Time is a weird thing. A tie-your-brain-into-knots thing. Incomprehensible.

Take this "now": You are reading this for the first time. That "now".

N o w.

This now will he will be forever gone - after you read this sentence.

Poof! That's it - gone.

We are now in another (next), now. You can never, ever, in all eternity, read the previous paragraphs again for the first time. You can read the next paragraph for the first time to repeat the experiment (in the future), but the past is gone.

Feel those seconds tick by? Tick - Gone. Tock - Gone. Tick - Gone.

The present flowing into the past like a huge, silent, unstoppable river - oblivious to our presence.

We can't change the past or exert any influence on it whatsoever. It's gone - like Elvis, sideburns and drive ins.

We can ONLY act in the present.

Not in the past and not in the future. Only now.

Then there is the future: The actions we take in the now determine what the future holds for us. Life is a really, really big and a really, really complicated system - so although unexpected things happen, we mostly shape our own futures - by our own actions.

Hey, if you knew the garage Microsoft in 1979 would be THE Microsoft it is today, I guess you would have looked up ol'e William and offered him a limb (or two) in exchange for a percent or two of his company, right? If you could and you did, you'd be hilariously rich, swinging in a hammock on a tropical island being fed peeled grapes...not here reading this silly blog.

A little advance insider knowledge is a good thing - as long as you are the only person that has it. I mean, if everyone knew about Microsoft back then, then ol'e Bill would have been less keen to trade a percentage or two of the company, not so?

Worse, if you (and I) were the only people who did NOT know, we'd be in a spot of bother, wouldn't we? We'd be the village idiots, right? They'd tell jokes about us for years.

Therein lies the crux: Exclusive access to scarce information can be a huge advantage if used to determine your future; BUT: ignorance of public information makes you the bud of life's joke. And disagreeably poor.

Knowing the future and not acting? Well, gentle reader, that's just weapons grade stupid.

I don't have a hot tip for this weekend's lotto (aka tax on the mathematically impaired), but I do know a few things that will have an impact on your business life for the next year or so.

My business is helping other businesses use the Internet, so it's natural that my focus would be on the Internet. You might think that the Internet does not (yet) directly touch you or your business, but you'd be dead wrong. It's like saying that because you are not in the power generation industry electricity does not matter to your business.

The Internet is the electricity of the 21st century. It touches e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Remember: time is a funny thing. You can't change the past and you can only shape the future in this now.

What I am about to tell you is common knowledge. You have to apply the common sense.

Here is what is headed your way:

1) The 2010 FIFA world cup is coming to South Africa next year. Billions op people around the world will hear about South Africa. Hundreds of millions of those will look for information about South Africa. A million or two visitors will come here to look for accommodation, entertainment, information, services and products.

2) New undersea Internet cables will start going live in June 2009, multiplying the international bandwidth South Africans have access to and drastically reducing the cost. Millions of South Africans and thousands of businesses will get on the Internet for the first time. (If some miscreant with a snorkel doesn't try to steal the cable.)

3) Major new national networks are being built between the major South African cities and will come online before the end of the year - to make the South African Internet faster and cheaper than ever before.

4) All new cell phones will have web browsers within the next 2 years and cellular data charges will be as little as cents per MB - making millions of cell phone users instantly able to use email and (well designed) web sites.

You probably know all these things.

Big, huge events. You probably think it's way above your head. In another league.

It depends. Would you have bought Microsoft shares in 1979?

Did you carefully consider how these imminent events can benefit your business or your career?

Are you acting on your advance knowledge?