Lets look back a mere 40 years. In 1977, we didn’t even have the internet. We didn’t have electric cars. We didn’t have “low cost airlines”. We didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t even have a CD player! There are so many things that we did not have that it could take a full day just to list them into a single post. That said we’ll highlight every reason to believe this is the greatest time to be alive. We cannot come up with a single solid reason to go back in time to “live in the past” because every single day gets better and better.
Information
This is the #1 reason to us. Information can be obtained in less than five seconds. If you have a smartphone or access to a computer (even at a *free* library) you can learn about any topic in the world. You can learn about sports, stocks, automobiles, fitness, technology, dieting, etc. All the information is already on the web and it requires $0 to obtain since you can access this information by walking into a public library.
Obtaining Information: Since we’ve started with getting things you need, we can see that obtaining information is quite easy. There are websites and blogs today run by people with decades of experience. In addition, they don’t even receive a high number of page views. If a regular person wants to feel good for a moment he can simply search for “motivational speech/website” and get pumped up for nothing. If a smart person wants to learn how to sell, that is also available in a simple search as well. There is no barrier to obtaining information today.
Sending Information: Sending information is now free as well. If you wanted to tell your closest friends about a new investment? You had to either use a telephone or send physical mail. Now? You can simply go into the internet and click send from an email address. Free. Sending large documents was once costly, and is now completely free as well. If you wanted to send a 2,000 page report to someone… You would be forced to use standard mail. Now? You simply send it as an attachment. There are zero barriers to sending information today.
Storing Information: For those that worked in investment banking… Can you imagine going to a physical Data room versus a secure internet based data room? Well… That is exactly how it was done in the past. To obtain SEC filings they had to be sent in the mail. Documents were stored in physical storage containers. It is simply unbelievable to see how much has changed. There are zero barriers to storing sensitive information.
Securing Information: Even for the cynics out there, we don’t see any barrier to securing information as well. If someone absolutely needed to write a document and secure it forever, that can be done with a basic computer. Never connect the device to the internet, write the document, place it on a USB stick and delete the document (destroying the computer as well). No one needs to go to this level of extremity, however it can be done. There are zero barriers to securing information.
Accurate Information: With a little bit of intelligence, you can be certain that the information you are obtaining is also accurate. Why? Only go for information that can be tested and proven. While going for nothing but *proven* information, you’ll never get a *material* edge on the competition, you can build a fundamental baseline of skills. This is an incredible advantage. 95% of people want to be entertained so they will spend their time getting information related to pop culture and “feelings”… They will consume millions of stories about making money that give no practice advice. You on the other hand? With a few clicks you can build baseline skills for practically anything… for free. There are zero barriers to obtaining accurate information.
Conclusion: For free. We cannot stress this enough. For Free. You can obtain, send, store and secure information. In addition, with a little bit of intelligence you can see if the information is accurate or mumbo jumbo used to attract the masses. This section alone makes today the greatest time in history to be alive. All of these things used to cost real money. But it gets better.
Making Money
Anyone can make money if they simply want to try. If someone cannot make money today, they are saying quite literally: “I have no skills and am unwilling to acquire any”. Even if someone is located on a mountain in a remote part of the United States… All they need is an internet connection. After obtaining an Internet connection they can offer services to people in wealthy parts of the United States. These basic services can include cooking, cleaning and fitness training. They don’t even need to be there before they obtain their new line of work. How much does it cost to travel across the entire country? About $200 by train. While this is an example of the extreme low-end… lets look at more logical examples.
Internet Customers: It can cost $100,000 to start a brick and mortar (commercial real estate can get expensive). With that $100,000… You could buy millions of entrants to your website! Depending on the cost per click (what region you’re targeting) you could get well over 1 million visitors in a day for the same price. Lets think about that scale for a second. How long would it take to get 1 million visitors into a single brick and mortar? A Year? A decade?! We don’t even want to know because we’ll never get into that business. Ever.
No Barriers: How much does it cost to sell someone else’s product? $0. That is right. With a few clicks on a computer screen you can start selling someone else’s product today. You don’t even need to own the product or be on their staff! All it takes is a few clicks and typing information into a computer screen. This means you can have two income streams with lightning quickness. Not only that but if you’re smart, you can buy a few accounts and make sure none of the sales are linked physically to you (unnecessary, but for those uninterested in fame/publicity it can be done).
Shift in Business: We’ve moved on from two industries in less than 5-6 years. Lets think about that for a second. In just 5-6 years there have been *two* business shifts. You can start with a career on Wall Street, shift into online sales and shift into selling your own product within less than 5-6 years. Can you imagine trying to do this in 1977? “Hi, I’m going to sell Jewelry to women after 5 years of being an automobile mechanic”… Back then people would laugh at you. Today? Not so much because you could begin this process *while* you’re still fixing cars to keep the lights on and the bills paid.
Honey Pots: There are two ways to make good money: 1) go where the money is or 2) go where the money will be in the future. If you go where the honey pot is today, it may not be there in a 10 years. But. You can absolutely put some money away to get your neck well above water. Once your neck is above water you can then spend all your time focusing on where the money will go. Finally, if you’re brilliant, you’ll know where the money is going to go. We all know what that means. Use what is making money *now* to fund new projects… where the money will go. Back in 1977? Information was consolidated into special groups and it was difficult to get up to speed.
Acquisition Prices are Low: Put a dollar in and get a dollar back within a year… The rest will be profit. If you told someone this back in 1977, someone like Warren Buffet would buy it with millions of dollars before anyone had the chance. The funny thing? This is happening right now. You can buy e-commerce companies that are poorly run for 1-2 times earnings and get your money back within a year (the remaining pure profit). You don’t need a million bucks, you don’t even need $100,000. What do you need? Information… Which is free!
Services Through the Roof: Lets take the final item, the “low-end”. If someone doesn’t want to do anything listed above. They don’t want to work in a career. They don’t want to start a business. They don’t want to make a lot of money, they just want to get by. The answer? Move to where rich people live. Rich people do not want to feel an ounce of “discomfort” in any way. Offer a service. This can be babysitting, cooking, fitness help, etc. By targeting the wealthy, you’ll earn a median wage with relative ease.
Investing: We now have access to *practically* any type of investment project we like. If you’re interested in private real estate deals? That is available to you right now with no need to be an institutional investor. If you want to invest in the entire S&P 500… that can be done now. If you want to buy options? That can be done with a few clicks. So on and so forth. Oh and one last thing… it can be done for a few dollars with thin spreads (Anyone else remember when stock prices were listed in newspapers with numbers such as 1/8? We do.)
Conclusion: Everything that is needed to make money can be acquired for significantly smaller prices. You can obtain the information for free. Start the company for a fraction of the cost. Acquire customers for nickels and dimes. Run multiple businesses at the same time. Start a new one without dropping the ball on your current project and worst case scenario? Offer a service to keep the lights on.
Health
Time and health are the most valuable items in our lives. Better health gets you more time and time is the only thing that you can never get back (money comes and goes but you can always get it back). All that said, it is third in this list because it was possible to live a healthy life 40 years ago as well.
Technology: With advances in technology we are living longer. Since we can use a computer to make money, our bodies last longer. In addition, healthcare technology continues to get better. Surgeries are more accurate and the medicines being created today continue to be more and more potent solving more and more issues. Overall? Technology has helped improve our healthcare system.
Data and Analytics: With more information on longevity, we can now come up with our own conclusions on how to live longer. We have information on the life expectancy by country (take a look below)
This means we can go ahead and make some broad conclusions. As you travel the world (undoubtedly you will or already have), take some mental notes on the life styles of the people in each country. Use this to create a basic “mosaic” of the keys to a long life. Are the people happy? What do they typically eat? How do they exercise? How much rest do they get? Are they physically bigger, smaller, taller or shorter. So on and so forth. Can you imagine trying to get this information 40 years ago…. We don’t even know where we would begin.
Access to Equipment: Obtaining a gym membership can cost you a grand total of ~$1 a day. While it can certainly cost more, if you simply need access to all the equipment necessary to train without buying it all (thousands of dollars) you can do so for about a dollar a day. By the time you’re done, using all of the equipment for a few short years (lets say you spent $1,000), your body will see a parabolic improvement. If we wanted to do this 40 years ago, exercise equipment was difficult to access.
Personal Life
It does not matter what your interests are. You could be interested in cats and dogs. You could be interested in making money. And. You could be interested in fiction books. With the internet you can easily connect to someone with the same interests as you.
The Other Side of the Screen: While everyone assumes that the “other person” writing comments, blog posts, forum posts etc. “must be a loser” this is simply not the case. If you provide high quality information on a topic, people in the *know* will immediately reach out to you. It is simply not possible to have 3.2 billion people connected to the internet and have 99% of them be “losers”. In fact, several readers of this blog have already figured out what industries we left (we have left two so far in just five years!). Why? They simply read the blog posts.
What does this mean from a social perspective? It means that there is no real barrier to meeting new people. You can find someone who lives in Chicago even if you live in Rome. The person in Chicago can then click on Skype and call you to discuss a topic you’re both interested in. Naturally, no one *needs* to do this, however it is possible with the internet. As you can imagine, we don’t recommend socializing on the Internet, but… it can be done.
Live Information: There is no need for a relay of information. Those days are long gone. A news report seen “Tonight at 6pm” is typically old news. You can now receive information *from the source* as it happens with a simple click of a button. Why would you take information from someone who spent 2-4 hours to decide how it should be displayed when you can see it live right now? It doesn’t make much sense.
From a personal life/social perspective, you can now obtain accurate information real-time and dissect the meaning yourself. No need for an intermediary anymore.
Concluding Remarks: This post was written in less than an hour. We’re not saying it was done intelligently, but we are saying there are too many reasons to list. We could probably write for 5 hours and not even scratch the surface! If there are more reasons to add please leave them in the comments.
