Every day I see tech-savvy people who are doing amazing things with cheap software tools, or even tools that are free. More people are in this group everyday.
If you don’t hang around tech-savvy people you aren’t privy to the growth rate, or —more importantly— you aren’t aware of which useful tech tools are cheap and free.
Your idea of “useful” and “cheap” are not their idea of useful and cheap. And that’s costing you a lot of time, money, and infuriation.
Here’s the thing: for any objective you are trying to achieve there is a cheap (or free) tool or service that will let you reach that objective. What’s missing is the knowledge.
If a cloud-storage service can help you backup data reliably without much fuss, and also allow you to access your data from anywhere, but you lack knowledge about it then you’re missing out.
The knowledge I’m talking about has several aspects. First, some people can’t acquire new tech knowledge because they are not comfortable using a tool until the rest of the world discovers it and uses it. Email was shunned by many people when it first arrived because they thought it was insecure, or tawdry. Ditto cellphones.
Even if you are willing to be intrepid (from a non tech-savvy perspective) you face the greatest hurdle. You don’t know how to connect the dots to figure how the new tech tool, and then get it to work in the way you want. You could pay someone to do this for you, but you don’t know enough tech people so you don’t even know about the people who provide this kind of service (hint: they’re not in the Yellow Pages or in traditional places that you’d tend to think of).
No, the bottom line is that the world has been turned upside down by cheap technology and cheap, but high bandwidth, internet. Now, if you know how to find, learn and use technology, you can get the tools for a ridiculously low price (did I mention it’s often free?). What you need to pay for (or acquire yourself) is the knowledge needed to find, learn and use the technology.
The tools can do many amazing things, but without the knowledge they don’t do that much, or they don’t do it reliably. If you find yourself struggling with technology ask yourself if maybe you need to find some help, or learn how to help yourself.
The world is moving faster now, and stragglers are being left behind. It’s sad, but that’s how life is. Especially life in a world dominated by technology.
P.S. If you're a practicing lawyer, check out this Law Practice Assessment . After answering a few questions, you'll get detailed recommendations for improving five key areas of your practice.
I am a tech person and almost every piece of software or web app I use is free. The great thing about it is you can start with the free to test ideas and begin to streamline your processes. When you make progress, there is usually a more advance version that you can move to with additional support for a nominal fee.