firm foundation of growth for the past hundred years for the U.S. has been research and development. For the past fifty years and more the U.S. has spent roughly 40% of the amount spent on R & D across the entire world. It’s been a proven formula for wealth creation and economic success. So what does the Big D do? He cuts the funding for leading research institutions like Harvard. This is perverse logic but then logic had been abandoned in a flurry of executive orders with the size of the signature rivalling that of John Hancock.

    I wonder who will fill the many voids created by this executioner of trust? Trump’s drift toward isolationism, based on groundless economics, creates great opportunity for none other than China. A country that quietly invests in areas that the U.S. largely chooses to ignore like Africa and South America. Areas that have been insulted by the Big D. Projections show that by 2100 there will be twelve billion people on Earth. Nine billion of those will reside in Africa or Asia. Every continent but Africa will be facing ageing populations. China has a plan. It has a much longer window than anything America conceives. China will quietly encourage the decline of the American Empire, if you can call it one. Donald has given their plan a nice boost.

    The world is changing. Are we ready? These are the questions that make my novel The Noah Project a wake up call to action.

  • A POST FROM THE PAST

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    Ten years ago to the day I posted the piece that I’ve copied below. It seems that I was fairly prescient then which adds some credibility to the future that I’ve set out in The Noah Project. My thesis at the time was that we were much closer than most of us realised to the world order that Aldous Huxley foretold almost a hundred years ago. Ironically Brave New World was published in 1932 while The Noah Project takes place in 2032. How much has changed since Huxley put pen to paper.

    10 + REASONS WHY WE ARE ON THE DOORSTEP OF “BRAVE NEW WORLD by F.C. Dawkins * June 14th 2015

    In one of my favourite and most thought-provoking novels, Aldous Huxley used the future (2540 AD) as the setting and  developed characters in his science fiction novel to express the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of that future. Unlike Orwell who offered a pushback to communism, Huxley focused more on technology and the ultimate impact of continuing the fast pace evolving out of the Industrial Revolution. So is that future almost upon us? Here are some of the key elements of Huxley’s Brave New World:

    Abolition of natural reproduction – Children are educated via appropriate subconscious messages to mold the child’s self-image appropriate to their caste.- Discouragement of critical thinking – Discouragement of individual action and initiative – An abundance of material goods – (presumably because of advanced technology) conditions of work are not onerous – Citizens are conditioned to promote consumption. People enjoy perfect health and youthfulness until death at age 60. The World State is a benevolent dictatorship headed by ten World Controllers which has established a stable global society where the population is permanently limited. The basis of that stability is the conditioning of citizens to accept their station in life.

    As a serial entrepreneur who values individualism driven by hope and accomplishment as essential to the human condition the weight of logic tells me that we are all too close to Huxley’s world and long before 2540. Here are more than enough reasons to be concerned. All of them relate to two dominant trends – rapid change and  globalization.

    1. The Era of Big Data is here – too much to know and digest

    2. Wealth Disparity – economic rewards are accruing to capital – real wages are stagnant or in decline

    3. Declining upward mobility – the middle class is in decline trending towards historical norms more limited chances for improvement – Huxley’s caste system?

    4. Precarious employment – job stability is simply disappearing — those that don’t take control over their careers will flounder

    5. Machine Learning- we are about to handle even more control of our research and knowledge creation to machines. Artificial Intelligence is the next big thing.

    6. Cloning – the science exists – the implications are many

    7. Stem cell development – we can already grow new organs  – test tube babies are there for the taking. The key to perfect health may well lie in stem cell research.

    8. World population is out of control –  in Huxley’s world, a problem solved by limiting life

    9. Control of knowledge – with Big Data and Machine Learning will we only know what we are told and will God simply become the internet? Look it up – it must be so?

    10. Surveillance – Snowdon  has shown that  we are being watched – this will only get worse and soon

    11. Corporatism – we don’t live under free market capitalism – large corporations control global markets and reap the profits – we can thank ourselves for embracing branding to facilitate this – Too Big to Fail puts a deadly premium on Big

    12. Multi-nationals – these same corporations driven by profit maximization are pursuing interests that eliminate national interests as they build stronger global foundations for controlling markets. All the time individuals are being encouraged to consume at record rates.

    I’m fairly sure I know what Huxley would think. How about you?

  • When will President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill’ become the ‘Large Loathsome Liability’?

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    Donald Trump has trapped himself within competing mutually exclusive goals. He wants to reduce the burden of the national debt. That goal is reflected in his pressuring Chairman Powell to reduce interest rates as well as the failed attempt by Musk and DOGE to reduce the cost of government. He has been confounded by bond rates staying strong. He does not do well with complexity. He is the poster boy for the ‘quick fix’. That ain’t happening!

    That beautiful word ‘tariff’ isn’t producing the results he wanted. Was it ever really a trade strategy or just a revenue grab ultimately paid by the American public on a regressive basis. As a trade strategy it has failed. Those 120 countries lined up to make deals favourable to the U. S. have been dragging their feet, anything but compliant.

    Now we have the BBB damned by Musk as ‘abominable’. But even Musk has caved after a brief interlude of lucidity. The impact on the debt level is predictable and disastrous. This man does not understand complexity. Anything beyond a one page summary appears to be beyond his comprehension. The BBB may cause the first rejection by his minions but more he likely will shepherd it through by intimidating the gutless republican controlled congress. It will become the LLLL – A ‘Lasting Large Loathsome Liability – politically for Trump and financially for the country.

  • What factors influenced me to write ‘The Noah Project’?

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    There are quite a number of trends converging that I believe will significantly influence our future. Most of these increasingly appear to be irreversible. These include:

    So many factors that we see but ignore. Why?

    • .the deeply entrenched partisanship that makes the governing of America anything but optimal producing ineffective decision-making
    • the growing power of China
    • the Chinese investments in Africa and South America
    • the power struggle between the U.S. and China
    • the U.S. decision to ignore the potential of Africa
    • by 2100 the world population is projected to be 12 billion
    • 9 billion of these people will be Asian or African
    • with the exception of Africa, the world population will be aging
    • the impending expansive impact of AI
    • the impact of AI on wealth and employment
    • the destructive and unsustainable imbalance in the distribution of wealth
    • the inability of governments to deal with so many of the critical issues threatening the world as we know it
    • the possibility of power brokers in the private sector, frustrated by the impotence of government, attacking issues from overpopulation to climate change
    • the evident decline of the American empire
    • the current tariff war will be resolved -neither the U.S. or China are ready for an economic divorce
    • by 2032 one of them will be
    • much of the world will welcome the decline of American economic imperialism
    • climate change will reconfigure the most desirable places for human to live

    All of these and more help define the world as I portray it in ‘Noah’ in just seven plus years. When you read Noah, and you should, your inevitable conclusion will be that this could happen.

  • Are we really teaching Entrepreneurship

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    IMG_4637There will always be a debate as to whether entrepreneurship is a teachable skill or an inherent trait. The simple answer is both. Like any other human attribute there are naturals – people to whom taking risk and asserting control is simply their norm. I strongly believe that entrepreneurship is a mindset – both a philosophy that can be taught and a series of life choices for which we can prepare. As such it has never been more important. On a macro level our economy needs entrepreneurs to ensure adaptability and resilience in a rapidly changing world. On a micro level each and every one of us must become our own brand facing the reality of precarious employment in a global economy where the rewards are shifting towards capital and away from labour. From Norman Vincent Peale to Dale Carnegie to Tony Robbins people have been promoting key ideas that are critical to entrepreneurs. Adaptability, resilience and determination applied to viable scenarios. My series The Entrepreneurial Edge focuses on bringing real life experience into workshop environments to introduce key ingredients and real life experiences all focused on preparing people for careers as entrepreneurs or at least encouraging them to think like entrepreneurs in taking control over their careers.

    Every college and university is trying to teach entrepreneurship. How effective are these programs? Not as effective as they need to be. Entrepreneurship can be taught but it can’t be forced. Most of these programs are focused on incubators and accelerators. We are teaching venture capitalism not entrepreneurship. Too many of these students think that raising capital is the issue and that once they raise capital they have crossed the finished line when in reality they have just stated the race. Revenue generation is the key to success and maintaining control of your business. All things are possible if you can create sales.

    The more successful programs involve mentors but once again many of them come from the venture capital world more focused on burn rate and going public than founding a sustainable business. Governments encourage entrepreneurship for job creation. Venture capital in the tech area makes millionaires on occasion and creates jobs in Asia when they do so. To teach entrepreneurship effectively we have to focus more on the mainstream economy where entrepreneurs create jobs in their backyard where they can identify opportunities that Big Business rejects or ignores.

    I chose the title Everyday Entrepreneur – Making it Happen for the first book in my series because I want to reach a very broad audience who need both encouragement and guidance into self-determination through entrepreneurial thinking. The Tech community dominates the dialogue and gets all the handholding. That focus is too narrow and does not help the thousands of potential entrepreneurs who can apply tech solutions to myriad of business problems creating jobs in the process.

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  • On Canada Day – Celebrating the CDL: A Critical Canadian Initiative

    ByF.C. Dawkins
    With Joseph Rotman at the Creative Destruction Lab
    With Joseph Rotman at the Creative Destruction Lab

     

    Joseph Rotman invested a great deal to improve the future of this country. The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is a lasting legacy showing both his commitment and what we as Canadians are capable of achieving. An important part of  that legacy is the CDL which is really just getting started.

    It is both enlightening and alarming to discover that more than 350,000 Canadians live and work in Silicon Valley. More than one percent of our population and a much higher portion of our intellectual capital have left us for the world’s most prestigious and most productive ecosystem. This is both a problem and an opportunity but not one that government can solve or even try to solve. So how do we stem the tide? There is no quick fix. We are producing world class talent and such talent is inevitably attracted to the epicentre of success, achievement but most of all opportunity. It is the opportunity that we need to focus on. The Creative Destruction Lab does that. It creates opportunity here in Canada. The leader and founder Professor Ajay Agrawal is a dynamo.

    Ajay is living evidence that entrepreneurship can be taught, an academic with the drive and mindset that can match anyone in the business community. When he approached the Rotman school to start this program he was told ‘you can use the facilities but you must find the funding yourself’. He has worked relentlessly ever since  to do just that in the process bringing in a very accomplished group of proven entrepreneurs to act as mentors. The stated goal of the Lab is to generate equity – specifically to create at least $ 1 billion in equity in the first ten years. After the first two years approximately $ 130 million has been achieved.

    Financial targets are how we keep score but the greater purpose is to keep the best and most brilliant we produce here in Canada, helping to build our own world class ecosystem and offering a valuable example to others. Ventures receive the very best of mentorship. It is amazing to see how they evolve in less than one year. Watch for results – they have already started but many significant ones are ahead in the years to come.

    As a partner of the Lab and member of the advisory board I am proud to point out that this program is not just another accelerator to help brilliant tech students bring their ideas to market. For me the Lab represents far more and has the opportunity to change and influence this country. We are traditionally small ‘c’ conservatives who let our brash cousins to the south take the outrageous risks and create the startling successes. We don’t lack for success stories but too often those successes happen outside our borders. Now when we are in an era where entrepreneurship is viewed as what I like to call the economic wonder drug of the 21st century, it is absolutely critical that Canadians embrace the mindset of an entrepreneur and become agents of change in a world where ironically change is the one constant. In that sense the Lab can be a leader and help change the narrative for Canada.

    For me the Lab has three main purposes. The first as already outlined is to produce successful, scalable ventures flourishing as sustainable businesses right here. The second very unique goal and  achievement  of the Lab stems from the way in which students of the Rotman MBA program are engaged with the ventures and the  mentors. We need these talented business minds creating new businesses and making them succeed in Canada. The Lab immerses them in the startup culture and introduces the potential for success outside the world of investment banking. In this new era of entrepreneurship when every university and college around the world is trying to teach entrepreneurship this may be the most effective way any of these institutions has found to date.

    The third and potentially greatest influence of the CDL program is as an example of what can be accomplished in Canada. We are building a pyramid of success. The ventures that go through the full program will be shining examples at the top of that pyramid. But there are many other levels of success below these which can be achieved and make an important contribution to our economy and our society. Not every success story relies on innovation. The potential multiplier of the Lab comes from encouraging all Canadians, at every level to adopt the mindset  that we can make things happen here and to apply innovation to a whole myriad of business solutions and applications. These potential ventures will be the foundation of the pyramid we hope to build and can have rippling effects across our economy for generations to come.

    This is exactly what Joseph Rotman hoped to accomplish and thanks to him, it is a real possibility when we sorely need it.

    With Joseph Rotman at the Creative Destruction Lab
    With Joseph Rotman at the Creative Destruction Lab

  • 10+ Reasons Why We are on the Doorstep of “Brave New World

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    In one of my favourite and most thought provoking novels, Aldous Huxley used the future (2540 AD) as the setting and  developed characters in his science fiction novel to express the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of that future. Unlike Orwell who offered a pushback to communism, Huxley focused more on technology and the ultimate impact of continuing the fast pace evolving out of the Industrial Revolution. So is that future almost upon us? Here are some of the key elements of Huxley’s Brave New World:

    Abolition of natural reproduction – Children are educated via appropriate subconscious messages to mold the child’s self-image appropriate to their caste.- Discouragement of critical thinking – Discouragement of individual action and initiative – An abundance of material goods – (presumably because of advanced technology) conditions of work are not onerous – Citizens are conditioned to promote consumption. People enjoy perfect health and youthfulness until death at age 60. The World State is a benevolent dictatorship headed by ten World Controllers which has established a stable global society where the population is permanently limited. The basis of that stability is the conditioning of citizens to accept their station in life.

    As a serial entrepreneur who values individualism driven by hope and accomplishment as essential to the human condition the weight of logic tells me that we are all too close to Huxley’s world and long before 2540. Here are more than enough reasons to be concerned. All of them relate to two dominant trends – rapid change and  globalization.

    1. The Era of Big Data is here – too much to know and digest

    2. Wealth Disparity – economic rewards are accruing to capital – real wages are stagnant or in decline

    3. Declining upward mobility – the middle class is in decline trending towards historical norms more limited chances for improvement – Huxley’s caste system?

    4. Precarious employment – job stability is simply disappearing — those that don’t take control over their careers will flounder

    5. Machine Learning- we are about to handle even more control of our research and knowledge creation to machines. Artificial Intelligence is the next big thing.

    6. Cloning – the science exists – the implications are many

    7. Stem cell development – we can already grow new organs  – test tube babies are there for the taking. The key to perfect health may well lie in stem cell research.

    8. World population is out of control –  in Huxley’s world, a problem solved by limiting life

    9. Control of knowledge – with Big Data and Machine Learning will we only know what we are told and will God simply become the internet? Look it up – it must be so?

    10. Surveillance – Snowdon  has shown that  we are being watched – this will only get worse and soon

    11. Corporatism – we don’t live under free market capitalism – large corporations control global markets and reap the profits – we can thank ourselves for embracing branding to facilitate this – Too Big to Fail puts a deadly premium on Big

    12. Multi-nationals – these same corporations driven by profit maximization are pursuing interests that eliminate national interests as they build stronger global foundations for controlling markets. All the time individuals are being encouraged to consume at record rates.

    I’m fairly sure I know what Huxley would think. How about you?

     

     

     

  • Here’s a quiz that everyone needs to take.

    ByF.C. Dawkins
    1. Are you concerned about funding your retirement?
    2. Does the trend to precarious employment disturb you?
    3. Do you consider globalization to be a threat to you, your children and/or grandchildren?
    4. Are you having trouble getting your career underway?
    5. Do you have to extend your career?
    6. Are you struggling to find a succession plan for your business?
    7. Are you worse off financially than you were ten years ago?
    8. Do you have fewer opportunities than you expected at this stage of your life?
    9. Would you like more control over your financial future?
    10. Are your best years behind you?

    If you answered yes to any of these questions than you should read my series of three books The Entrepreneurial Edge. These books are The Wealthy Barber for anyone dealing with these issues and looking to embrace self-determination in a world conspiring against individual success

    Book 1: Everyday Entrepreneur – making it happen

    Book 2: Family Entrepreneur – easier said than done

    Book 3: Ageless Entrepreneur – never too early – never too late

    Don’t let the word entrepreneur scare you off. You don’t have to run a business to think like an entrepreneur and take charge of your life. Think entrepreneurially. Be resilient. Be adaptable. Make things happen. Embrace self-determination. Trade stability for agility!

    The most important skill to learn in the 21st century is the ability to create and manage your career!

    Each of us must be his or her own brand making good strategic decisions about life and career.

    Fred Dawkins

    Author

    fred@fcdawkins.com

    fcdawkins.com

    Everyday Entrepreneur dundurn.com/authors/fred_dawkins

    Follow me on twitter @dawkinsfred

    Follow My Blog The Entrepreneurial Edge https://fcdawkins.com/blog/

     

  • What aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from the Alberta election

    ByF.C. Dawkins

    Yesterday’s Alberta election produced a dramatic change but more than anything else it resulted from change and the inability of the PC party in Alberta to manage change.  One of the reasons so many experts maintain that failure is an integral part of succeeding as an entrepreneur is because we do learn from failure. We have to learn in order to recover so we take the time to analyze what we did wrong in order to avoid repeating the same mistake. Success masks our faults. It is rare for most of us to understand our weaknesses when we are getting results. Unfortunately for the electorate for a political party getting results means maintaining power as opposed to effective performance. When things are going well as they did for Alberta under the boom of the oil industry it was easy for politicians to look good and to develop some bad management practices. When a serious problem developed with falling oil revenues there was a huge need to adjust. We will never know whether the proposed budget was appropriate or not but remember when you have to provide customers, suppliers or employees with a bitter pill for the longer run good don’t turn around and immediately give them control to vote the new policy in or not.

    My mantra for the individual in today’s dynamic world is that the number one skill you can learn is the ability to create and manage your own career, with managing being the key to sustain meaningful success. We face an unprecedented rate of change. Every one of us must have the ability to recreate ourselves in the face of this one certainty: change is a constant, by definition the only thing we can count on besides death and taxes. Despite the perception of many that entrepreneurship requires risk this need not mean reckless risk but instead should refer to managed risk. The PCs had the time and needed it to prove that their budget could work in an economy under duress rather than risking a quick election on the outside chance they would get another majority giving them even more time. So among the small business lessons from yesterday’s election results are the following:

    1. Nothing lasts forever including good times in the oil industry

    2. Sustained success requires a relentless commitment to adapt even after a long track record of doing so.

    3. Managed risk produces results while reckless risk invites failure

    4. Knowing your weaknesses in good times and bad will sustain your success

    5. A change in leadership does not guarantee renewal of an organization

    I’ m sure there are more.

    Fred Dawkins is a serial entrepreneur and the author of a series entitled The Entrepreneurial Edge. The third book in that series Ageless Entrepreneur is available from booksellers across North America on May 9th 2015

     

     

     

     

  • Book Launch for Everyday Entrepreneur – Saturday December 20th

    ByF.C. Dawkins

     

     

    Evite pngI’m having a book launch this Saturday December 20th at The Book Shelf on Quebec Street in Guelph. Hope to see you and offer you a piece of cake in celebration.

    The books are full of common sense self help information and make great gifts for anyone from teenagers to tech innovators to seniors who are reluctantly continuing their careers.

    Entrepreneurial thinking is a valuable life tool not just a means to a business