Flux Trend futurist Bronwyn Williams and business strategist Pierre du Plessis gave fascinating, and at times hilarious, advice for entrepreneurs at Heavy Chef’s The Futurists event last month.

Heavy Chef is an entrepreneur-support platform and community. At the event, the speakers described the ‘soup of uncertainty’ that entrepreneurs are facing, how to avoid overwhelm at its many ingredients, and some steps each of us can take towards business success.

It was a shift from previous years’ events in devoting more time to entrepreneurs’ concerns and less to the ongoing shifts in new global and national trends, which the Dolphin Bay Brief has previously documented.

Pierre observed that in his considerable time spent advising entrepreneurs, he has been told that their lives feel like “riding a psychotic horse towards a burning stable”, “chewing glass”, or “pushing a peanut up your nose.”

More good news is that capitalism, a foundation of entrepreneurship, “is still winning.”

“You’re richer than last year”

This is all due to rising uncertainty, the one stable trend that businesspeople are experiencing. “We’ve been speaking of chaotic times for the past 15 years. The world is a chaotic place; it’s something we need to get used to,” Pierre said.  

Most trends come with both good and bad news. Good economic news includes that “you’re richer now than last year,” because the Rand has strengthened and so many of our goods are imported, Bronwyn pointed out. More good news is that capitalism, a foundation of entrepreneurship, “is still winning.” 

The bad-news counterpart is that these trends have little to do with us and are due to “big men making big plans.” She did not feel the need to identify the “big men”; the audience felt no need to ask.

Unfortunately, South Africans and others across the world should not expect any financial good fortune to endure, as it is propped up by the huge debt of world governments which, at some point, “someone will have to pay back.”

More bad news is that conflict across the world has reached the equivalent of World War Three. “There are more countries involved in ‘hot war’ than since the end of World War Two.”

These conflicts have become so threatening that some EU countries, including Germany, are seriously considering military conscription.

Why we love betting

“At least the memes are good,” Bronwyn quipped. “There are good jokes out there, and a laugh is worth a lot.

“But “memefication” is bad news in a world where casinos look like a good bet, given what’s going on (i.e. the uncertainty) in our economies.”

These days, South Africans’ favourite websites include Hollywoodbets. “The trend is that we’re spending more time and money watching cat-videos and X-rated content and placing bets – speculation, rather than investment. This is extracting value, rather than creating it, which is what entrepreneurs should be doing.”

Human beings’ greatest fear – larger than the other two great fears, of death and of punishment – is the fear of meaninglessness, said Pierre, who is also an ordained minister. “It’s the fear that everything is out of our control, in which case we may as well place that bet!”

The important question is how we react to the uncertainty. Do we abdicate our responsibility, trying to become “smaller” and less daring, to feel safe?

One part animal, one part angel

This would be a fear response. “But you are more than a fear response, and more than all the chemicals floating around your body,” Pierre added. “We humans are one part animal, and the other part angelic – which is the part of higher awareness. We live stretched between the two, neither animal nor angel, just yet.”

In the face of great uncertainty, the key issue is how we choose to react.  Pierre offered a few succinct steps. “The first line of defence is to affirm yourself: to stand up and say, ‘I am here, I matter, and I am enough’.” 

We are all unique, and things that are unique are valuable. Humans tend to compare themselves with others, then to copy them. “But if you’re copy of a copy, it’s worth nothing.”

“My wife keeps reminding me that we are made to walk uphill.”

Meant to walk uphill

Then, we should accept that life is not meant to be easy; suffering is inevitable.

“My wife keeps reminding me that we are made to walk uphill. As South Africans, we know this. There is no safety net. We either make it or we die,” Pierre said, his wry tone acknowledging the slight hyperbole.

On human hardship, he described the fury of Australian singer Nick Cave when a song composed by ChatGPT in his style became public. The singer wrote a letter saying that his songs arise from suffering, but AI does not suffer, as “ChatGPT has no inner being.” (The Dolphin Bay Brief investigated briefly and found that the initial popularity of the AI song faded after Nick Cave’s condemnation.)

After accepting that hardship is inevitable, we must use our sense of agency and decide what to do. “You can make a decision. You have free will.”

This is reflected in centuries of human philosophy, including by Jean-Paul Satre, who said we are “condemned to be free”, and psychiatrist Victor Fraenkl, who found that the one common trait among Holocaust survivors – he was among them – was that they had found meaning in life and a reason to survive, be this to see a loved one again or to complete unfinished work.

Fraenkl famously asserted that “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms − to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

Made for adventure

Pierre threaded literary inspiration into many of his observations. It takes bravery to commit to action, he noted. Yet while we are made for suffering, we’re also made for adventure.

He described a scene from the opening sections of The Lord of the Rings in which the hero of the epic tale, the cautious and home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins, finds his home overrun by dwarves causing chaos. At first, Bilbo runs around frantically trying to put the mess right. This changes when the dwarves take out their instruments and begin to sing.

Bilbo had a fairy ancestor on his mother’s side, that of the Took family, who had brought an adventurous streak to the family’s DNA. As Bilbo listened to the dwarves’ songs, “something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

Building a cathedral

Fred Roedt, cofounder of Heavy Chef, pointed out in the question-and-answer session that finding courage and inspiration is “all about the way we look at our mission, before we actually do it.”

Two stonemasons were asked what they do for a living. The one said, “I cut stone”. The other said, “I am building a cathedral.”

What, then, is the greater purpose behind what each of us is doing?

Do the next right thing

What comes before action? Discernment regarding what to do. Each of us needs to stop, calm down, and think, said Pierre. This is unusual, and difficult. But we don’t need a grand vision immediately; ideas don’t come fully formed. We can simply do “the next right thing, and then the next one, which takes us in a direction.”

“Action is choosing to step into uncertainty.”

We should not expect the discernment process to be easy: thinking about what to do next is like wrestling; it is “muddy, weird, and hard work”.

How to be brave

Humans are not hobbits, and we have no singing dwarves to inspire us. How do we become brave?  “In tiny steps,” Pierre said. “Do one little thing that scares you every week.”

This takes discipline and commitment, qualities that engender success.

Business leader consistently advise preparing the ground for opportunity to arise. One of them is Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Great by Choice, who emphasises how greatness can be achieved through consistent hard work and strategically seizing good luck events as they arise – which he calls our “return on luck”.

When we meet such an opportunity, we should “bounce on it and rachet up our return,” said the ebullient Pierre.

Tackling anxiety

When we’re feeling anxious, which is inevitable, our brains lock down and we become incapable of long-term planning. This is part of imposter syndrome, which is common among entrepreneurs.

How do we free our brains from this? The answer is to practice gratitude, which brings us hope and enables us to think long-term again, Pierre advised.

“The more you celebrate, the more you will celebrate.”

Burnout is common among entrepreneurs: Fred said it was the top challenge that 60% of entrepreneurs reported. He said it was due to two main problems: firstly, working on something we don’t believe in, and second, ploughing on without getting any results.

Discernment helps avoid these problems: stopping, calming down, and thinking about the “next right thing” to do.

Taking this approach, step by step, brings entrepreneurs more than just financial success.

“It also brings us energy and vitality,” he concluded.

Will AI take our jobs?

Elon Musk recently said that in future all humans will be able to retire, while AI does our work. Is this true, a member of the audience asked?

Bronwyn, who recently published a book on the subject, believes that it depends on what we do. “Some people will make a lot of money. Many others will be trampled underfoot.

“AI has introduced peak globalisation and increased competition, ultimately. There’s no room for free rides anymore. You need to be very clear on the value you add to society.

“The good thing is that AI will come after (i.e. get rid of it) the BS. That’s good overall, but bad for you if you’re sitting on a pile of unearned privilege: if you’re extracting value, rather than contributing it.

“People will always need things from each other, in a trade of need and desire. And there’s always a human desire behind all elements of our economy, which will remain the case unless AI develops a will.”

And she does not believe it shall.