There's no question that we need to plan for the future, in our personal lives, in our businesses, and as a community, too. A generation of baby-boomers is creeping up on retirement age, and very few of us have the financial and personal planning we need! The business world and the computer/data processing industry are looking at a crisis of obsolete and malfunctioning programs when the clock ticks over into the year 2000, and we don't know if there will be time enough to install all the fixes we need. Corporations and institutions are still buying hardware to meet today's needs, when it is clear that the next few years will bring increasing demands on system resources. The person who considers the future and prepares by investing a little more and spotting the trends will be the winner, while the unprepared fall behind.
When you try to project into the future, though, you can't just focus on the obstacles and problems that might arise. Negative thinking never got anybody anywhere. One of my staff always tackles a new project by bringing up everything that could possibly go wrong with it; I ask her why she's being so negative, and she says, "Oh, I'm not saying that we can't do it! We can probably do it very well!" She doesn't even realize that she's being such a gloomy gus and making it sound impossible. I couldn't get any new clients if I went out and told them all the things I thought could go wrong with their projects!
I think the key is to look at where you are now, project where you want to be, and try to outline reasonable steps to get from point A to point B. Maybe you are late in preparing for the year 2000, or in saving for your retirement years, but the important thing is to not let that stop you from taking action now. We'll never be totally prepared for the challenges and surprises of the future, but we have to face it with our eyes and ears open, ready to jump on new opportunities.