Trends exist whether you see them or not and one of the best ways to look at the importance of trends is related to something Steve Jobs once said, ‘’You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. ’ The interpretation could be to examine past trends, add in variables of people and markets and future trends, and you just might be able to create an innovative product or service. As current or future entrepreneurs, you really need to look for and track trends as you might be raising money, hiring people and building a company that has the potential to rise along with the trends. The key is to understand that there are multiple trends happening at the same time. Some are macro trends which might span entire industries, marketplaces or even people. Some are micro trends. An example would be electric vehicles. A micro trend inside that industry could be the rise of autonomous software. The pet care industry sells more dogs to a Millennial marketplace waiting to have children and here comes organic dog food and pet insurance. And so on. The good news is that you can learn how to spot trends and create your own ‘set of dots’ that give you insights into rising macro trends and possible micro opportunities to create next generation startups. Here are several insights to help you better spot and analyze trends. Understand the difference between trends and fads. Trends have long deep legs and can last a long time. Think smartphones and laptop computers, perhaps even farm to table food. Fads appear for short periods of time and then disappear. They may actually reappear several years later for another generation. Think tie dye t-shirts and bell bottom jeans. Don’t confuse the two. It’s very hard to build a company on a fad. Macro trends can be global. If you see macro trends in computing, healthcare, climate, food or even entertainment in the United States, chances are those macro trends exist all around the world in varying degrees. What’s interesting for entrepreneurs, is that it might actually be easier to create the startup company in a place where the trend is moving early and fast with little competition. So, pay attention to where trends surface and if that region just might provide a competitive advantage. For every macro trend, there are multiple micro trends. While the pandemic was not really a trend, it did create a huge work from home macro trend which fueled several micro trends like buying more web cameras for Zoom meetings and chairs for home offices. It also accelerated the food delivery trend. Believe it or not, masks were actually a fad as they have now greatly receded. If you invested and built a mask factory in 2020, you probably made some great short-term revenue but that factory sits idle today. Follow real leaders and not influencers. This one will be a challenge for Millennials and Gen Z who seems to get their ‘news and insights’ from social media and influencers. The problem with that is that the information is only new for a brief period of time in the now and does not really look forward into the future. Plus most influencers are not experts. You have to cultivate better information sources and start to create a ‘leaders’ list of people you follow (not as influencers but as experts) as they are building forward leaning companies or have always known when to pivot their company to be successful. And when you do create your leaders list, read everything about them, read all their interviews, any books about them, listen to them in earnings reports, set up Google Alerts on them and their companies, even their competition. Everyone has an opinion, so follow the data. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. One thing you can do is to surround yourself with experts in an industry you care about. Care about dogs? Then cultivate company leaders from pet food, pet care, pet healthcare, pet kennels and even a veterinarian or two. Know what’s happening in the industry from several sources to give you insights on what comes next. Second, no matter what anyone says, follow the data. If someone says something, don’t believe it; verify it yourself. The cool thing about data is that it does not lie. It just is. Listen to what customers are saying. Quite a few entrepreneurs who get too close to their product or service like to believe they are the customer. That is, they think they know exactly what the customer wants. Know this, you are not the customer and the while the customer may not always be right, they are never wrong. Never wrong as in not buying your product or service if they are not convinced of the benefits. So, spend time in customer forums online, listen to social media chat and complaints, read reviews, and if you can, visit customer environments and observe them as they purchase or trial products. You can never have too much personal customer insight. Read a lot of trend reports. The Internet is a beautiful thing . Search for ‘Gen Z’ and you might get industry or trend reports from McKinsey, Deloitte, E & Y, Statista, and so on. Why would you want to create your own data or shout out your opinion when these powerful reports contain so much good data, trend insights and future projections? These types of reports are your friend. They don’t always have the exact answer you are looking for but they substantiate or eliminate the noise you might be hearing. And by linking several sources of reputable information, you might be connecting your own dots to give you valuable insights which could lead to an amazing startup. .