The book “The World Is Flat” was first published back in 2005. In it, the author Tom Friedman mentioned a story about why it is so important to be able to “learn how to learn” This sentiment was important then and I would argue it is even more important today!
Today, more than ever traditional heavily localized relationship-centric industries – especially high margin industries – are being commoditized and transitioned by technology. Some of this has to do with a generational shift with younger people trusting the technology in their hand more than the individual on the other end of the phone or local office. Now more than ever software as a service (SAAS) as well as other technologies such as AI driven by the growth of data science is making what traditionally was labor intensive or manual processes into both autonomous and fully transparent transactions.
Consider industries such as:
Banking – local and regional brick and mortar banks becoming replaced by online banks like Aspiration, Chime, Radius, Revolut, Simple, and Varo.
Insurance – local insurance brokers being replaced by sites like Policy Genius and Lemonade.
Investing – local investment advisors becoming replaced by sites like Betterment, Personal Capital and Wealthfront.
Real estate – local real estate brokers and agents becoming replaced by sites like Zillow and Redfin (And, here you will find the steps to get the best mortgage rate possible) For this article, Redfin provided an excellent resource on the state of U.S. housing.
Now isn’t the time to be complacent. Instead, now more than ever, now is the time to recognize the changes occurring around you and react before you end up feeling left behind.