On becoming

We are diamond in rough cuts.

7 billion of  us. The stats show the costs of raising a child in the US at roughly $200,000.  With educational score cards showing flat line, while other countries are on the up tick (albeit Shanghai focused on rote learning and test preparation), policy makers might have to offshore some departments i.e. sending students to India for math tutoring, for instance. This should reduce school loan a bit.

It might do us some good to have a generation of young people who are globally intelligent (Ask not what the world can do for you…), and know how to exercise and exert soft power . The FT puts the x-President of Brazil and Turkey on the list of top influencers.

Economic standing aside, these leaders know how to position themselves in world affairs. They know the time is now (for the rest to rise).

No one can take the US place at the table. It’s just that the table now accommodates more participants, from G7 to G20 and counting.

On New Year Day, I went shopping. Couldn’t help putting my marketing hat on. Cuban Americans are buying clothing on sales by the bulk. They might be suit-case entrepreneurs (after Christmas is also a good time to travel).

What’s good for the world is linked to what’s good for America (and vice versa).

Certainly it has kept Western Union in the game (money transfer back to Mexico, Philippines and others). Consumption here means production there (and shipping in between). Vietnam shrimp export rises from 1.69 B to 2 B this past year as an example.

We constantly take in new information, brain storm our options and force-rank our choices.

Speed used to be the watch word. It still is. But smart speed (both “aim” and “fire”) – like soft power- is all the more desirable. When head, heart and feet are aligned, we no longer have a rough-cut diamond. We got a priced one that serves a grander purpose.

Instinctively, we in the US know this. That somehow, things will get back to “normal”.

But this time around, we will temper growth with sustainability, strength with wisdom. and fun with respect (raw meat dress, anyone?)

We have grown mature. We have moved further in the scale, toward becoming what we are all along. In crisis, there is opportunity. The phoenix finally emerges out of the ashes to fulfill its destiny, that of true leadership.