Adnan Rafique M.D.
“You cannot make a better future without preparing for it today”
It's no secret that in this modern time we have seen technology advancing at the fastest pace. Some experts say, during the last twenty years, there has been more technological advancement than we have seen in the last 100 years combined. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies are struggling to find their way back to normalcy but the most innovative companies are looking to find ways to prevent this world from experiencing this kind of disaster and human tragedy. These companies are spending billions of dollars in R&D which is causing a huge technological shift that many are calling the “fourth Industrial Revolution.''
During the next decade, we will experience more disruption in terms of shifting workforce needs. According to a recent World Economic Forum report, nearly a third of the most important skill sets in 2025 will consist of technology skills not yet considered imperative to the job today.
This article will outline a few of those disruptive technologies which will see a huge workforce demand for our future generation. As a savvy parent, it is my job to prepare my kids for future success. If the parents and our school system are not aware of the changes around them, they will be doing a huge disservice to their kids by guiding them towards traditional fields which may not exist or lose their attraction by the time our kids are ready to join the workforce. Traditional parents believe that the highest form of success is when their kids perform at the highest level in academics or sports and join the field of medicine, law, and business, only then the kids are labeled successful. Now in this modern time, medicine and law are not the only highly rewarding fields, technology has changed the world and now kids have a lot more options to become highly successful through entrepreneurship and innovation. But the best field for a child is the one they choose to join, with passion and love for that field. Unfortunately, many teenagers and even adults don’t know how to choose their vocations, that's where our parenting and school system weighs in. But, the school system is only designed to produce minions or good workers. Parents have the ultimate responsibility to identify the gift in their kids and guide them towards the fields in which their kids can perform at the highest level.
There is a famous saying that “If you love what you do, you will never work in your life” because you enjoy and have fun doing what you do best.
In the book, “Future Is Here Faster Than You Think,” Peter H Diamandis and Steven Kotler talk about how converging technologies are transforming businesses, industries, and our lives. According to these authors, industries with the most transformation will not only add a large number of new jobs for highly skilled workers, but these new technologies will also take away massive numbers of low-skilled jobs due to automation and Robotics. There is no leadership without the knowledge of this massive technological shift. Leaders are supposed to lead the company into the future. We should give our kids the opportunity, confidence, and knowledge to lead the world through this new Industrial Revolution. Knowledge is power only if we apply it to the benefit of the masses. Parents have the responsibility to not only get the knowledge of future technologies but also change their mindset so they can prepare their next generation for the massive upcoming changes in the demand of future workforces. This is the time when we prepare our kids for what's coming their way. Those who are well equipped with appropriate knowledge and skill set will be able to guide humanity to a new but better world. Leaders don’t just wait for the new normal but they create it themselves.
"There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."
I can not cover all that’s coming in the future in this article but I'm just highlighting a few of those new fields and also the need for the right mindset in parents, so they can better equip themselves and guide their next generation. Below are just some of the key technologies impacting the way we live our lives and for sure will have a massive role in the lives of future generations. Parents will have to let go of the traditional mindset and yesterday’s approaches to learning and evolve with time so they can set their kids up for tremendous success in the future. Someone once said, “Those who don’t evolve, usually perish”.
Artificial Intelligence: Google and Microsoft are the powerhouses of machine learning and digitalization. We have different companies offering devices like Amazon’s Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s Homepod waiting for our commands and being able to handle these complicated commands. Using AI, listeners can ask questions to the book. AI responds by reading 120,000 books in half a second and answers by providing quotes from them. Facebook uses AI to find people prone to suicides in its users. The bottom line is, AI is everywhere. It’s in finance, insurance, healthcare, entertainment, and even in politics. According to the book “Future Is Here Faster Than You Think,” in 2018, AI ran for mayor of a province which it lost by a narrow margin.
Transportation: When it comes to transportation, the most buzzword is automation and self-driving cars. There have been several studies showing the safety of autonomous cars, technology is fast approaching and in near future, most cars will be self-driving, and with the push of the finger, you will be able to order an autonomous taxi at your doorstep. People will be free of the hassle of owning a car. Drone delivery is already getting popular, Amazon has already started delivering small packages at your doorsteps. A Chinese company EHangHoldings, making flying fire engines that will help save lives in case of building fires. Their drones will bypass any traffic jams on the roads and highways and get to buildings where they can rise in the air and extinguish the fire at whatever level they are required to reach. Ordering autonomous taxis will be at your fingertip, fewer people will be required to own the car because they can order a taxi for any of their travel purposes. People will be able to save a lot of money not having to require owning a car and also the hassle of finding expensive parking spots in big cities.
Cybersecurity: We need more cybersecurity than now when the whole world had to make a major lifestyle change and start working from home. More people and institutions are using the internet and apps to get their work done. The cybersecurity space is seeing massive growth in order to protect sensitive data and personal information not only at the institution level but every household needs solid protection against the increasing threat of cyberattacks.
Data: Data is knowledge and knowledge is power. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are very data-hungry. Huge amounts of data are needed to train AI models. The challenge comes from turning big data assets into valuable machine learning training models. These days, companies with the biggest data are the most valuable companies. It means they know exactly what the consumer likes and what his/her shopping behavior is. Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, & Microsoft are some of the names holding this treasure called data. Data analytics will be in high demand citing the growing need for this trend.
Healthcare and Genomic Sciences: It's no secret that healthcare needs a huge update in this country. The recent pandemic has exposed our healthcare system which got overwhelmed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic where hospitals didn’t have basic products required to protect healthcare workers and even patients. Most hospitals ran out of equipment like ventilators and PPE, some hospitals even had to turn down new patients. This terrible experience got some of the best minds in the world thinking about the need to revolutionize the healthcare system. Using recent technological advancements, healthcare companies and scientists are making ventilators and other necessary equipment faster than ever before in the history of mankind. Using 3D imaging, AI, quantum computing, and genomic sciences, sophisticated and advanced diagnostic kits, vaccines, and even ventilators are being produced in the shortest time. Technology giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are innovating and producing sensors to monitor the human body via wearables to detect various common ailments. Experts believe that genomic sciences will bring the biggest change in human life, through gene deletion and editing like CRISPR technologies, scientists will be able to modify human genes before the disease manifests. Not only they will be able to diagnose certain diseases very early but they will also edit gene responsible for diseases like Sickle Cell, Thalassemia, cancers, and other congenital diseases. Still in the early phase, genetic editing has made significant strides in the last few years especially its role in recent vaccines development has been highly impressive. There are some moral and ethical challenges like optimizing the human body and customization of your offspring. Apart from these issues, genomic sciences will have the biggest impact on humanity if this technology is used purely for the benefit of humanity. Workforce demands in genomic sciences will be soaring in the future for not only pure researchers but also for physicians with a Ph.D. also called Medical Geneticists.
Social Media: Most of the world will have access to mobile phones in near future and we are also witnessing the influence of these giant social media platforms on our kids, the number of hours each one of us are spending on our phones not only causes so many challenges and problems for some- like wasting a tremendous amount of time following worthless people and caring about who liked and commented on your posts- but also creates massive opportunities for young entrepreneurs to reach out to the rest of the world with the content they are creating and generating massive income as a side hustle or main source of wealth creation. If your kids have any gift that he or she can share with the rest of the world, this can give your kid another choice for setting up for future success. This is a very difficult concept to comprehend for many parents as they only see social media as a negative influence on their kids, which is true most of the time, but what is also true, is that your kids growing up with social media is an essential tool to communicate. If guided correctly, they can use it for their benefit and economic growth in the future. There is no better resource than the ability to reach out to the masses.
Conclusion:
Smart parents don’t rely on schools to teach their kids what's necessary to become successful, parents need to educate and equip themselves with appropriate knowledge and power to guide their offspring for a very successful future. Schools are doing what they do best, producing another worker or employee to serve the few. Parents should not groom their kids to become another cog in the wheel, rather raise them as a leader or an employer. Avoid saying common phrases to your kids like, “work hard, get good grades, go to a good college so you can get a good job.” (Job: Meaning serving others and making other people rich on your time)
What I tell my kids is, “Work hard, get good grades, go to great colleges, innovate and solve problems, so you can create jobs.” See the difference, it's easy but it changes the whole mindset of your future generation. It's not just in medicine and law where you earn a good income these days, but also in technology as it has changed the whole world. Medicine and law will remain very productive fields for those who love to join that workforce. But now there are so many more fields where a kid can be extremely successful and happy in a much shorter time. What is vital is that your kid should enjoy and perform at the highest level with passion and a burning desire to be highly successful in the field of his or her choice. Never before in the history of mankind, making money has been so easy. Due to technological advancement, we are witnessing the rise of young entrepreneurs all over the world who are not only able to realize their dreams and make an impact but also change the world we live in. Parents also need to make sure they allow their kids to take risks and think out of the box. What do I mean by thinking out of the box? I see so many talented kids who have a specific gift and passion. They have new ideas but because of the environment they grow up in, they lack self-confidence and self-belief. Kids have doubts about their ability to achieve their crazy goals and dreams, parents set up traditional criteria for success and put fear in their hearts about failure. Parents and the traditional school system make risk-taking and failure unacceptable and kids believe that they should not try anything that can bring failure in their life. The second biggest fear average people have is the fear of other people’s opinions. Kids from a young age start fearing other people's comments and opinions about them. These two fears, fear of failure and other people’s opinions which rob our kids of their dreams and happiness. I urge parents to allow their kids to fail as long as kids know how to learn and use this failure to march forward and become obsessed with success.
If your kids have any idea that is realistic and beneficial for the masses, allow them to pursue, celebrate their tiny achievements to boost their confidence, don’t measure their ideas and struggle in terms of money alone. It's the process that is valuable, the process of creating ideas and taking action. Nothing worthwhile will happen until we all take risks in life and see failure, all big entrepreneurs and CEOs take risks and learn from their failed experiences.
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."- Winston S. Churchill
YOUR KIDS INTEREST IS IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE THEY WILL BE SPENDING MOST OF THEIR LIVES. HELP THEM DESIGN IT THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY.
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