History makes it abundantly clear that those who are first able to recognize and take advantage of the “age” in which they live tend to obtain enormous riches as a result. Many people spend their lives working as wage slaves because they are unable to recognize the “age” in which they live, to take advantage of the advances made in technology in order to better their lives and the lives of others. For example, most experts agree that the Information Age started during the 1980s, and has continued to grow in prominence with the rise of the Internet in the 1990s.
The dawn of the Information Age brought about the introduction of computers, and then the Internet, to the world. However, most people didn't recognize these changes, and even fewer people took advantage of them. However, most of us are familiar with the people who did. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Sergei Brin, and Lawrence Page are just a few of the people who were able to take advantage of the new technology and age, becoming billionaires within a relatively short period of time. Bill Gates became the world's richest man because he realized that computers would revolutionize the world, and people would need a user friendly operating system in order to be more productive.
Steve Jobs also became a billionaire because he was right behind Bill Gates, building the Mac OS, another user friendly operating system that took the world by storm. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, became a billionaire because he was able to capitalize on the idea of the Internet affiliate program early in the 1990s, at a time when most people didn't even have access to the Internet. Sergei Brin and Lawrence Page, founders of Google, became billionaires by their mid 30s because they constructed the Google search engine, which would allow people around the world to quickly and easily find what they are looking for, as well as their Adsense/Adwords platform, which revolutionized pay per click advertising.
All these individuals became enormously wealthy for one simple reason, and this reason is that they were able to recognize and revolutionize the “age” in which they lived. No matter what age humanity has passed through in its history, whether it is the Iron Age, Bronze Age, Industrial Age, or Information Age, those individuals who are best able to adapt to understand the age in which they live will become rich. However, just the same, many empires throughout history, both world empires and financial empires, have fallen when the “age” changed and they were unable to adapt.
In most cases, a new upstart who was able to take advantage of this new age would supplant the current power holders who gained their wealth during the previous age. But the question everyone reading this book must ask themselves is in what age do they live? To some, this question may sound a bit foolish, since it is obvious that we all live in the same age, the Information Age. However, just because you “live” in the Information Age doesn't mean that you “live in it.” What I mean by this statement is that the age in which you live is based on the manner in which your income is generated, not the age that the world itself lives in.
Most people today, even those who have cell phones, Internet access, and high definition televisions, actually still live in the Industrial Age. The reason I make this argument is because most people derive their income from a job, where they work for someone else for a hourly wage. The concept of working for someone else for an hourly age is a concept that came about during the Industrial Age. As far as the Information Age is concerned, it is an outdated idea. During the Industrial Age, getting a nice, safe, secure job working for someone else was a very good idea, in fact, much of the World War 2 generation became wealthy as a result of this formula.
At the time, going to college to get an advanced degree in a field that made lots of money was smart, because once you graduated, you were almost guaranteed a safe secure job where you would get a monthly pension plan for the rest of your life once you retired. The World War 2 generation didn't have to worry about ERISA, high inflation, outsourcing, in-sourcing, or any of those things. Employees who worked for prominent companies were often employees for life, and if they worked their way up the corporate ladder, perhaps they could become vice president or even the CEO of the firm.
The problem with this picture is that it is greatly outdated. ERISA, outsourcing, and in-sourcing are here, and fewer companies than ever are offering their employees a long term pension plan. What this clearly means is that those people who continue to “live” in the Industrial Age, earning their income in the old fashioned way, are ultimately doomed to failure and decline in the face of global technological change. To become rich, it is time to evolve, and this means that you need to evolve into the Information Age. That is precisely what this book is about.