今后8个月，这五大趋势值得关注

如果你能战略性地追逐当下最聪明的想法，公司和职业生涯都会因此获益。

模仿大自然

不在产品中整合自然界那些最好的创意，你就相当于放弃唾手可得的金钱。仿生学如今大行其道。正如《创新启示：大自然激发的灵感与创意》（The Shark’s Paintbrush）的作者、企业家杰伊•哈曼所说，那些有远见的公司正在着力推出展现自然界创意的精致产品。其中包括模仿河马防护汗液（无异味）的防晒油、模仿鲨鱼皮抗菌性能的医院墙面涂料等。大自然已经为我们解决了很多问题，为什么不利用它们呢？

拥抱人工智能

不要再担心被机器人取代了，想想怎么利用人工智能（AI）发展你的公司吧。即使是小型公司也能从线上服务得到帮助。寻找使用人工智能的供应商，往往是获取这种技术性价比最高的方法。例如。如果你想购买客户关系管理软件，就去找这个方向的供应商。与此同时关注低成本的产品，比如Grid，这家公司可以为中小型企业提供人工智能驱动的网站，价格最低只要96美元。

加入学习圈

比起坐在传统教室或利用笔记本的网络课程，大多数人通过目标统一的学习小组可以学到更多东西。与其一个人学习，不如在今年试试自主学习小组，比如Circles（circl.es）。它让学习目标相同的一小群人相聚在私人视频聊天室内——把读书俱乐部最大的优点带入了数字时代。

与最优秀的人为伍

如果你想要提高水平，就要与头脑出众的人在一起。但普通人参加的集会里，你没有机会碰到顶尖人士。在Genius X这个只有申请才可能加入的社交圈中，用户需要支付10万美元才得以参加每年三次的会议。创始人乔•波里什表示：“我们希望他们的投入能得到十倍的回报。”如果有机会投资去参加真正能帮你实现目标的活动，为什么要浪费钱去那些普通的团体或会议呢？

抛弃退休的想法

别再计划职业生涯结束以后做什么了，想办法根据自己的情况延长它。即将出版的著作Living Your Legacy的作者约翰•安德森表示：“你人生的后半段会比前半段更具意义、更有收获、更加富足。”年过五十的人创建的公司比年轻人更多，其中很多都是退休后创立的，还有些人会回到之前的公司做兼职。如果你能找到新的途径继续利用你的所学并培养下一代，那么你的未来会更加激情四射。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Your business and career will benefit if you strategically pursue the smartest of today’s ideas.

Mimic Mother Nature

If you’re not incorporating the most brilliant ideas from the natural world into what you sell, you’re leaving money on the table. Biomimicry is now going mainstream. Forward-looking companies are releasing ingenious products that mirror innovations found in nature, as entrepreneur Jay Harman, author of The Shark’s Paintbrush, points out. They range from sunscreen that replicates hippos’ protective sweat (sans the odor) to hospital wall coatings that emulate sharkskin’s antimicrobial properties. Nature has already solved many problems for us; why not take advantage of that?

Embrace Artificial Intelligence

Quit worrying about getting replaced by robots and figure out how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to grow your business. Services are coming online that can help even modest-size companies. Finding suppliers who use AI is often the most cost-effective way to get access to the technology. If you’re shopping for CRM software, for instance, look for a provider that is heading down this road. And keep an eye out for low-cost options like the Grid, which creates AI-driven websites that design themselves for small and midsize businesses, starting at $96.

Join a Learning Circle

Most of us absorb far more when seated in a circle of peers who are studying the same thing than from the rows of a traditional classroom or while poring over an online course on our laptops. Instead of going it alone, make this the year you try a self-directed learning group like Circles (at circl.es). It brings together small gatherings of people who want to learn the same thing in private videochat rooms—taking the best features of book clubs into the digital era.

Mix With the Best

Surrounding yourself with great minds is critical if you want to raise your game. But you won’t brush up against top people at the gatherings mere mortals attend. At Genius X, a by-application-only network whose participants pay $100,000 to attend three meetings a year, founder Joe Polish says, “We want them to get a 10x return on their investment.” Why waste money on mediocre groups and conferences when you can invest in one great one that will really help you achieve your goals?

Retire the Idea of Retirement

Stop planning what you’ll do when your career ends and figure out how to continue it—on your own terms. “The second half of your life can be more fulfilling, more rewarding, and richer than the first half,” says John Anderson, author of the upcoming book Living Your Legacy. People over 50 are launching more businesses than their younger peers, and many corporate types are boomeranging out of retirement and back to their former firms to work part-time. Your future will be far more exciting if you find new ways to keep building on what you have learned and nurture the next generation .