When things get complex, you can see many people shy away. It’s hard work to push ourselves to learn something new or wrap our minds around complexity.
For those in our talent economy that are looking for revenue opportunities, where complexity exists is the exact place to make your home and dig deep. It is the place where you can master a domain few will venture towards.
Think about the millions of CPA’s that have jobs because of the complexity of our tax code. If that code was reformed and greatly simplified to a flat tax, what would be the need for high paying professionals? They exist because it is complex and they make big bucks for it.
What happened to the blue collar worker in the factories with automation is continually happening to the middle-class white collar cubicle dweller. Software automation and cloud computing have simplified IT and knowledge work. This puts a lot of people that did what used to be complex into a scramble for job security.
The reality is that your security will be based on your ability to change, adapt and grow continually with new systems and tools. The better strategy is to seek out complexity. Nothing stops you from becoming a world-class expert at skills such as marketing analytics or database integrations for example. The need for these services is increasingly high and to study, fail forward and know your stuff makes you desirable and valuable.
The game today will commoditize what is easy. There is too much leverage with the internet to get cheap talent around mundane goals. My advice is to get out of that commodity game and get into a niche that is complex and that you can rule. It is an investment of your mind and time to master it.
Get a customer first and learn to expand your value. Learn from your mistakes and continually secure your place as an expert.
The great news is that there are numerous niches that will remain complex. Human thinking and creativity are not something easily automated. Thus, if you can be a thinker and creative in your outputs, then you will be sought.
The last thing you want to do is assume you are safe. Keep seeking higher ground.
