9-1-10 100 Years of Life

My great aunt Mildred celebrated her 100th birthday a few days ago. That’s her, on the right, in the picture below. Also in the picture? Her “baby sister” and brother-in-law. Baby sister. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, eh?

Anyway, her birthday celebration got me to thinking about the change she has seen in her hundred years of life. In no particular order, here are some things that were invented in the last 100 years:

Refrigerators
Zippers (and then, of course, Velcro)
ATMs
Corn flakes
Phones (land lines, then cordless, and now cell and satellite phones)
Razors (they used to be called safety razors. Guess they ARE a lot safer than a straight razor!)
Television
Band-aids
Scotch tape (and thankfully, Post-It notes)
A-bomb
Contact lenses
Cars
Airplanes
And my favorite? Computers!

Yep, there has been a lot of change in the last 100 years. You can imagine that the executive of 100, or even 50 years ago, had a whole different set of problems and challenges to deal with. Their ability to adapt to all the change probably took on a true life or death aspect that those of us in today’s business environment can only imagine.

I guess that it doesn’t really matter what era you are from -- there will always be change. Some good, some bad. But at least you will never lack for opportunities to adapt.

Cheers!