I’ve been observing this for quite some time and have spoken about it to many people who couldn’t disagree with me – that after thousands of years of civilization, the World is going Back to Basics.
Men started out in this world surviving on nature’s provision and then moved on to providing for their own needs. From hunting and harvesting wild crops, men started rearing farm animals and poultry, planting crops and harvesting them when the time is ripe. Then, they probably travelled to some other flatland where no caves can be found and tried to build a cave-like structure with a roof above the head – a house is invented. TADA!
This reminded me of the movie – The Croods >.<
Fast forward, during other times when man are not planting seeds and feeding chickens, they started doing other things such as inventing stools rather than sitting on rocks or making bags and baskets to carry more stuffs in one trip. Soon they realize that some people do something better, and someone who just can’t make any usable basket, is able to fish very well.
So individuals started finding their own niche and honed their skills in the area of their niche, trading with others in their own community what they have to get what they needed. With this, life has improved, with people doing what they can do well and earning from it.
With a better life and increased efficiency, now people have even more time to think about improving the systems of the world. So one fine day some smart guy with great observation and social skills found that while there are many people who can make baskets very well, not all baskets are the same. Some have a better material quality, some have nicer patterns, and some are stronger than others. So the smart Alec as what I would like to call him gathered basket makers and told them: Now you only do what you do best, your niche within the niche. So they worked together and the guy who had baskets made form better quality material only source for materials instead of doing the weaving. The one who could weave better patterns only design the basket and share his design with the final guy who could weave baskets stronger than others.
So now, you have a production business that can serve a larger community, with Alec being the boss and the 3 guys being the employees of course.
The world moved forward and many people started copying Alec’s business system to create large enterprises and multi national companies that hire hundreds and thousands of men like Alec’s employees to work for them and produce only the best products.
But along with the world moving forward came better educational systems and better brains. This gave birth to many Alexis who are even smarter than Alec. Without the need to think about neither the next meal nor having no roof above his head one fine day, all Alexis had to do is to study, find his own niche and use his brain. Alexis had better observational skills and a better idea – his own idea. What’s more, the world had this powerful connection called the Internet that by itself is a large community. This is also Alexis’s own community of people who he knows he can sell to.
At the same time, the big cooperation are becoming so big, it seems they can no longer control the quality of their products and services and quality drops. They also strive to earn as much money as possible to feed the thousands of employees they have. Companies that produce food products are using chemicals and growth hormones to increase growth rates, at the expense of consumers’ health. Fashion brands need to leverage on the economies of scale and are unable to produce uniquely customized pieces as to how a mother would used to sew a unique dress for her daughter.
And so Alexis with his own idea in his own little niche sets out to do what the big MNCs and corporations are unable to achieve: customized uniqueness and quality. He thus does what he can do well and earns from it. There is no need for him to join a company.
Unwittingly, he had taken the first step to going back to basics – back to the days where people had just discovered their niche and honed his skills in the area of his niche, trading with others in his own community on the Internet what they have to get what they needed.
This is especially common in well-developed country, where the cycle is already happening, and this is happening for other reasons too.
1) People who freelance to enjoy the flexibility of time and being able to choose who they work for.
2) Mothers who need to stay at home to look after their young children yet wants to earn some extra income – doing ecommerce.
3) People whom like Alexis found a problem in the world and the solution to it is to downscale and creating a niche for himself.
That’s it. The world’s going back to basics and I foresee that someday, even big companies will see this as a problem in 2 ways: being unable to find the best talents (since they are doing their own little business) and being unable to catch up with the quality and uniqueness of the products small businesses are able to produce. With many people like myself around who prefers to aptronise the underdogs, maybe the big corporations will downsize, maybe they’ll just disintegrate altogether… and then all go back to basics and restart all over again.
Then one fine day a even smarter Alex will appear and we’ll have even bigger and better corporations coming up… and the cycle continues…
Who knows? We’ll see.