Time...Is It There?

Time...Is It There?

   Time...we each seem to view it differently whether it's the rush to work or gazing over the lake during a lake.  The beginning of time, the end of time, does time exist?  To the world of technology, speed is of the essence and we seem to have been swept into its swirl.  Computers now do computations in the quadrillions (did we even use that word 20 years ago?), storage is in petabytes (a quadrillion bytes...in 2009, Bell Labs successfully transmitted 100 petabytes per second) and fiber optic cables (used for the Bell Labs transmission) now transmit at 99.7% the speed of light, all on a cable that's 1/25 the size of a human hair.

   Amazing, eh?  But too often, this accelerating swirl leaves us looking back, at old friends, old goals, sometimes even old dreams...things we can understand.  Yet time can work for us equally well, stretching out indefinitely as in cherishing a new love, or growing up, or simply watching a beautiful sunset.  Years ago, Alan Parsons reflected on this in his award-winning album, I Robot.  In his song, Day After Day, he encapsulated his view of time and growing older: Gaze at the sky and picture a memory of days in your life, you knew what it meant to be happy and free with time on your side...
Think of a boy with the stars in his eyes, longing to reach them but frightened to try.  Sadly you'd say someday, someday...but day after day the show must go on, and time slipped away before you could build any castles in Spain...the chance had gone by.


   Jason Fried, a successful software company founder for the past 10 years wrote a business article in this month's issue of INC.* in which he asks three simple questions.  His first question was What's Important?  "I immediately started to think about what I would miss most if it were taken away from me," he wrote.  "Material stuff fell way down to the bottom of the list, and people and relationships rose to the top."  To the next question, What Should Be the Same, he answered, "These answers focused mostly on the basics, things such as being polite, honest, and straightforward."  And to the last question, What Needs to Change? he replied, "...as I typed, I noticed a common theme emerging: The things that will have to change in the next five years are all the ones we're especially comfortable with today."  His article was directed at those looking ahead for their businesses but could easily apply to our everyday lives.

   The pressures and future appointments remain, but so do our old friends, old goals and possibly our old dreams.  As hesitant as we are, it is never too late.  Time, that awesome, incomprehensible entity (possibly of our own making), stands before us as a child waiting only for our decision.  As Lao-Tzu once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." 

   To those just beginning to explore their future --or past-- a universal wish for a pleasant voyage of discovery!

*For those of you tired of reading about excessively paid CEOs and wondering how on earth you'll get your dream off the ground and why can't there be articles about ordinary folks...well, maybe check out INC. magazine.  Glimpses of business owners are usually no longer than a single page and ofter they reveal many of the frustrations beginning entrepreneurs face.  The current issue might prove especially hopeful if you're just starting out, for on page 45 is a survey of 500 CEOs talking about their first 12 months starting and running a business...and the answers might surprise you.  In the survey, you'll hear why they began and why they stuck with it, what their biggest mistake was starting out, when they paid themselves, did they begin in their home or immediately rent an office, how many hours they put in at the start and many, many more...so go start your dream!  You'll discover that you are definitely NOT alone.