Last night I attended a dinner debate in Brussels, Belgium hosted by the von Mises Institute-Europe, http://www.vonmisesinstitute-europe.org/, entitled "In Defense of Globalization".
All three speakers were articulate and well-educated on the subject but I want to focus on one speaker given the recent career change he announced last night. Mr. Johan Norberg, http://www.johannorberg.net/, formerly the Director of Political Ideas with the Swedish free market think tank known as TIMBRO, has decided to become a "citizen of the world" (my wording here) as a lecturer and writer set to travel the world to discover new ideas and solutions for a freer, more prosperous, and in my mind a more peaceful world since the old maxim is true -- "trading nations are not warring nations" (my wording again). If you don't believe this phrase when was the last time you thought Canada and the USA were going to invade each other?? I rest my argument.
I have only read Johan's fifth book, "In Defense of Globalization", primarily because his first five books were published in Swedish and I only know one Swedish word!!! The central lesson of Johan's speech from my perspective was when he stated -- "In Sweden I live in a small, limited language market of only 9 million people (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sw.html) but via travel and writing/lecturing in another language such as English I have created a new career of analyzing and promoting free market ideas to a much larger audience which is able to generate a respectable salary for myself............." (my paraphrasing here, not a direct quote).
The lesson for all of us here is to be flexible, educated, and motivated in the dynamic, global economy we live in because there are opportunities created everyday via individual action despite the newspaper headlines which tend to focus on job losses at legacy companies like automobile manufacturers and airlines.
See your future, be.......be your future,
Todd
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