The future is free

I have received many emails from colleagues this week about their impending layoff. Many of these people have been with their organizations for ten and twenty years. They are some of the most talented people I know, and have decades left of valuable work to offer the world.

So where are they going?

It may not feel like this at first, but they are being set free. Not free, as in free-range chickens, where all your food and shelter is provided, but free as in “released into the wild.” Available to form new organizations, able to contribute in unheard of ways, electronically, in person, part-time, for custom projects, for ONE-NIGHT-ONLY! The opportunities are endless. The insecurity as well.

You know what else will be free? Office space. Retail space. Homes in the suburbs.

A quick statistic: The United States has more than 20 square feet of retail space per person, according to Shopping Centers Today.

Italy has 1.1 square feet per person, and still manages to drink fantastic wine and provide charming shoes to all of its female citizens. They make Ferraris and biotech and electronics and they somehow only require 5% of the retail space that Americans have built.

The retail space, like the suburban homes they were supposed to serve, will come crashing down in price over the next two years. Space, particularly ugly space, will be virtually free.

2011: You want to own your own basketball court? Fine. Thinking of starting a university? It’ll probably be feasible. Want to open a roller rink/flea market, but never could find the space? No problem.

These times will be scary for certain, but maybe even exhilerating as well. People and space are going to be freed. What will you build out of it?