06/07/2024
I've created a piece of 'Thought Leadership' i'd love your feedback on. It's a 'grab a cuppa and tuck in' kind of length, but i reckon it will be worth your time if you're interested (especially in the wake of an election here in the UK) of some of the emerging cultural, social and economic factors that will shape our world in the coming decade.
WHY WOMEN OVER 50 WILL LEAD THE REVOLUTION
The following piece of thought leadership explores the convergence of some profound socio-economic factorsā¦all of which point to a perhaps surprising conclusion:
That the over 50s, and particularly women over 50, are poised to spearhead a peer-led revolution as profound as any we have seen in the last three centuries.
And this news could not have come at a better time ā as the UK wakes up to the morning after it was forced to choose between an uncaring billionaire with Sky TV trauma and a knight of the realm who not once, but twice failed to hold Jimmy Saville accountable for his crimes.
To say we need some better options is an understatement.
But I do believe hope is on the horizon.
REASON FOR HOPE #1
The three emerging economies.
We are witnessing the real time birth of what I have been calling āThe Transcendence Economyā. Towards the end of his life Abraham Maslow began to explore the idea that Self-Actualisation was not the peak of human development. He was beginning to map a stage he termed āSelf-Transcendenceā, a way of living driven by commitment to causes whose scope is beyond that of any individual or what might be possible in a single lifetime, and adherence to values that go beyond the dictates and desires of the personal self.
No longer are things like career advancement, the highest salary or the cheapest price the dominant factors in many peoplesā decision making when it comes to their work choices and lifestyle purchases.
Meaningful work, in a nourishing environment and products that donāt contribute to the r**e and pillage of the planet are becoming the norm.
This Transcendence Economy is being born out of the synergy of The Healing Economy and The Longevity Economy.
The Healing Economy is a natural response to a species being involuntarily incarcerated in their own homes and coerced to accept needle based medical interventions.
It is also a seminal moment in our cultural evolution, as we see young and old alike beginning to throw off the shackles of the transgenerational trauma that has dogged us since the world wars that caused it.
We are seeing more and more people choosing to address their relationship to authority by turning inwards, facing their shadows and diving deeper than ever into what it is that gives their life meaning and purpose.
The back drop to this deep personal and collective healing is The Longevity Economy.
In simple terms this is a new reality for the Western world. Here in the UK, when the state pension was first initiated, the life expectancy of a man was 69. This meant that upon retiring at 65, your average Joe had just 4 years to enjoy some R & R before knocking on the pearly gates.
How things change!
If youāre currently in your 50s or 60s that life expectancy is already well into the 80s.
That means you have at least another 20 years of life to live.
And this is where things start to get interesting.
The current generation of over 50s is already the worldās largest demographic, is the worldās fastest growing demographic, and is the worldās most affluent demographic.
And more than any that have come before, this demographic is choosing to live their lives dedicated to causes and values that transcend personal ambition, are attending to their healing so that their wounds become their wisdomā¦and have at least another 20 years of vibrant life to live.
This is why the three economies are the first reason I have hope. They are creating a moment that may well be unique in all of history: where so many have such resources, experience, opportunity (time) and desire to initiate profound social change.
I call these people The Greater Generation. And they are set to ride the wave of the three economies awesomely.
But the three economies is just the first reason for hope,
REASON FOR HOPE # 2
AI and the Creative Uprising.
Back in 2012 my world was flipped upside down when a young Australian asked the audience of the business conference I was attending what the similarities were between a tractor and an iPhone.
Daniel Priestley, who has since gone on to author a number of pioneering books on entrepreneurship, was explaining how both the iPhone and tractor were emblematic of world changing revolutions.
The tractor ushered in a revolution in agriculture that allowed the industrial revolution to really gather momentum. The smartphone was the first phase of the digital revolution that is shaping our world as you read these wordsā¦quite possibly on your smartphone.
Priestley correctly recognised that the smart phone and the internet were setting the stage for an Entrepreneur Revolution, where we would see the rise, thanks to the democratisation of the tools of entrepreneurship, of the āGlobal Small Businessā.
With a smartphone and a wifi connection anyone from any where could have their own TV channel (youtube) free community platform for their customers (facebook) and access to a global talent pool of staff and manufacturing facilities. Not only this, but the truly global aspect was that many businesses could now service customers from around the world, not just those within their immediate geography.
The first phase of the digital revolution democratised the tools of business for all.
The second phase, driven by the exponential rise of AI, will democratise the tools of creativity.
And this is significant.
It was all very well having all the tools of entrepreneurship at your disposalā¦but if you still did not have the resources or knowhow to create and leverage an online presence and digital assets, you were still stuck doing business the old way.
AI changes all that, whether we like it or not.
Iād say we are maximum 2 years away from your 80-year-old neighbour Granny Jones being able to type into an AI platform ābuild me an online shop to sell my hand knitted winter jumpers for dogsā
And within an hour Granny will have an SEO optimised e-commerce website, complete will all relevant branding, graphic design and coding, not to mention end to end fulfilment and distribution and a six-month social media marketing calendar of Instagram and Facebook posts.
Within a week your canine companion has everything it needs to stay warm in the winter and Granny is heading towards an extra $5000/mth extra to supplement her pension.
And thatās just the start. We are also only 3-5 years away from a 10-year-old being able to speak a made-up story into an AI platformā¦and the AI platform will create a Hollywood grade movie, complete with its own spin-off computer game and merchandise line ā all with their own online platforms and presence, ohā¦and a plan for the next 5 movies in the franchise.
And this capacity will be available to anyone, anywhere for less than $50 a month. All theyāll need is a smartphone and an internet connection.
If the internet and smartphones sparked the Entrepreneur Revolution, AI is ushering in the Creative Uprising.
AND YOU KNOW WHO IS BEST PLACED TO TAKE LEAD THE CREATIVE UPRISING?
How about a demographic who know how to think and writeā¦and are therefore most likely to master the prompting of AI, a demographic who are also proven to be more likely to bring break through innovation to the market and who are nearly twice as likely to succeed in business compared to other demographics?
Yep, you guessed it. Weāre talking about the over 50s again.
And letās not gloss over the fact that we have just busted some pretty insidious cultural myths: namely that you become less innovative in your thinking past 50 and that the young are more likely to succeed in business.
The data does not bear out either of these ageist assumptions. The opposite is actually true.
So we have The Greater Generation riding the wave of the three economies, about to spearhead an unprecedented Creative Uprisingā¦
And we havenāt even addressed the most exciting reason for hope!
REASON FOR HOPE #3
The Women & The Wealth
Weāve already noted that the current generation of over 50s is both the largest and most affluent demographic on the planet. According to one survey the average 60-year-old has nearly 10x the wealth of someone in their 30s.
This has led economists to forecast what has been termed āThe Great Wealth Transferā. As the baby boomer generation head to meet their maker, they will be handing down somewhere in the region of $30 Trillion to the coming generations.
But there are a couple of factors that I donāt feel have been sufficiently accounted for. And these factors hint at something marvellous: namely that our world is poised to become more caring.
Why? Because women over 50 are set to become its most influential group.
There are two reasons why I believe this: death and divorce.
If the numbers donāt lie, then the truth is that women outlive men. This means that as the baby boomer and early Gen X men start to die off, their widows are going to be left with sizeable fortunes and a good number of years in which to use them.
Accelerating this enrichment of the females of the Greater Generation is the fact that many are not waiting for their husband to pop his clogs. Divorce rates are higher than ever among this demographic. So the wealth transfer is happening in real time as millions of women over 50 get their deserved payout for a lifetime of underappreciated mothering and tolerance of an emotionally infantile and unavailable husband.
Faced with another 20-30 years of good living ahead, huge numbers of empty nested women are choosing to start a new life, complete with new adventures, new careers and new relationships.
They are also tolerating a lot less s*** - especially when it comes to the kind of world they want their grandchildren to inherit.
Whether down to nature or nurture, women score higher when it comes to nurturing traits just as surely as they live longer than men. And if the rise in the number of Greater Generation women getting arrested at climate and economic protests is anything to go by, the label of āCool Grandmaā is in the process of being upgraded to āActivist Grandmaā.
Of course many women of the Greater Generation are not grandmas. So please forgive the broad generalisations, used as a way of landing some complex statistical data in simple practical terms.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
So what are we to make of the phenomena of a surge in the number wealthy, experienced activist women leading an AI driven Creative Uprising, fuelled by the transcendent possibilities of the three economies?
Wellā¦if money talks, the female-led call for us to fix up and ensure a future for future generations is going to become increasingly loud. What is more, I believe all that we have documented so far makes a compelling case that never before in human history have so many people had at their disposal the means to create prosperity and change at such unprecedented scale entirely without the need for involvement or interference from government or entrenched old money.
We are at the cusp of a peer-led movement of social, economic and ecological change quite unlike anything we have ever seen.
And not a moment too soon!
Thank you for investing your time to read this thought piece. I hope it can be the start of many conversations that lead to many actions. I am currently hosting a free bookclub dedicated to exploring and implementing some of the ideas discussed here. If that sounds of interest, please let me know in the comments.
And, of course, please share your thoughts edits and additions to the above. All are welcome.
