1.

Dedication

To all of my friends and partners at OnlineBusinessAlliance.

You are a powerful force for good in this world, and

I’m proud to know you and honored to be working with you.

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful.

Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening,

ever-ascending, ever-improving path.

You know you will never get to the end of the journey.

But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy

and glory of the climb.” Sir Winston Churchill

2.

The Future.

Who can honestly say they've never wondered what the future holds?

How often have you found yourself thinking that if you could just see what tomorrow will bring, you could make better decisions today?

That's what this ebook is all about. We're going to spend some time examining trends and projecting them into the future so that we can see tomorrow more clearly... and make better decisions today.

To begin with, we need to establish some guidelines. For example, we're not going to go into personal details here. You won't find anything about meeting a handsome stranger or going on a long voyage. You won't find (many) dates, and you may need to "adjust" this information to make it applicable to your age, personal circumstances, and even the country where you live.

However, even considering those limitations, I sincerely believe that you'll find enough information here to give you a much better view of what the future has in store, and what you can do to prepare (and protect) yourself and your family.

3.

Trends.

Trends represent our most reliable means by which to look forward.

By examining the changes around us... as well as what drives those changes... we can begin to see the influence those changes are having and will have in the future.

Here's an example...

In the 1960's I was able to buy gasoline at retail for as little as $0.09 (9 cents) per gallon. If you happen to live in Argentina today, you can still buy gas for well below $0.20 (20 cents) per gallon, but the rest of the world is struggling under the burden of ever-increasing fuel costs. As I write this, the average retail price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the U.S. is $2.69.

That represents a 40-year upward trend in the price of gasoline. We can look at that and reasonably predict that fuel prices will continue to rise.

BUT... we can also look at that trend and reasonably predict that as the price of gas continues to rise, more research dollars will go into the development of alternative fuels. We can see a short-term reduction in the size and weight of cars to allow for better gas mileage. We can see a short-term increase in the use of mass transportation systems. We can see the development of a new fuel storage and delivery infrastructure to support alternative fuels.

And we can also predict that more and more people will be telecommuting... working from home.

So just by looking at that one simple trend... ever-increasing fuel prices... we can part the curtain ever so slightly and see what life will be like ten or twenty or thirty years from now.

What other trends should we be looking at? Consider the following...

4.

Globalization.

There is a growing trend towards globalization of the world's labor force. For years we've seen the effects of manufacturing facilities being relocated from countries and regions where labor is more expensive to areas where labor is less expensive. The resulting savings in production costs are often considerable and not only serve to increase stockholder's dividends, but also allow the products to be sold for less... thereby achieving a significant price advantage over competitive products.

Such advantages don't come without a price, however. Here's just one example.

Galesburg is a small town in central Illinois. For three generations, working at the refrigerator factory owned by Maytag was considered the best job in the area. Workers and managers were paid a fair wage and the benefits and security made it that much better.

Then one day in early December the announcement came that Maytag had made the decision to relocate their refrigerator production facilities from Galesburg to Reynoso, Mexico.

Within the span of three minutes, over 1,600 people saw their careers vanish and area home values plummet by an estimated 50%.

Galesburg, a sleepy little farm community with one major employer... Maytag... couldn't possibly absorb so many unemployed people. The regular "Help Wanted" ads for the local Wal-Mart or McDonald's only made the reality seem even more desperate.

Over 1,000 families would have to leave their homes in Galesburg and start over somewhere else.

5.

Decent, hard working people who woke up that morning with a good job, equity in their home, and a comfortable retirement somewhere down the road went to bed that night in debt... wondering how they'd be able to start over when they couldn't even sell their home for what they owed so they could leave town in search of other work. Their only choice would be to abandon their home, forfeit the equity they had worked so long for, suffer through the foreclosure and bankruptcy, and begin again at the bottom somewhere else... with no savings, damaged credit, and what little they could protect from creditors.

Is what happened to the Maytag workers at Galesburg unique? Far from it. Globalization has cost millions of jobs in thousands of cities.

And if you think it's only manufacturing jobs, think again.

Commercial airlines owned by American companies and operated in the United States commonly fly their planes to the Philippines for routine maintenance.

I purchased a post card from a gift store near Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, Illinois. On the front was a beautiful picture of Lincoln's Tomb. On the back were the words "Printed in Sweden".

And it's getting worse.

6.

New technologies have made it possible for companies to have many different kinds of jobs done literally anywhere on the planet.

If you have a question concerning your checking account at Bank of America, your phone call will be answered by someone in Pakistan.

If you get an X-ray at your local hospital, the technician who reads your X-ray is probably in Russia.

McDonald's is experimenting with "outsourcing" the order-taking process at its drive-thru's... that's right, when you order a hamburger and fries you could be talking to someone sitting in India who will relay your order back to the very building you're looking at.

Why? In each of those examples, and thousands more, the answer is always the same... because someone somewhere else can do it for less.

How will globalization affect you and your family in the future? That depends.

If you live in an industrialized nation where labor costs are relatively high, you can expect to see even more job losses and a reduction in wages over the coming decades.

If you are living in a country with a very low cost of labor, you could experience short-term gains in employment opportunities and wage levels as more and more jobs are located in your community.

Short-term gains? Yes. Why? Because there are over 1.3 billion people living in China and they're learning to manufacture everything. They're learning to do everything. And they get paid pennies per day. Can your local labor force match that?

7.

In fact, some workers in China get paid nothing. Not long ago the world was introduced to a young woman who had escaped from a Chinese slave factory where she was enslaved for six years making the strings of colored lights that you and I use to decorate our homes during the Christmas holidays. Can your local labor force match the cost of slave labor?

That's why Mexico is losing jobs to China.

So the facts are clear. Whether you live in a country where the cost of labor is high or you live in a country where the cost of labor is low, either you, or your children, or your grandchildren will see the tragedy that is being caused by globalization.

And the sinister aspect of globalization is that as more and more jobs are lost to cheaper labor markets... local wages fall and unemployment rises... increasing the demand for low priced goods and services... forcing more goods and services to be provided by the cheapest labor on the planet... and eliminating even more jobs. It's a classic self-feeding downward spiral.

Don't believe me? Just go stand outside your local Super Wal-Mart store and watch the people going in and coming out with every kind of item imaginable. Do those people look wealthy to you? Probably not. More than likely they're middle-class working people who need to take advantage of Wal-Mart's low prices so they can stretch a paycheck from this Friday to next.

Now think about this... 93% of the items on Wal-Mart's shelves are made in China. The biggest company in America... bigger than GM or GE or AT&T... with sales in excess of $1 billion per DAY... is nothing more than a massive outlet store for Chinese manufacturers.

So... looking at the globalization trend, we can reasonably predict that China will become the manufacturing center for the world, as well as the primary provider of many services that can be outsourced as a result of technological advances.

8.

Class Polarization.

As jobs of all kinds gravitate away from high-cost labor markets toward low-cost labor markets, many wage earners are forced into lower paying jobs.

Many of these lower paying jobs are now being outsourced (remember the drive-thru at McDonald's) resulting in workers being forced from lower-paying jobs into minimum wage jobs.

At the same time the upper class is becoming wealthier as a result of greater profits due to reduced labor costs, and the gap between the "working poor" and the wealthy continues to widen.

Not convinced? When Sam Walton died, five of his heirs became five of the ten wealthiest people in the world... yet Wal-Mart was cited recently for hiring illegal immigrant workers at below minimum wages.

Not convinced? Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, yet Microsoft is outsourcing thousands of programming jobs to low-cost labor markets in other countries.

Still not convinced? In 1980 the average salary for a corporate CEO was 40 times the average of all salaries in the company. Today it's over 400 times the average of all salaries in the company.

Still not convinced? Remember Galesburg? Remember what happened to 1,600 middle class workers in the blink of an eye? What do you suppose happened to Maytag's profits when they replaced people making $12 per hour with people making $2.85 per day? Do you think the CEO might have earned a bonus? Do you think his stock options might have increased in value? Just one more case... out of thousands of cases... of the middle class moving downward and the upper class moving upward.

The result is a "polarization" of the classes where the middle class is slowly disappearing and the lower class is growing.

9.

And polarization of the classes is not restricted to incomes alone. It shows up everywhere you look.

While there may be a few isolated exceptions, here are just a few examples...

1.) Education. Wealthy people have the best private schools for their children and send their children to the finest private colleges.

2.) Healthcare. Did you know that TODAY there are companies who recruit the finest doctors for their wealthy clients? These companies charge their clients a "subscription" of thousands of dollars each year so that they and their families won't have to wait their turn in crowded waiting rooms and schedule check-ups in advance. Their subscription assures immediate access to the best doctors, staff, facilities, and treatment that modern medicine has to offer.

3.) Safety. Wealthy people live in safer neighborhoods, drive safer cars, and enjoy better police protection than poor people.

4.) Food. Wealthy people can afford better food and generally enjoy the health benefits of better nutrition.

5.) Justice. As much as we'd like to think otherwise, the ability to hire a top-flight attorney can often be the difference between guilty and not guilty.

6.) Government. Wealthy people can (and do) influence those who make and enforce our laws. Poor people cannot.

Polarization of the classes... and the elimination of the middle class... is obvious and accelerating.

Are you one of those middle-class workers struggling to make ends meet?

10.

An Aging Population.

The Baby Boomers. You've heard the term, but do you really understand what it means?

At the end of World War II, millions of troops returned from active duty, got married, and started families. Consequently, during the eighteen years between 1946 and 1964, over a billion people were born worldwide. They make up the largest generation in the history of mankind.

Every significant economic trend in the past 60 years has been the direct result of the demands of this single massive generation.

During the '50's and '60's, companies such as Gerber, Buster Brown, and Mattel became billion dollar corporations providing baby food, children's shoes, and toys to infant Baby Boomers.

The most successful car ever... the Ford Mustang... was introduced as the first wave of Baby Boomers got their driver's licenses in the early '60's.

The housing boom of the '70's and ‘80’s was fueled by the Baby Boomers' demand for new homes.

As the Baby Boomers had families the automotive industry responded with the introduction of the mini-van in the '80's and millions of mini-vans have been purchased every year since.

Side note: As Vice-President of Ford Motor Company, Lee Iacocca was responsible for the development of the Ford Mustang. Years later he became the CEO of Chrysler Corporation as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy... and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs by inventing the mini-van to meet the needs of the Baby Boomers and their growing families. Coincidence? Hardly. Lee Iacocca understood the purchasing power of the biggest generation in history and based his decisions on the effect their demands would have on his industry.

11.

This is your chance to consider the effects that same generation will have on your future.

Today the Baby Boomers are nearing retirement age. The older members of that generation are now 60 years old, and the youngest are 42.

That tells us that during the next 25 years the Baby Boomers... by far the biggest generation the world has ever seen... will leave the workforce and enter retirement. Twenty-five years from now they will be ages 67-85.

Imagine the tremendous strain on the healthcare system that will result from so many people aging at once. Even if every person retiring had adequate healthcare insurance or enough money to pay for services, just having the facilities and personnel needed to meet that challenge is a major source of concern. Experts agree that the sheer demand for healthcare services will exceed supply very soon, and when that happens there can be only one result... higher prices.

So what happens to all the middle-class workers who lost their retirement benefits and healthcare coverage when their factories were closed and relocated to a foreign country? What happens to those who were forced to take low paying or minimum wage jobs without benefits? How will they be able to pay for life-saving medical procedures that cost far more than they could possibly afford?

We're beginning to see the answers already. People without insurance are being turned away. Government healthcare plans are imposing limits on hospital stays. Company provided healthcare benefits are being reduced to control costs and the effects on individual patients are not positive.

12.

But what about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the "safety net" for America's workers?

If you've been paying attention at all, you can probably see the writing on the wall. While no politician wants to stand up and make the hard choices, hard choices will have to be made to save the Social Security system, if it can be saved at all.

Don't believe it? Consider this one fact and you may change your mind.

A retiree's Social Security benefits are paid from the taxes of those who are still working. That means the program's finances are based on the relationship between the number of workers paying taxes and the number of retirees receiving benefits.

Back in 1950, as the Baby Boom was just getting started, each retiree's benefit was divided among 16 workers. Today, that number has dropped to 3.3 workers per retiree. By 2025, it will reach about 2 workers per retiree... and when that happens each working married couple will have to pay for, in addition to their own family's expenses, all of the Social Security retirement benefits for one retiree.

How well are you positioned to compete for limited healthcare services as you and millions of other people get older and require a greater level of care?

Can you see how our aging population will impact you and your loved ones in the years to come?

13.

Overview.

Now step back and look at all three of those trends together and try to imagine what affect they'll have on you and your family as the coming years unfold.

If you're an employee... if you work for someone else and rely on a paycheck to provide for your family... your way of life is in danger. Those jobs that globalization can't touch directly will see wages fall as a result of more displaced workers who are willing to work for less money.

At a particular freight-handling facility I'm familiar with, employees today earn $8 per hour (NOT enough to support a family) for the exact same job that paid $15 per hour (barely enough to support a family) five years ago.

Would it surprise anyone to see those wages drop to $6 per hour five years from now as more and more workers lose their jobs to globalization?

What can we expect when two or three or even four incomes are not enough to provide the basic needs of a family?

And what kind of outlook is there for a decent retirement when there are only two workers for every retired person... and those two workers are each making $7 per hour with no benefits?

Can a society of "working poor" shoulder the burden of caring for the retirement of the biggest generation in history?

Or more importantly... will YOUR family be able to survive the economic pressures

of globalization, polarization of the classes, and an aging population?

14.

If you consider yourself "middle class" today, where will YOU end up when the middle class disappears?

Will you and your family be wealthy... or living in poverty?

Will your children or grandchildren struggle to learn in overcrowded, dilapidated schools where apathetic teachers earning minimum wage spend most of their time trying to prevent violence?

Or will they attend expensive private schools in bright, clean new classrooms where well-paid, highly-qualified teachers have access to everything they need to make learning fun and exciting?

Will your children or grandchildren be forced to wait for hours in some crowded hospital waiting room as a never-ending stream of sick and injured people file in, only to be turned away because you lack adequate healthcare benefits?

Or will they be instantly admitted into the best medical facilities and attended to by the best doctors and staff available anywhere?

Will your family go to bed every night to the sounds of gunshots and sirens in some housing project in a bad part of town?

Or will they wake each morning to the sounds of songbirds in a manicured garden outside your mansion?

Will you languish in some government-sponsored nursing home where the attendants earn minimum wage and residents routinely die from bedsores?

Or will you cherish your "Golden Years" as you travel and enjoy time with friends and family?

The answers to those questions depend on what YOU do TODAY.

15.

Perhaps you think I'm being overly pessimistic.

I'm not.

In fact, I'm not nearly powerful enough as a writer to be able to portray the vast physical, emotional, and psychological differences that will exist between a life of poverty and a life of wealth in the next few decades and beyond.

And besides, those are all "money problems".

I'd like to share with you one of my favorite sayings...

"There are two kinds of problems... those that money will solve

and those that money won't solve."

If I were to show you such a bleak future and not offer you a way to prepare yourself, THAT would be pessimistic, but that's not the case.

The fact is, there ARE some things you can do to prepare for the future and protect your family from a life of poverty.

Consider this...

"My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own.

I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze.

My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny."

Elaine Maxwell

16.

Read that again. Read it carefully again and again.

Because if you believe that, you have hope. If you truly believe that you have control over your life, over your future, then all is NOT lost and you can begin today to mold your future according to your will.

Once you have that concept chiseled into your consciousness and branded onto your soul, you'll find yourself in a position to do whatever is necessary to secure your future... YOUR future... the future YOU want... rather than settle for what's handed you.

And you'll be ready to look at a few more trends...

17.

The Internet.

Do you realize that you're living at a time of incredible change and opportunity?

Change always brings opportunity and the Internet is responsible for some of the most incredible changes in the history of mankind.

Perhaps you've heard the 21st Century referred to as "The Information Age". Information has always played an important role in human history, so why is it that information is just now moving to center stage?

Two reasons... computers and the Internet.

A computer is a powerful tool used to process information. If you unplug your computer from the Internet, you can still use it as a word processor, as a calculator, and to perform certain other programmable functions such as to balancing your checkbook or cataloging your collection of baseball cards.

But when you connect your computer to the Internet, it becomes something very different.

Just as your computer is a powerful tool used to process information, you can think of the Internet as the world's MOST powerful tool to gather, organize, archive, and distribute information.

The Internet... and the language of the Internet... enable millions upon millions of computers to instantly communicate with each other without regard for such physical barriers as mountain ranges, oceans, or vast distances.

That means that people can communicate freely without regard for barriers of time and space.

The exact same technology that's fueling globalization is opening doors for you that you may not even be aware of yet.

18.

To fully understand that potential, you must first realize that while the power of the Internet comes from its ability to connect people and manage information, the value of the Internet... the potential of the Internet... comes from the sheer number of people connected to the Internet.

If the Internet was limited to just you and your neighbor, there wouldn't be much value in it, would there? But with over a billion people connected to the Internet, it becomes VERY valuable.

Not only that, but it's growing faster than anything in the history of mankind. Recent studies indicate that the Internet is growing at the rate of 7 new users every second!

So... you have the most powerful tool ever invented and you can use that amazingly powerful new tool to communicate and share information with over a billion people all around the world.

The question is, what will you do with it?

19.

Network Marketing.

Whether you call it Network Marketing, MLM, or Direct Sales, a business model that allows a person to start and run a business from home with very little start-up cost, virtually no risk whatsoever, and huge income potential is just what you and millions of other people need... now and in the coming years.

In one form or another, Network Marketing has been around for over 60 years. It's withstood court challenges, charlatans, legitimate business failures, media bias, and the test of time... to emerge as what could be the ONLY remaining option for the average person to own, operate, build, and succeed in a business of his or her own.

For the vast majority of people, traditional "brick and mortar" businesses are simply out of reach. Most people are not in a position to sign over their house as collateral so they can borrow tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy or open a business... and then walk away from a career and a retirement to work 20-hour days in a business that may or may not succeed.

Network Marketing eliminates all the risks and pitfalls associated with traditional businesses.

To start a Network Marketing business, you don't need a huge business loan, so you don't have to risk losing your home.

You can keep your "day job" and build your business in your spare time.

Through sponsoring, you can leverage the time, efforts, and energies of many other people to grow your business without the headaches and expense of hiring employees.

Because you're able to keep your expenses very low and not give up your primary income, any additional income from your Network Marketing business can be used to pay off debts, fund special savings accounts (such as for education or retirement), or re-invest to make your business grow even faster.

20.

These are just a few of the many reasons why Network Marketing has become so popular with so many people just in the past few years.

And as Network Marketing becomes more popular among consumers, it also becomes more popular with manufacturers.

If you still associate Network Marketing with little-known companies that only sell household cleaners, vitamins, and make-up, you're in for a big surprise. Today hundreds of major companies utilize the Network Marketing business model to market many or even all of their products.

In fact, if we were to look at the Network Marketing trend it wouldn't be unreasonable to predict a time in the not too distant future when dollars are taken from advertising and instead funneled into pay plans designed to lure Network Marketers and their groups to use and promote products as diverse as groceries, home mortgages, insurance, travel, medicines, and many other products.

How would you like to get paid a small percentage every time anyone in your group of thousands buys groceries, makes a house or insurance payment, takes a vacation, fills a prescription, or makes some other normal, everyday purchase?

21.

But wait! Isn't Network Marketing basically a "flawed system"? Isn't it true that throughout the history of Network Marketing over 95% of the people who tried to build a successful business have failed? Why would we think that Network Marketing could achieve such success in the coming years when it has done so poorly in the past?

Here's the one-word answer... Internet.

Compare Network Marketing BEFORE the Internet to what Network Marketing is TODAY...

Before the Internet Today

People had to be able to sell. Most people hate to sell. The website does the selling.

People had to do the presentation. Most people hate speaking in public. The website does the presentation.

People had to get a babysitter ($$) and physically go ($$) to another person's home to present the business or to sell the products.

Nobody has to go anywhere.

Because of the time and money it took to travel to people's homes, most people were limited to promoting their business close to where they live.

The website is available to anyone anywhere in the world.

That usually meant talking to their friends, relatives, co-workers, and acquaintances... and that usually meant rejection.

Zero rejection. People either like what they see or leave the website.

Once they got past their friends, relatives, co-workers, and acquaintances... people had to learn how to approach strangers. Most people hate talking to strangers.

Nobody has to talk to anyone.

People had to spend time delivering products that had been shipped to their home and stored in their garage.

Products are delivered instantly over the Internet.

People who lived in a small town might reasonably feel that everyone in their town had already decided whether or not to participate in that business... local saturation.

No matter where a person lives, he can still put his website in front of millions of people around the world.

Training was generally done in person... meaning more time and money spent, and more public speaking.

Training is done entirely online.

The only time a person's business could grow is when he was talking with someone about his business or product.

The website works to build your business 24/7, whether you're sleeping, at work, or relaxing with your family.

On and on it goes. The Internet has completely eliminated everything about Network Marketing that people found distasteful, uncomfortable, inconvenient, costly, or limiting.

Not only that, but since everyone has access to the exact same website, the newest Member can be as effective in recruiting as a seasoned Member... practically right out of the gate!

As you look at it, you might be tempted to ask yourself, "Could Network Marketing over the Internet be the ideal business model?"

And the answer to that is a resounding YES!!!

Unless you're already wealthy, Network Marketing over the Internet is and will continue to be the BEST... and probably the ONLY... way to protect yourself and your family from a life of poverty in the future.

23.

Summary.

I hope this information will serve to help you understand that what you do today is far more important than you may have realized. I want you to understand that you have options... and that the options you choose are not just important to your future, but critical to your being able to provide an acceptable lifestyle for your family in a world where the cards are definitely stacked against people like you and me.

Do yourself a favor. Read this ebook again. Read it once a day until it really sinks in and you begin to feel the urgency. Read it over and over again until you have a burning desire to succeed, one that makes you begin each day with a renewed determination to raise your family up and place them among society's wealthy where they will have the security and safety that you want for them. Read it until YOUR desire for a brighter future burns so strong that others can sense it when you're near.

Then do something TODAY that moves you forward. Take one small step towards your success.

If you're not sure what you should do, login to your back office and read. Learn about your OBA business and the amazing opportunity you have as an OBA Affiliate to create a life-changing income.

Or login to the Affiliate Support Center and ask for advice. The ASC is a tremendously powerful resource for your business and unlike anything you've ever seen before. There you will meet honest, hard-working people from all over the world... people just like you... working to build a business capable of providing a higher level of income and security.

You have a computer. You have the Internet. You have an unlimited supply of products. You have the OBA Business Plan. You have the ASC. You have the AdSpace Lease Program. You have websites and banners and splash pages. You have the OBA AutoResponder.

You have EVERYTHING you need to succeed... IF you get started NOW!

24.

I have two more quotes for you. They are placed here to work together to reassure and to warn.

"The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time."

Abraham Lincoln

That means you have time! Time to build your OBA business! Time to succeed!

But be careful not to waste your time.

Don't become complacent and allow life to lull you to sleep.

Because even though The Future only comes one day at a time, it WILL get here.

And...

"When you're thirsty it's too late to dig a well." Japanese Proverb

Your friend and partner,

Dave

A Special Message from the Author http://www.obabooks.com/agit/specialmessage.php

(You must be connected to the Internet.)

25.