In this guest article, Roger James Hamilton, the New York Times best-selling author and CEO/Founder of Genius Group, looks at where our future business moguls may come from.

Futuristic people that impact society in profound and often unexpected ways are few and far between. From Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, the impact these people have had on society and global economic structures is unprecedented.

Their stories are legendary, their rise to the top compelling, and their uniqueness, interpretation of the world, collaborative abilities and thinking styles ultimately culminate in change on a global scale.

You may love them, you may hate them, but an interesting question to ask is: Where will the next one come from?

Just over a decade ago, during and following the peak of the 2008 banking crisis, many had dismissed Elon Musk as a dreamer and weaver of fairy tales. He bet everything on his two companies Tesla and SpaceX to fast forward to October 25^th 2021 when he became the world’s richest man, surpassing Jeff Bezos.

But how can we predict where the next elite entrepreneur will come from? The answer, I believe, lies in certain trends that we are currently analysing.

With the exponential development of technology, we are now seeing the fifth age in society. A society encompassing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) means that an immersive digital overlay will significantly influence our lives, activities and in turn, revolutionise humanity, just as earlier societies have.

With such large-scale innovation happening now, we can expect to see the next global innovator in this Society 5.0. After all, the industrial age – Society 3.0, gave birth to Jean Paul Getty and John D. Rockefeller amongst others, and the information age – Society 4.0, which began in the 1970s, saw Bill Gates and Steve Jobs becoming household names.

Society 5.0

Entering Society 5.0, we are leaving the information age behind, but what does this mean in practice? That shift in society will see many different factors come together in a convergence of technology and will enable big ideas to be implemented swifter with instant communication for uptake globally. Society 5.0 will allow people to create their own jobs.

We see exponential growth in Artificial Intelligence, energy storage and robotics, to name a few. New learning will be made accessible through education technology (edtech) and we will see marginalised and third-world countries have much more access to education, widening the pool of where the next elite entrepreneur will come from, who are well placed to identify and solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Ark Invest, a global asset manager specialising in thematic investing in disruptive innovation, predicted in their 2022 annual report ‘Big Ideas 2022’, that sectors such as AI will grow to a value of $108 trillion by 2030 from $10.5 trillion in 2020. As this technology is adopted by many, it will change the job market as we know it and allow for innovation on a scale previously unknown.

Currently, we are seeing these technologies being adopted into sectors such as education, healthcare, and industry. As a result, we will see huge advancements in these areas, new ideas, viewpoints, and ideologies coming to the forefront along with the people championing that progress being brought into the limelight.

The entrepreneurial movement will see the previous educational rules, where you have been trained for one job, abandoned. In Society 5.0, lifelong learning will be the norm and constantly reskilling and upskilling will be necessary. This shift in mindset will allow new ideas and concepts to be born as people open themselves up to new learnings and career paths in different sectors, having therefore more opportunities to immerse themselves in their passions to access their inner genius.

The world’s first Metaversity, a university operating in the metaverse, is expected to open this year by Genius Group, allowing global students to tap into and immersify themselves in any topic of their choosing. From learning online comes another benefit, access to a global community that can nurture, grow and inspire others to pursue greater and more advanced projects to be achieved.

These advancements in technology mean that borders are less of a hurdle, language is less of a barrier and ideas can be passed around the world in a matter of seconds. The entrepreneur movement understands that the world is becoming smaller and connecting with every corner of it has benefits, both personally, and professionally.

We are also coming to a place in history where we need to solve some of the greatest challenges to secure our existence, as global warming continues to threaten where we can live, the food we can produce and the water we need to survive. We will need to come together globally and make significant change.

The recent heatwave in the UK and wildfires in France, Spain and Greece show that we cannot continue to live with blinkers on. Global warming is real and now is the time to act. We have the technology and global reach to do this. The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a great place to start and by solving these issues, one by one, we will see a fairer, more sustainable future for generations to come.

So, in all of this advancement, where can we look for the next elite entrepreneur who is going to bring the next big idea to fruition? Obviously, no one has a crystal ball, and we can’t predict exactly where they will show up but a good place to look is an entrepreneurial network that champions advancing technologies, a supportive network, and lifelong learning. These features combined will help any budding entrepreneur reach the top and catapult their world-changing idea to the forefront of the global media.

I am excited for Society 5.0 and to be witness to the bigger, bolder ideas, that through advancing tech, will help to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges and I am looking forward to (hopefully) shaking hands with that talented individual.