Cultures of excellence

One of the best bits of advice I’ve received is this: “live your life excellently”. When I think about organizations that are exceptional, it is because they are excellent in all of their capabilities. For this reason, I still believe in American exceptionalism and the idea that the United States is uniquely positioned to lead as a result of its culture of excellence.

Liberalism

America is host to the largest marketplace of ideas in the world and is predicated on a right to free speech and assembly. These constitutional protections form the bedrock of the American identity and are so much in the public conscious that any attempt to curtail them becomes a national debate.

Economics

Generation, transfer, and destruction of wealth all flow through American markets. Financial services in New York, biotechnology in San Francisco, digital media in Los Angeles, advanced manufacturing in Arizona, commodities in Chicago, energy in Houston, and space factories in Florida.

Education

Innovation in teaching and learning occurs here more than anywhere else. The steady hum of academia has continued to lead the world in educating people from around the world. Our imperfect K-12 school system provides more opportunity to more students than any other public schooling project in history.

Innovation

Small business to VC-backed unicorns are the spine of American excellence in every market and every sector. We outcompete our global peers tenfold and attract the smartest minds from across the world to build the future.

Diversity

America has been and always will be a nation of immigrants. It’s culture of excellence is driven by those bettering their communities and seeking a better tomorrow.

This blog was intended to be a reflection on cultures of excellence and their determination. Excellence by itself is not guaranteed, but reliant upon folks moving the needle and striving for a better tomorrow. At the same time, things like diversity and tolerance in the United States have not always been guaranteed, and in fact are still not guaranteed. Much social justice work has been done to protect the rights we are afforded today. Rather, the point of this is to illustrate how fostering a culture of excellence leads to positive outcomes in society, something most people are prepared to work to achieve.