“I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy. We can live in a world that we design.” — from the Greatest Showman

Marc Andreessen’s call to arms — It’s Time to Build is a powerful manifesto for a more ambitious future. If you haven’t read it already, you should.

Marc closes his post by asking what ideas people have for building breakthroughs. I can’t think of a better voice to pose this question since he catapulted us into the Internet age two and a half decades ago when he built the first web browser and server.

But we also need tools for how to do this.

I would like to share the best method I have found: Backcasting.

The future doesn’t happen to us; it happens because of us

The future is not like the weather. It doesn’t just happen. People make the future. It’s not a destiny or hope; it’s a decision.

Steve Jobs didn’t “discover” a market need for smartphones or tablets: He designed the category and taught us how to think about it.

Elon Musk did the same with electric cars and commercial space travel.

So, how do legendary people make the future? How can you be a legendary builder of a breakthrough idea? That’s where Backcasting comes in.