There are estimates that more than 60% of the present primary school aged children will perform jobs that do not exist today. “This is causing a fundamental redefining of the the term “entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial mindset is central to future advancements.” (Alexandro Pando) “Technology is rapidly advancing, but historical review shows us that technology creates more jobs than it eliminates”. This is new insight. Most Futurists say technology will take away jobs with no replacements. Pando says administrative tasks will become more and more automated leaving time for entrepreneurs to immerse themselves in new creations and innovations. The instant availability of all the knowledge accumulated by humans will make creativity and innovation an ordinary activity.

Then, there’s the popularity of remote working. We’re already seeing business being run from locations all over the world. According to Pando, “Regardless of regulations and restrictions, the foreseeable future of entrepreneurship is immersed in global inter-reliance and technology-enabled businesses, offering new and unique opportunities for entrepreneurs to innovate and shape the future.”

“As job automation becomes more prevalent across industries, I think we’re going to be looking at a professional scenario where, in order to have a job, you are an entrepreneur. Instead of relying on an employer to hire you and give you a job, you simply make your own. Whether that’s building the Uber or Facebook for 100 years from now, or something disruptive in a different sense, I think everyone will be an ‘entrepreneur’ in one way or another. In 2017, we no longer really have career jobs and, I think, that’s a concept that is going to be even less relevant in a century’s time.” Wil Benton, Co-Founder & CEO at Chew

After discovering these interesting projections, I decided to highlight some of the keys to entrepreneurial success.

Five Keys to Entrepreneurial success in the 21st century:

1.Know the many resources available for entrepreneurs. This is the perfect time to be alive and willing to contribute to the welfare of humanity. You can study in any field and find loopholes and inadequacies that you can fill. Most industries can be improved in one way or another. Just striving toward excellence in an industry will bring you phenomenal success! You can conduct tests to see if your idea will fly. If it doesn’t seem workable, all you have lost is a little time. You can try something else. Nick Hastreiter offered a list of 400 free resources for entrepreneurs. I have also found 200 top level universities offering free online courses. Check them out! Go ahead! Be great!

2. Build a business as a force for good. “In this realm of philanthropy and service, one’s actions speak louder than words, and from those actions, better opportunities inevitably flow back to the individual and their business” says Pike Peters, founder of Virtual Tire Kicker. Your business purpose comes from a desire to contribute something. Craig and Snook shared an interesting finding in an article “ From Impact to purpose” explaining: “Business experts make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional performance, while psychologists describe it as the pathway to greater well-being. So a strong Purpose has business and psychological advantages. Doctors have even found that people with purpose in their lives are less prone to disease. Purpose is increasingly being put forth as the key to navigating the complex, volatile, ambiguous world we face today, where strategy is ever changing and few decisions are obviously right or wrong.” Purpose keeps you grounded and moving in the right direction. This is another expanding and timeless phenomenon.

Related: “The Superiority of a Purpose Driven Business”

3. Understand the forces at work in the Innovation Economy as described by James Canton. According to Canton in his book, “The Extreme Future: The Top Trends that will Reshape the World”,“The mantra of the Innovation Economy is ‘free minds, free markets, free enterprise’. This offers the greatest prosperity-creating opportunity in the history of civilization”.”The coming Innovation Economy will herald an age of rapid, dramatic change, one in which ideas that create value, offer solutions, and fulfill needs will thrive, sweeping in to recesses of memory the comparatively primitive ideas, products, services and processes that came before. Innovation will be the prime source of productivity, prosperity, competition, and potentially even peace. Innovation will be recognized as an empowering force that will drive individual prosperity and global competition.”

4. Embrace the importance of Management Skills. “Two decades ago and one computer revolution later, American business has undergone more extreme changes in every aspect in every industry than could have ever been predicted. Many center on technology, collaboration and information, but the solution is not technology. It is not collaboration. It is not information. It is producing results… Management is the specific function, the specific instrument to make institutions capable of producing results. People management and leadership will be the core drivers of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.” Terence Chatmon, CEO of FCCI

We see the use of the term “management”, in thousands of articles and books. It actually means many different things according to whoever is using it. I like to refer to scientific or researched based findings for a definition of management. Frederick W. Taylor, in his works on scientific management offers the best definition of management as a science or set of skills.

“Scientific management [set of skills ] is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity.” Wikipedia

Considering Taylor’s conclusions, we can describe management as the responsibility for designing and executing a strategy with clear objectives, targets and deadlines. You also have the responsibility to design methods (systems), set standards, guide the performance of workers, and measure results. In addition, management includes hiring, training and promoting workers. You will train and coach the appropriate employees required to successfully meet the objectives as described in your strategy.

In other words, management is the organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives. You will apply change management skills as you find the need for making the various types of changes to your established strategy and systems. People skills, such as communication and conflict management skills fall under the umbrella of scientific or skill based management. Management skills have been the focus of years of management research. Today we have time-tested and universal management skills available to managers because of this rigorous research. Of course, there will always be improvements in the discipline but basic business management skills will stay relatively the same. The best managers will continuously learn and improve their management skills.

Related: “20 Directives for Small Business Success: Do or Die”

5. As founders, prepare to lead for the long term. Steve Blank offered an interesting directive for 21st century businesses: “To stay in business in the 21st century, startups must do three things their 20th century counterparts didn’t:

A company is no longer built on a single innovation. It needs to be continuously innovating–and who best to do that? [Leadership from ]the founders.
To continually innovate, companies need to operate at startup speed and cycle time much longer their 20th century counterparts did. This requires retaining a startup culture for years–and who best to do that? Leadership from the founders.
Continuous innovation requires the imagination and courage to challenge the initial hypotheses of your current business model (channel, cost, customers, products, supply chain, etc.) This might mean competing with and if necessary killing your own products. (Think of the relentless cycle of iPod then iPhone innovation.) Professional CEOs who excel at growing existing businesses find this extremely hard. Who best to do that? The founders.”

The future will be very exciting if we contribute new purpose-driven enterprises to the economy. The possibilities are endless! All it takes is a passion for something, persistence and dedication. The resources are at your fingertips.