If you DON'T yet have a computer in your home... you very well may have one within a year or two! They're REALLY coming down in price and getting easy to operate. You probably see computers being used by kids, in many different kinds of ads! You may have even thought about getting one, to keep track of your family income, to help you do your taxes, etc.

It's been estimated that over 50,000,000 (that's 50 million) of us have at least ONE computer in our home! Many others have video games hooked up to their TVs.  A large majority of us have state-of-the-art CD-ROM's, cellular phones, Satellite TV's, and the list goes on and on! We're becoming very "technologically minded!"

While sitting in a small coffee shop a few weeks ago, I heard the ring of a cellular phone. I looked to the next table and there was a fellow in his overalls (he looked like someone who just came into town from his farm for lunch) and he pulls a cellular phone out of his back pocket, raises the antennae and starts talking to one of his neighbors!

You might NOT yet have a modem, a fax machine, or fax-on-demand capabilities, but you might very well have ALL those things within a year or two from now! The same with having your own home page on the Internet... if you don't have one right now, you may have one within the next year!

Not too long ago, some people predicted (and they were laughed at) that: "most everyone will soon have a television set in their home!" (Have you been in a home lately that didn't have one?) Some homes have two or three TV Sets!

At the current rate of technology, it wouldn't surprise me that very soon "most families will have a tele-communications center in their home!" (Yes, that's my prediction!) You'll probably have a TV set... with a video recorder and computer, all hooked up next to it... with a telephone, modem and fax machine, all connected together! You'll be able to dial out and connect with other members of your family, over the phone lines... and (possibly) be able to SEE whom you're talking to, on your computer or TV screen!

Many people will be able to dial up most any location; download various kinds of information and/or software they wish, at no cost; access nearly any available data base; order things over the computer and phone lines; do work at home and send it in electronically to their work place! Some people are even now doing just that!

I work in a Print Shop and people come to me with needs for all kinds of printing: business cards, letterheads, brochures, newsletters, booklets, etc. I see their names & their phone numbers; their Fax numbers; their pager numbers; their e-mail addresses and seeing those things tells me they are "connected" to their community, to their state and to the rest of the world! Most people are reaching out and touching other people they've never met before, and some of them NEVER WILL meet face-to-face the people they're now doing business with!

There is a vast number of people working from their homes, selling their products through the mails; over their phone lines to other people over the Internet (the World Wide Web). Just imagine what this means: We soon won't have to drive to different places as much any more.  Most things we need can be ordered and we'll have it sent to our homes.  This will mean less traffic on the highways, and very little rush hour commuting; this will bring us all closer together, as families.  It will introduce us to people we never would have met otherwise.  Racial tensions and other barriers will drop. The advantages are many!!

I recently met some people who live in Australia, and never left my home in Oregon! I'm "reaching out and touching people" and making friends with people I've never met, and, the neat thing is, I'm not pre-judging them because of their speech, the way they look, the way they dress, etc. I accept them all as "my new friends" only I met them through my modem and computer hook-up!

Some of you might be thinking, "Gary's been hanging around Dr. Jeffrey Lant too much..." but, I don't think that's bad. Maybe you could benefit from a little MORE contact with people like Dr. Lant, Robert Sullivan (of "The Small Business Advisor") Richard Soos (of "The Electronic Money Tree") and too many others for me to name them all! Why not check into The Internet? If you don't yet have a computer; modem or a fax machine, ask some questions.  Do some research. Contact some of the people I've mentioned! Start hanging around with them! Maybe some of their success will rub off on you!!