IF YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY, IT'S PROBABLY WRONG

BY: Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame

As a professional speaker, I'm often called on to address the topic of change. One of the most quotable sources alive today is that great Italian philosopher Berra… Yogi Berra. He once said: "The trouble with the future is it ain't what it used to be." Indeed, change is constant.

For instance, if you were one in a million people, in China there would be 1,300 people like you. China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world.

The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is greater than the total of the entire population of the United States. India has more honor kids than America has kids. You have to chuckle at those bumper stickers that say "My child is in the top half of the class at Lakeview Elementary School." Well, my child made it possible.

Did you know that the top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004? We're preparing kids for jobs that do not exists using technology that is yet to be invented to solve problems we don't even have yet.

If your kid is in a two year technical school, the knowledge that he or she would gain in year one would be completely obsolete by the time that child graduates. More than ever, continuing education is the hallmark of real growth. Knowledge, like bananas and tomatoes, has a short shelf life. This is why an organization like Toastmasters is so important.

Today's college graduates will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38 according to the US Department of Labor. One in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year. One in two for less than five years.

Perhaps you were one of the eight couples that met on-line last year. It beats bar-hopping and is at least a bit more scientific.

Did you know that myspace.com subscribers totaled over 200 million last year alone? If myspace.com were a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world between Indonesia and Brazil.

You'd think that the United States is on the cutting edge for broadband penetration. Wrong! Bermuda leads the world in broadband penetration. The US is only 19th.

In 2006, there were 2 billion hits on Google. In 2007, that number skyrocketed to 31 billion. What ever happened "B-G" (before Google)? How did we get answers to important questions before Google?

The first text message was sent in December of 1992. During the next 24 hours, the number of text messages that will be sent will exceed the entire population of the planet.

It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people. It took television 13 years. It took the internet just four years. It took IPod three years. Facebook did it in two years. In 1984 there were a thousand internet devices on the planet. In 1992, that zoomed to a million. Today, there are over a trillion.

There are over 540,000 words in the English language, five times as many as in Shakespeare's day. A week's worth of information in the New York Times is equivalent to more information than someone who lived in the 18th century would have had in their lifetime.

By 2013, super computers will exceed the computation capabilities of the human brain. By 2049, the equivalent of a thousand dollar computer (today's value) will exceed the capabilities of the entire human species.

In the next hour, 67 babies will be born in the United States, 274 in China and 375 in India. Scientist Edward O. Wilson once said, "The key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life -- for 8 billion or more people -- without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt."

Yogi was right. "The trouble with the future is it ain't what it used to be." In short, you can't leap a twenty foot chasm in two ten foot leaps. Charles Kettering, the grand old man of General Motors who held over 300 patents, once said "If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong." I wonder what Mr. Kettering would think about the way the automobile industry has failed to keep up with change. He's got to be doing flips in his grave!