Monday Morning Mojo: Ride or Get Run Over!

By Tom Tognoli, COO & Founder
, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

When you woke up this morning, were you fired up and excited to improve…find a way to do it different…do it better…be innovative…change? So many people fight it…trying to stay the same and play it safe because things are okay and it’s working…they don’t want to rock the boat, take risks, and ruin a good thing.  Unfortunately, if you don’t look for a better way…trying to improve everyday, you will wake up one day and everything around you will have changed and it will be too late…it will seem like it happened overnight without warning and what caused your success in the past, both personally and professionally, will be the cause of your demise.

Change is an exciting thing.

When you just let go and don’t fight it the opportunities are endless and everything will just flow…if you resist and fight, you are in for a battle filled with disappointments and hard work that don’t produce much of anything.  It is like standing on a railroad track trying to stop a train going 100 mph…you just can’t do it…its not possible.  So, you can jump on the train and enjoy the ride, or get run over…it’s your choice.

Embrace change…take risks…work on getting better…work on improving yourself in all areas of your life and business every day.  The world is changing around you every minute of every day whether you change or not.  So, you can stay the same, falling behind and become more vulnerable…or change and experience the possibilities.  Don’t fight it…EMBRACE IT!!!

Check this out…it will boggle your mind, I know it did mine.

The Year 1905 
- What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the year 1905:

• The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
• Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
• Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
• A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
• There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
• With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
• The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
• The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,  a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
• More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
• Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education.
• Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as “substandard.”
• Sugar cost four cents a pound.
• Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
• Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
• Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1) Pneumonia and influenza 
2) Tuberculosis 
3) Diarrhea
4) Heart disease 
5) Stroke
• The American flag had 45 stars. 
Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet.
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• Two out of every ten U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.
• Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. 
Back then pharmacist said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”  (Shocking!)
• Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

And I forwarded this from someone else to nearly 10,000 people, and sent it to all of you in a matter of seconds! 
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years…or the next 1 to 10 years (because things happen exponentially, the changes are coming faster and faster everyday) 

It staggers the mind.