We need exponential entrepreneurs, we need a bold education

Everybody knows that the world has changed and will continue to change. But now, change is happening in an exponential rate.

I am taking the first online delivered course by Singularity University. This is not a traditional University. It doesn´t has undergraduate or graduate programs. It has programs with the mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity´s grand challenges.

Singularity University was founded by two visionaries. They have an impressive curriculum.  It is important to say that they are recognized futurists. Ray Kurzweill found that the “Moore Law” is applicable to anything that gets digitalized, doubling its power and being cheaper in a specific period of time. Based in that, he has made predictions that has been very accurate. Peter Diamandis found that this exponential growth has 6 phases that he called the six Ds. The second phase is "deceptive", a phase that takes times and makes people think that a specific technology is not going to be viable. That bias, for example, didn´t allow Kodak executives to see the change that was coming in digital photography.

To follow Singularity University or to take a course with them changes your mindset. They say it is an exponential and informed mindset and I agree. This mindset allows people to see the impressive future that is very near. For people that has entrepreneurial skills, it is a call to action to solve humanity challenges. For others, is a call to develop skills to live in a very different world.

Today, there are a lot of technologies that are growing at an exponential rate and they are converging. There is well documented evidence that they can solve humanity problems but there are barriers that can slow down the pace. So, it is important to identify political, societal, technological, economic and environmental issues and act in consequence. There are risks related to new technologies, there are ethical issues, and there will be problems in the transition to a world of abundance. That is the reason there are needed entrepreneurs and the reason there is a need to change the mindset of CEOs of companies.

I have started to talk with my customers about projects with exponential technologies that brings innovation and make them more competitive. But it looks that current available talent is not enough for the requirements of the market. And it isn´t enough for solving global grand challenges. It would be useful to develop people along with companies that want to innovate.

For those reasons, I think that education needs to change also in an exponential rate. It must be redesigned to develop more leaders that think exponentially. We should change the mindset of people. They need to develop skills to solve future problems with creativity and collaboration, using critical thinking and learning by themselves. We need more entrepreneurs to help solve the world problems. We need that people adapt to a new era, and learn to live better in our society.

I think the mindset being taught by Singularity University needs to be extended to different levels of education, creating more entrepreneurs (and startups) in exponential technologies, developing their skills and entrepreneurial mindsets in early stages, the same way successful athletes do. It is about inspiring and influencing people to set higher goals and guide them toward technology, entrepreneurship and achievements that develop their skills.

Society needs more people more prepared to make an impact, and needs people to adapt to a new era. We need to work in that endeavor.