Last year, one of my favorite people and longtime clients, Jan, passed away at age 92. She was a beautiful and generous person, with a great sense of humor, and a heart for helping others. I was blessed and honored to be able to serve her and her husband for so long, and I am happy to be able to continue serving their children today.
During the memorial service, the pastor put a fork on the pulpit as she was speaking. She said that when she was a little girl and dinner plates were being cleared away, the best words she could hear from her mom were, “You can keep your fork”, which meant that good, sweet things were still to come.
Source: Rochester Christian Church
Today we are going to use the phrase “You can keep your fork” as a metaphor to discuss a few of the amazing things that have happened over the last 50 years as well as some things that should give us hope for the future. I felt that amid all the negative news, noise, and geopolitical events going on in the world we needed an optimistic perspective that could give us hope towards what I believe could be an abundant future.
In June 1970, the world was glued to their TV sets, watching three American astronauts attempt to fly their damaged spacecraft around the moon and return safely back to Earth. In my opinion, the story of the Apollo 13 mission is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, showing what can be accomplished under pressure with human ingenuity.
Rachel knows that every time Ron Howard’s movie, Apollo 13 is on we will stay tuned. Watching NASA scientists use slide rules and basic replicas of what the astronauts had in their space capsule to bring three astronauts home safely is inspiring…every time I watch it.
Source: Amazon.com
Source: Apple.com
What is more amazing is that the smartphone you may be reading this on now has more computing power than was available in all of NASA Mission Control that you see portrayed in the movie. If you had tried to explain to a NASA engineer in 1970 that within the next 50 years, he or she would be able to hold in their hand the search functions, the massive computing power, the flashlight, the calculator, the music, the camera, and the video capabilities that you now possess, they would not have been able to understand or imagine what all of us take for granted today.
You can keep your fork!
Additionally, in 1970, just under 1/2 of the world’s population of 3.6 billion people lived in extreme poverty as measured by the World Bank. During much of the next 20 years, there were huge fears that a growing population would put extreme stress and pressure on our natural resources. It was assumed that we would have massive starvation, as we would not be able to adequately grow enough food to feed our quickly growing human population.
However, in 2018, the number of people living in poverty was down to 9%. The world population in 2018 was approximately 7.7 billion people. This means that approximately 700 million people worldwide still live in poverty, a number that is still way too high but is shrinking. However, this is just a fraction of the people who lived in poverty in 1970. If you had told most scientists in 1970 that the world population would more than double over the next 50 years while the number of people living in poverty would drop by more than 60%, they would not have been able to comprehend it.
Source: Our World in Data
You can keep your fork!!
The Brookings Institute now projects that in the 10 years between 2020 and 2030, approximately 1.6 billion people will move into the middle class in the emerging markets. We know that as people move up the financial ladder and as access to healthcare, retail choices, and even basics of living, such as food and electricity become commonplace, people tend to like this and want more of it. This could potentially unleash massive spending and economic global growth going forward.
You can keep your fork!
In 1440, Gutenberg’s printing press made it possible to manufacture large numbers of books for relatively low cost. This unleashed access to information and created educational opportunities that moved the world forward. This allowed poorer and less educated people to become part of the conversation, and the opportunities of the future.
Similarly, the personal computer and the internet have done the same for billions of people around the globe over the last 40 years. Over the next 10 years, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, will likely do the same for several billion people around the world who do not have access to low-cost Internet today. What will happen when two billion additional people are added to our conversations and can help create potential solutions for the future? It is staggering to think about.
Source: EIS Academy
You can keep your fork!!
We can also look to advances in agriculture, manufacturing, and especially healthcare, where genomic studies, stem cell treatments, biomedical engineering, and AI could potentially increase healthy life expectancy by 10 to 20 years, or longer, for our children and grandchildren. This will also have massive implications for things such as work, life, and retirement savings.
You can keep your fork!
In today’s 24-hour negative news cycle, it is sometimes easy to only see the negative and not have an abundance mentality. However, when you look at just a few of the things above and extrapolate what this could mean for the future, my goal was to give you a little bit of optimism to offset the negative we are bombarded with daily. I thought this was an important message to share with you, our trusted friends and clients, as we continue “Moving Life Forward”, and yes, you can keep your fork!!
© 2023 Jesse Hurst