The World in 2030: Why No One Is Ready for What's Coming

92 million jobs displaced by 2030. That's the number everyone's throwing around now. I hear it and I don't panic — I'm not really the panic type — but I also can't unhear it.

The weird part is that nobody's actually responding to it like it matters.

Universities are having the same conversations they were having five years ago. High schools are pushing the same pathways. Parents are still saying "get good grades, go to college, everything will work out." And I'm 17, so I should probably just nod and keep my head down. But I can't, because the math doesn't work anymore.

What We're Actually Looking At

It's not that jobs are disappearing. It's that the jobs disappearing are the ones people trained for five years ago. By the time you graduate from college in 2028 or 2030, the skills you spent four years learning might be partially irrelevant already.

AI isn't something that will happen later. It's happening now. I can use it to write code. I can use it to design things. I can use it to draft emails and analyze data. And I'm 17 — I have access to the same tools that professional engineers use. The difference between me and someone who got their computer science degree three years ago is basically just time. Maybe not even that.

Universities move in four-year cycles. A freshman in 2024 graduates in 2028. The curriculum they're on was designed to train people for 2024 jobs. By the time they graduate, they're not behind one year. They're behind in capability and adaptability. They learned specific skills instead of how to learn new skills fast.

That's not a complaint about universities. It's just math.

The Generation Problem

My generation — Gen Z, whatever — we're the first generation where the useful skills are changing while we're learning. Not after we graduate. While we're in it.

And the system doesn't know how to handle that.

A kid starting college right now might spend four years mastering frameworks or languages that are already being made obsolete. Or they might go to a trade school and learn something that AI hasn't touched yet. Or they might start working and learning simultaneously, staying adaptable instead of locking in.

The scary part isn't the 92 million number. It's that most people are ignoring it.

I've watched my dad navigate his career, and he did it by staying curious and adaptable. He didn't just take a job and do the same thing for 40 years. He learned new things. He moved when it made sense. He stayed useful because he was paying attention. But the pressure on my generation is way different. We can't afford to be static in a job. We have to be learning constantly.

What I Actually Think We Should Be Doing

Stop pushing teenagers to commit to a four-year plan when the world is moving in two-year cycles. That's not anti-education. I love learning. I read a ton. I'm teaching myself things all the time. But I'm doing it in sprints, not in a locked schedule.

Skills matter more than credentials now. You can prove what you can do. You don't need a degree that says you can do it if you can actually do it. That's not a radical idea — it's just true right now in tech and design and a bunch of other fields.

Stay adaptable. Learn the fundamentals — actual thinking, problem-solving, how to learn — not just the specific tools that are popular today. Those change. The ability to adapt doesn't.

Build something. Anything. Get feedback. Learn what fails and why. That matters more than a 4.0 GPA and a degree in something that's changing shape while you're still in school.

The Real Talk

I'm not telling everyone to skip college. My dad went to Boston College and he's great at what he does. But he also knew why he was going. He had a plan. He was moving toward something specific, not just doing what everyone told him to do.

For my generation, the question is different. It's not "what degree should I get?" It's "what do I need to be valuable and adaptable in 2030?" Those are different questions.

And the answer might be college. Or it might be six months of focused learning and then jumping into work. Or it might be a combination nobody's really figured out yet.

But waiting five years for a degree when the job market is moving in six-month cycles? That feels like a bet I'm not willing to make.

The 92 million number is real. The change is real. What's not real yet is a system that's actually responding to it. Until one exists, I'm figuring out what skills matter, learning them fast, and staying ready for the next thing.

Because 2030 is coming fast, and we're not ready for it yet.

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In our house, we're fixing that. Malakai and Lucas are learning about assets, cash flow, and investing right now — at 16 and 14. We're working through real numbers, real budgets, real conversations about money. Not theory. Not a chapter in a textbook. The actual mechanics of building wealth.

When your kid understands money before they leave the house, you've given them something no school ever will.

2. Sales and Communication

Applying for a job? You're selling yourself. Asking someone on a date? Sales. Pitching a business idea, negotiating a raise, convincing your kid to eat vegetables — it's all persuasion and communication.

But school teaches you to sit quietly, raise your hand, and wait to be called on. That's not communication. That's compliance.

I learned to sell out of necessity. When I was building my real estate business, nobody was going to hand me clients. I had to learn how to talk to people, how to listen, how to present value, and how to handle rejection. Books like How to Win Friends and Influence People taught me more about human interaction than four years of college courses combined.

Now we're teaching our boys the same thing. We're building a podcast together, and that's where the real communication training happens. When you have to sit across from someone, ask the right questions, hold a real conversation, and put it out for the world to hear — that's a different level of growth. It's uncomfortable at first. It's supposed to be. That discomfort is where growth lives. And every time they do it, they get a little sharper, a little more confident, and a little more prepared for the real world.

3. Discipline and Health

School teaches you to follow a schedule someone else made. That's not discipline. That's obedience.

Real discipline is waking up early because you have a mission, not because a bell told you to. It's choosing to work out when you don't feel like it. It's putting down the phone and doing the hard thing when every part of your brain is telling you to take the easy route.

And health — physical and mental — is the foundation everything else is built on. You can have all the money in the world, but if your body breaks down, none of it matters.

This is personal for me. Building a business with my brother and sister taught me that mental and emotional health aren't luxuries — they're necessities. Stress, anxiety, burnout — these are the things that destroy people, and nobody in school ever teaches you how to manage them.

4. Problem-Solving and Adaptability

School gives you a problem with one right answer. Life gives you problems with no clear answer at all.

When the real estate market collapsed in 2008 and I lost everything, there was no textbook for that. No study guide. No professor to ask. I had to figure it out — adapt, learn new skills, find a new path forward. That ability to pivot and problem-solve under pressure is what eventually led to building a successful business from the ground up.

The world is changing faster than it ever has. AI is rewriting entire industries. The jobs that exist today might not exist in four years. In a world like that, the most valuable skill isn't what you know — it's how fast you can learn something new.

We're raising our kids to be problem-solvers, not test-takers. When something goes wrong with a project or a plan, we don't hand them the answer. We let them sit in the discomfort, work through it, and figure it out. That's how you build people who can handle anything life throws at them.

5. Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence

This might be the most underrated skill on the list. And school doesn't come close to teaching it.

Self-awareness is knowing what triggers you, what motivates you, what your strengths are and where your blind spots live. Emotional intelligence is the ability to read a room, manage your emotions under pressure, and connect with people on a human level.

These are the skills that determine the quality of your relationships, your leadership ability, and ultimately, your happiness. And you won't find them in any curriculum.

Malakai experienced this firsthand at Tony Robbins' Unleash the Power Within. Being in that room, surrounded by people doing deep personal work, he started to understand himself in a way that no classroom could have given him. He came back different — more aware, more intentional, more grounded.

As a family, we prioritize processing emotions, managing stress, and staying clear-headed. It's not something most 16-year-olds are doing. But most 16-year-olds aren't being prepared for the world that's actually coming.

The Real Curriculum

Here's what I believe: the five skills listed above — financial literacy, sales and communication, discipline and health, problem-solving, and self-awareness — are more valuable than any degree you can hang on a wall.

If you're a parent, you don't have to wait for the school system to catch up. You can start teaching these things at home, right now, today. A book. A conversation. A real-world challenge. That's all it takes to start.

If you're a young person reading this — pay attention to the skills that actually move the needle. Not the ones that earn you a grade, but the ones that earn you a life.