In case you haven’t heard, the Hydrogen Age is here. The future depends on energy. Energy grows, delivers and cooks our food. Energy runs schools, hospitals and factories. Energy pumps water and takes us to work. The Internet uses plenty of energy. New technologies like the steam engine, the automobile and the computer invariably cause social upheavals where the magnates claim it's the work of the devil while your neighbor across the street becomes a millionaire. Today machines are taking jobs by the 1000's. Your work week may be 12 hours or it may be 60 hours or more. In this new economy you are the only one accountable for what you do. While the guy next to you is getting phony Linkedin endorsements, you are becoming so good at ONE Thing that you have no competition. Your biggest problem will be finishing school while companies are trying to hire you.
How do you plan to survive in a world increasingly more complex and uncertain? You need to increase your knowledge and experience. Learning and growing are now lifelong endeavors. Volunteer, take a webinar, subscribe to newsfeeds, ask questions at tradeshows, create your own website, learn a second or third language, make things with your hands. A company can teach anybody how to put something together, but are they going to teach you how to get along with people? Take some quiet time, sit down with paper and pen and make a list of the things you want to be doing, not what somebody else wants you to be doing. Add the things you hate doing, for good measure. How can you make your first career or a new career out of your list?
Americans are discovering that wealth and satisfaction is not in going into debt for things, but in health and friends and interesting work. They are going to demand clean energy, clean air, clean water, clean food, clean transportation and energy efficiency because it saves money in the long term. Think green to make green. There's more than enough room for everybody in renewable energy.
