On Feb. 13, FIU’s Geopolitical Summit hosted Thomas Friedman and his own self-procalaimed, “frustrated optimism,” about America’s domestic climate.
Friedman’s lecture touched upon core issues of the present and near future and the much-needed impetus to, in the most simplest of terms, “be better.”
The Beacon agrees with this notion and notes that as an international university, his assertions that we are a hyper-connected, increasingly globalized society is not just a theory but each students’ reality.
Friedman gave a four-pronged approach to how Americans must act in order to match the intense global competition.
The Beacon thinks the advice is timeless and also completely aligned with FIU’s commitment to cultivating students who are global competitive players.
Friedman said that Americans must think like an immigrant, an artisan, amazon.com, and lastly like a waitress from Perkins Pancake House in Minneapolis.
In regard to thinking like an immigrant, Friedman argued that we are all truly immigrants to the new hyper-connected society in which we live. Imploring the crowd to realize there is “no legacy spot,” after graduation, he urged his audience to always “be hungry.”
Secondly, to think like an artisan, Friedman stated you must be so proud of your work that you always want to carve your initials into your product at the end of each day.
His third piece of advice, to think like amazon.com, is to to consistently reinvent yourself and to constantly, “be in beta.” This advice is spot on; students and graduates should never become complacent in their identity or their career paths.
His final note, to think like “a waitress at Perkins Pancakes House” stems from a personal anecdote of a time where when a waitress brought his friend his side of fruit, she said simply, “I gave you more fruit.” He followed this story with an immediate exclamation, “be entrepreneurial.”
Students and recent graduates should emulate Friedman’s approach.
Furthermore, The Beacon completely agrees that as Friedman states, “average” is “officially over.”
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