I think one of the most important human innovations is cooking. Yes cooking the food we eat. Think about it; the first set of humans on earth probably didn’t cook what they ate. They had to eat everything raw; from plants to meat. Then someone discovered fire and then another person discovered that you could actually cook meat with source and come up with something easy and delicious to eat. You may think of it as nothing special, but when you imagine the ingenuity and thought it would have taken to discover what plants are healthy to cook and eat and those that can’t be eaten, you’ll appreciate the innovativeness of our ancestors. I can imagine how it would have been a new dawn for the human race to discover that food can be cooked. But we do not think about it this way because cooking the food we eat is about the most basic human activity today.
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Similarly, there are huge opportunities today that people do not take seriously. Maybe because; they are just in our faces and easily accessible, so we take them for granted; Or that there isn’t much awareness about them. Or maybe it’s because they haven’t always been associated with high income and high growth opportunities. If you’re looking to boost your career in the coming years, you’ll do yourself a favour to consider these opportunities. Continue reading to learn 5 huge opportunities most people are not taking seriously today and how you can take advantage of them. Many of these are easily within your reach. In fact, it’s usually because they are easily within reach that people take them for granted.
- Teaching with technology
There are many ways schools and teachers can use technology to better interact with and impart the students. While some schools and teachers are already taking advantage of the opportunity in technology, most still have a lot of catching up to do.
For instance, teachers don’t have to repeat the same lecture in class to a different batch of students every single year. With the amount of free and affordable technology easily available today, teachers can bring more excitement to teaching and stop wasting time doing the same thing over and over again.
Instead of teaching the same technical stuff, teachers can record some of these repetitive classes; have their students access them in class and after class at their convenience. The teachers can then spend more time really getting to know and impacting the students.
On the other hand, according to a pre-COVID-19 prediction, the global online education market is expected to reach about $350 billion by 2025. With schools closing down, and many education institutions forced to explore teaching with technology, this figure is likely to grow even faster than expected after the lockdown. Professionals and hobbyists across diverse fields are turning to the internet to teach what they know. There is a huge opportunity in teaching with technology. And you don’t need to be a trained teacher to profit from this opportunity.
- Agriculture
I started this post talking about food and cooking. Food and health are among the most important human needs. Billions of people had to stay home for months due to the corona virus pandemic. We survived without travelling, going to work and doing other kinds of human activities. But we couldn’t have survived without food.
Agriculture is one of the oldest human professions. And it is arguably one of the most underrated professions in the world. Most people associate agriculture to poverty. But that’s a very shortsighted perception. Agriculture has long moved past the poverty narrative. About 23 percent of Africa’s GDP comes from agriculture. Yet the potential in the agric sector in the continent is yet untapped.
According to McKinsey, “Rising urbanization and the growth of urban middle-class consumers in Africa could lead to $645 billion in growth in consumer spending between 2015 and 2025. Of that growth, $167 billion could be in food and beverages; and a majority of that would come from sub-Saharan African countries. In simpler terms, demand will continue to grow in the agric sector in many years to come. This represents nothing but huge opportunities in the agric sector. Few people are already identifying and taking advantage of the agric potential by introducing technology to farming. If you think farming is for poor people, think again.
- BIG DATA
Imagine that someone knows when you wake up in the morning, what food you love to eat, what kind of restaurant you love to visit, where you love to vacate to, what time you go to work and return home, what traffic route you take, what brand of the item you buy, almost everything about your life. Now imagine that same person has similar information about one billion people. Now that’s power. It may interest you or scare you to know that some organizations already know this much, maybe more about you. Google, Facebook; they know a good deal about you.
The moral of the story is that insight from Data is the new gold. Who has the data has control. The demand for knowledge in the field of data analytics, business intelligence and data science will continue to grow and evolve. If you love numbers, are analytical, and are still contemplating on a career, you may want to consider a career in data-related fields.
- Blockchain technology
When you mention Blockchain technology, for most people Bitcoin quickly comes to mind. But that’s a very narrow understanding of blockchain technology. Here is how to look at it. As Facebook and Twitter are types of social media; Bitcoin and Ethereum are just different types of cryptocurrency. And just as social media, ecommerce, search engines are some of many technologies on the internet; cryptocurrency is just one of the possibilities of Blockchain technology.
The keyword synonymous with Blockchain technology is decentralization. We are hearing more and more about fintech, virtual tokens, digital assets, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts and initial coin offerings. These concepts are applicable to Blockchain technology. The potential applications of Blockchain technology are growing exponentially because almost anything involving transactions or digital assets can be created on this technology. Our digital lives will likely develop to rely on Blockchain technology without many of us even being aware of it.
- Media Ownership
Once upon a time, you had to be a movie or music star to have a fan base. But today, anyone can have access to an audience you can reach in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, most people underestimate the value of having access to an audience. Facebook was not being extravagant to acquire Instagram for one billion dollars and Whatsapp for about 19 billion dollars even when these tools were not making money. Neither were they dumb to offer to buy Snapchat at some point. These companies understand the power of media.
And the technology keeps getting better. Remember those days we had to wait for WebPages to load; not to mention the frustration of streaming videos. Today, you can easily watch as many videos as you want on YouTube. As at today, the two largest search engines in the world are Google and YouTube; both owned by the same company. Google receives over 5.6 billion searches per day, over 1.3 billion people use YouTube, over 1.7 billion on Facebook not to mention other online media platforms. You probably haven’t thought about the enormity of this opportunity. If you have you’ll be screaming right now.
You can set up a business or freelance service anywhere in the world and reach a global audience right from your sitting room. Of course, you have to put in the work to attract customers. But the tools are already available for free. You just need to learn how to use these tools and be consistent. You can market your business, share your expertise and reach a wide audience online. The opportunity here is helplessly underrated.
In summary, there are lots of opportunities to look forward to. Some of these opportunities are obvious while some are not that pronounced that people simple nod and move on. You just have to figure out what’s already within your reach and start taking advantage of them.
