I
have just gone through the classic book ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel (the first
person to invest in Facebook), and I found it very informative.
This
article will look at the (next few decades of the) world from the perspective
of how these young billionaire programmers and entrepreneurs -Zuckerberg,
Kalanick, Thiel, Musk, Brin and Page, etc- are changing the world and rendering
many people jobless in their wake. Will unemployment rise simply because of increase software automation and AI/robots being developed by scientists?
If you are older than 10 years, you already
know how the world got to where we are presently.
However, look at the following headlines:
- Will a machine replace you? (Forbes)
- HSBC sacks 50,000 workers, JP Morgan sacks 5,000
- Stanford Business school lecturer in philanthropy, Laura Andreessen, encourages billionaires to give
Marc and Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen |
If
you still do not know that AI (Artificial Intelligence) aims at making humanity
more productive and efficient at the expense of human workers, then you are still in
the industrial age. Robots and automation (software) is the future.
You can watch this video above for more.
In the (stone
age) past, the key to wealth was (to get) iron, but then steel alloy came along,
and everything changed. In the industrial age, all you needed was to get a job
in an industrial company and you were made for life, but now most industrial jobs
have been automated, and many blue-collars have lost their jobs. Yes, today
-the ICT age, computers have made these young programmers and entrepreneurs become ‘easy’
billionaires. Let me explain to you how.
The
fastest way to becoming a millionaire is to multiply yourself, your
idea/solution
I
have mentioned it before on this blog that you can EASILY become a millionaire
by duplicating yourself. All you need is ONE. Regardless of who you are (-a
teacher, author, or singer) and regardless of what you do for a living, find a way to
automate that ONE thing! Find ONE nagging societal problem and create a scalable solution to it.
The
millionaire Korean English teacher, Kim Ki-Hoon who works for one of South Korea's popular online 'Hagwon', makes millions annually selling English video lectures. Cha Kil-yong made $8 million dollars in one year teaching maths online.
Credit: Shin Woong-jae/for The Washington Post |
A bestselling singer makes an album, or an author writes
ONE book, and the mass dubber/publisher ensures many people can listen to the
song or read the book at the very same time all over the world. They then earn
royalties on that one album or bestseller for life.
The
key for you to become a millionaire is to seek to automate whatever it is you
do for a living. And if you are an employee, get skills or an idea that will
help you automate things easily or make life better for others just as the founder of Facebook,
Airbnb, Uber, etc, have done. Do not believe that because you have a job today,
a robot cannot replace you tomorrow. Ask cab drivers all over the world, Uber
has almost taken their monopoly from them, globally. Nigerians should ask MTN, GLO
and ETISALAT how Whatsapp and Skype have reduced their revenues even though they
are not Nigerian-based companies.
So a young and creative genius in one country can build an app that will disrupt whole industries in other countries far from his. A young Bill Gates, Larry Page, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, Jan Koum, and others are now to be feared today, more than heads of states, big corporations and even wealthy tycoons.
Professionals
like Doctors, Lawyers and Architects are not left out
As
a doctor (even from medical school days), I am obsessed and have always been
obsessed with how professionals like doctors can become millionaires from the
power of ONE. Can my pediatrics professor give ONE lecture to many medical
students all over the world at the same time, and charge them $10 each? Can a
clinician attend to 10,000 patients daily at the same time, instead of just one
per time? Many of these can now be done on sites such as Udemy.
It
is this kind of thinking that resulted in many young billionaires like Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and their likes, who created world-class solutions and billion-dollar companies, And now, philanthropists such as Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen (through her foundation) and Bill Gates’ the Giving Pledge are now encouraging them to donate their billions to help eradicate global poverty. Why? Because
the solutions they created have also rendered many jobless/redundant at their work, resulting in a wealth shift/imbalance.
God
did not create man to work...HARD
In
pitching Credicoins, I tell people that God’s original intention for man was
not to work hard (i.e hustle before eating), nor become poor. God made the
earth for man (and not the other way round). Man was intended to sit back relax
as the ‘automated earth’ produce
fruits, vegetables –food, for us to enjoy.
We
were simply supposed to form social communities; collaborate around our unique
individuality to making the earth a more beautiful place for all living
things.
You
were not created to hustle and bustle. No! You are not a hustler.
[Adam’s
fall/sin resulted in mankind's poverty- that is a sermon for another day, but you can read the
book of Genesis in the bible for more.]
On-Demand
software and web companies
Now,
man/humanity is working hard every day to take the earth back to its original
state of AUTOMATION.
Today,
we want to sit at home and buy a laptop or fast food and have it
delivered to us free of charge. And in fact, this is being done all over the
world, and even some parts of Lagos as I type this.
Today,
the easiest way for start-ups to pitch their product is to call it the ‘Uber of
X’. They are called on-demand services. For example, Instacart is 'Uber for grocery shopping', Ease, Canary and Meadow are 'Uber for medical Marijuana' startups, while Heal is a 'Uber for home medical checkup' that promises to send a doctor to your house under 60 mins, and many others.
Check out a comprehensive list here. And there is a website (Product hunt) dedicated to helping you find one.
This
is a secret
Peter
Thiel talks about secrets in chapter 8. Says he, “Every one of today’s most
famous and familiar ideas was once unknown and unsuspected.” The key to great
wealth is to find (the ideas/solutions-) secrets of today, and make them into
valuable, great companies for tomorrow.
So
if you didn’t know, now you know.
On
a final note, if you cannot creatively generate a million-dollar idea, invest
in one. Also, if you do not already own the shares of any great company in the
world today or in your country – Apple, Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Google, and so
on- and you are not preparing to invest in one, you are not serious about
becoming financially free. (Though if you have a pension fund account, you already own such shares through your fund manager.)
Cheers!
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