Jim Carroll: The Futurist Who Knows Your Industry

The Futurist Who Knows Your Industry. 

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Books
by Jim Carroll

 

 

 

The writing life of a futurist

Ideas for
what comes next.

For your business. For your leadership.
For the person you are becoming.

More than three decades of writing about change — from the arrival of the Internet to the courage to begin again.

Explore the booksVisit books.jimcarroll.com →
INNOVATIONLEADERSHIPRESILIENCEREINVENTION
The Courage to Become book cover — Jim Carroll

Forthcoming · November 2026

The Courage
to Become

251 Thoughts for Recovery, Resilience
and a Better Tomorrow

One day at a time. One thought at a time. One life slowly rebuilt.

In August 2016 Jim Carroll changed the trajectory of his future. One month later, he began writing a short Daily Inspiration every morning. What started as a way to find structure, clarity and hope became a ten-year journey of 2,582 posts about resilience, courage, failure, growth and possibility.

He was writing for others. But he was also writing for himself. The Courage to Become gathers 251 of the most personal and powerful thoughts from that journey. They helped carry Jim forward. Maybe one of them will arrive on exactly the day you need it.

“You don’t reinvent yourself at the moment of crisis. You reinvent yourself in the ordinary mornings that follow it.”

The current collection

Change your perspective.
Then change what happens.

Books to challenge familiar assumptions, create momentum and help you see possibility where others see obstacles. Each one has its own website: visit it to go deeper.

Being Unique book cover — Jim CarrollORIGINALITY

Released July 1, 2026

Being Unique

Why the Rebels, the Odd Ones Out, and the Crazy Ones Always Win!

When everyone has access to the same extraordinary tools, your difference becomes your advantage. A book about curiosity, imagination and the courage to stand apart.

Blending real-world insight with powerful storytelling, Jim explores the traits that define truly unique individuals — from cognitive flexibility to creative courage, from adaptive resilience to intuitive recognition. Through the lens of rebels, visionaries and change-makers like David Bowie, Grace Hopper and Richard Feynman, readers are shown how to develop a mindset that doesn’t just navigate change, but thrives on it.

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Visit the book site unique.jimcarroll.com → Read a free sample chapter
Dancing in the Rain book cover — Jim CarrollRESILIENCE

Released June 20, 2025

Dancing in the Rain

How Bold Leaders Grow Stronger in Stormy Times

Uncertainty is here to stay. Discover how bold leaders find opportunity inside disruption, build momentum and keep moving while the storm is still unfolding.

Drawing from decades of experience advising world-class organizations, Jim unpacks what successful companies do differently when crisis hits. Rather than retreat, they refocus. Instead of freezing, they move fast. This isn’t just a book about surviving recessions. It’s a blueprint for growing through them.

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Visit the book site dancing.jimcarroll.com →
Escaping Mediocrity book cover — Jim CarrollACTION

Now in print

Escaping Mediocrity

How to Accelerate Your Future and Achieve Breakthrough Results

Build the habits that move you forward. Recognize the patterns holding you back, then replace them with action. A practical challenge to think bigger, move faster and make progress a daily habit.

In a world addicted to playing it safe, Escaping Mediocrity is a no-nonsense guide to breaking free from the habits, fears and false comforts that keep us stuck. Whether you’re stuck in a rut, leading a team through change, or simply tired of “good enough,” it will challenge your thinking, stretch your ambition and kick-start your momentum.

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Visit the book site mediocrity.jimcarroll.com →
Embracing Mediocrity book cover — Jim CarrollTHE WAKE-UP CALL

A satirical teambuilding book

Embracing Mediocrity

How to Do Nothing Notable and Accomplish As Little as Possible!

A sharp look at the art of staying stuck. A satirical mirror for the excuses, routines and comfortable assumptions that keep people and organizations from becoming what they could be.

Finally, a book that celebrates the art of doing just enough to get by! (It’s actually a brilliant teambuilding book.) It catalogs every self-defeating behaviour and limiting belief you’ve ever entertained, and in doing so helps you chart your course in the opposite direction.

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Visit the book site mediocrity.jimcarroll.com →

Outside Canada and the US? Most of these books are also available from Amazon stores worldwide.

READ THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN THEM

One warns you.
One pushes you.

Embracing Mediocrity and Escaping Mediocrity belong together: recognize the habits that keep you stuck, then start building the ones that move you forward.

Discover the two-book collection

The innovation library

Think bigger.
Move sooner.

The books that take accelerating change off the horizon and bring it into the decisions you make today. See them all at books.jimcarroll.com →

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast book cover — Jim Carroll

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast

Stories from the Stage on Innovation, Disruption and the Accelerating Future

Turn ambition into experiments. Turn experiments into momentum. The book captures the insight and guidance Jim developed from 25 years of speaking and appearing on stage around the world — a story of inspiration, observation and transformation for anyone navigating an increasingly complex and ever faster world.

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Now What? book cover — Jim Carroll

Now What?

Reinvention and the Role of Optimism in Finding Your New Future

Reinvention surrounds us. It is inherent to our future, fundamental to our success, and a pathway to our actions. But how do you achieve it? Jim looks at reinvention from a personal, business and societal perspective: the mindset of those who have reinvented successfully, and the bold actions that must be pursued.

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The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast book cover — Jim Carroll

The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast

The best of the insight from JimCarroll.com

Creativity, innovation and future trends, drawn from more than 1,000 blog entries. As Jim writes in the introduction, “the pace of change that we have seen in the last few years is not going to slow down – the future does truly belong to those who are fast.”

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Ready, Set, Done book cover — Jim Carroll

Ready, Set, Done

How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast

Put the future into motion through innovation and action. A book to help you think differently about your strategy, goals, opportunities and methods of innovating, built around velocity, agility, innovation and the activity you should start now.

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What I Learned from Frogs in Texas book cover — Jim Carroll

What I Learned from Frogs in Texas

Saving Your Skin With Forward Thinking Innovation

“If they don’t get off that road, there is going to be a big problem and it’s going to be ugly!” With that quirky observation, Jim captures the challenge organizations face: anticipate the trends that will affect you, become decisive, and build a culture that sees change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

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Surviving the Information Age book cover — Jim Carroll

Surviving the Information Age

1997 · Still available

Long before today’s always-on world, Jim was exploring what it means to live and work amid an accelerating flood of information.

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Outside Canada and the US? Most of these books are also available from Amazon stores worldwide.

Before the future became obvious

The Internet was new.
So was the bookshelf.

In 1994, most people were still discovering what the Internet was. Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead were already writing about what it could become — starting with The Canadian Internet Handbook, Canada’s number-one nonfiction bestseller.

1994The connected world starts here.
34Books co-authored with Rick Broadhead.
1.5mCopies sold across those books.

The full publishing story, the Internet-years archive and every current title live at the Jim Carroll Books site.

Visit books.jimcarroll.com →

Oblio Press · Established 2004

Independent ideas.
A shared undertaking.

Founded by Jim and Christa Carroll, Oblio Press brings the same partnership to each book: ideas, editorial care, creative direction and a determination to get meaningful work into readers’ hands.

Books for a team or event?

Ask about bulk orders, signed copies and books to accompany a keynote or leadership discussion.

Discuss an order

A Daily Inspiration Quote from Jim Carroll. "Motivational insight and trends observations to start your day"

VIEW MORE QUOTES
Definitions: Core • Deep Dive I • Deep Dive II
Series: 2026 • Megatrends • Forward • Tomorrow