If you’re reading this, then

  1. You actually woke up this morning with a heartbeat; 150,000 people never will again.
  2. You have clean water to make a cup of coffee or tea, and a toilet to flush; nearly a billion people don’t.
  3. You can actually read this; nearly a billion people can’t–whatever the language.
  4. You have access to the internet; 70 percent of humanity does not.
  5. You can get health care; nearly a billion people have no access to any health care.
  6. As an Inc.com reader, you likely earn more than $50,000 a year, putting you in the top 1 percent of earners globally. By the way, 2.2 billion live on less than $2 per day. To be in the top 1 percent of the wealthiest people on the planet, you need $500,000 or more in total assets. If you’re not there yet, I have no doubt you will be.
  7. As an Inc.com reader, you likely have a college education; welcome to a slice of humanity that represents less than 7 percent of humanity.
  8. You have, if you’ve read this far, the opportunity and the luxury to take time out of your day to participate in social media, a purely recreational activity that is meant primarily to share your good fortune, your abundance, and your last meal of coconut curried chicken with a few thousand friends.

And that’s why, whatever else you’ve got going on, for you this is an awesome day. So don’t waste it, because the vast majority of your fellow humans would trade places with you in a heartbeat.

Tom Koulopoulos is the author of ten books and founder of the Delphi Group, a 25-year-old Boston-based think tank and a past Inc 500 company, which focuses on innovation and the future of business. He is also an adjunct professor at the Boston University Graduate School of Management, an Executive in Residence at Bentley University, the past Executive Director of the Babson College Center for Business Innovation, and a frequent keynote speaker. The late Peter Drucker once said of his writing, that it challenges not only the way you run your business but the way you run yourself. Tom’s latest book is The Gen Z Effect: The Six Forces Shaping The Future of Business.

This post was originally published on Inc.com.

The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WTN Media