Lots of interesting people are talking about the Edge question: what are you optimistic about and why?
Last week I met hundreds of Americans in four cities. That experience made me much more optimistic about the future.
One guy, in particular, gave me a tour of his FEMA trailer in a poor, decimated, New Orleans neighborhood and then took me inside his stripped-out home that had been flooded eight feet deep with water and muck. He was black. I was white. Not that that matters, but in previous decades I probably wouldn’t have been invited into his home. He had an awesome attitude, despite the crap that life had dealt him. He made me optimistic once again that we can take on tough challenges and come through with a laugh, a smile, and a great joke about it all.
But, then I realized why he had a great attitude. He had friends who were helping him rebuild his house. They were working on making their neighborhood better. One stud at a time, one of them told me.
They made me optimistic that my son will see a better world than I’ve seen. One where we can figure out how to bootstrap communities out of poverty. One where we see the last vestiges of “isms” disappear. One where we help each other out — one nail at a time, if need be.
Thank you New Orleans for the optimism and thank you to everyone who helped get me there (Seagate, PodTech, John Edwards in particular).