Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and I was reflecting on some of the things I’m thankful for when doing business everyday. Of course I’m thankful for the great people I work with, my family for putting up with me and for all the customers that I can help. But I’m also thankful all the technology I use.
Sometimes using technology can be a real headache, especially when something doesn’t work and you have a deadline in 5 minutes. But most of the time, I’m amazed at how well things work. I remember the old days before using a computer, but I can’t think how we actually got things done.
We all use technology to work and play and a lot of it has made life easier. In many ways it’s given me more time to do what matters in my business. Here are a few people and things I’m thankful for that make business easier.
- Charles Babbage for creating a machine that lead to the modern computer.
- Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce for inventing the microchip.
- Dr. H. Edward Roberts for inventing the first general purpose microcomputer.
- Xerox PARC for developing the first windows system and mouse.
- Tim Berners-Lee for inventing the Internet.
- The Google Chrome browser for being fast and just working on my Windows and Mac systems.
- Carbonite cloud backup for saving my life almost every week.
- Dropbox for making it so easy to share files in the blink of an eye.
- YouTube for letting me share videos with anyone.
- Freshbooks for making it so easy to record my time and expenses.
- Fasoo for keeping my documents safe and secure.
- The MacBook Pro trackpad.
- Twitter for letting me get a quick pulse on the world and what interests me.
- Facebook for letting me engage customers and interesting people.
- Skype for letting me talk to my business partners from anywhere.
- SMS and IM for all the quick things I need to get done.
- David Meerman Scott for helping me remember to write in English so that anyone can understand.
- Hubspot for teaching me that Inbound Marketing really works.
- Steve Jobs for showing me how to cut to the chase in a presentation.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and let me know what you are thankful for.
Photo credit Lauren Manning
