I love the Olympics. It gives me a chance to watch sports I only watch every four years and appreciate the work of athletes that work for something more than a giant paycheck. The Olympics also give me a sense of how small the world is. The top athletes from every country on earth are able to come together to a single city and compete in a not overbearing (usually) format.
This world of ours is smaller than we can imagine. What happens in one part of the world impacts everyone else. There is no such thing as being disconnected from the global community. Thank the internet and globalization for that. Information doesn’t care about national borders (other than in a handful of countries where citizens don’t use a VPN). What I write here from my house in Irmo, South Carolina, USA is immediately accessible in Greece and Hong Kong and Toronto. Usually the ideas are applicable as well.
Regional differences are beginning to smooth as the years pass. Expertise is transferred. The longer that “outsourcing” takes place the more it becomes “the way of the world.” The people we once thought had difficult to understand accents suddenly sound more like us. People that had to use scripts to communicate learn how to interact with us naturally. India starts to feel closer to Wisconsin by the day. Similarly, Ohio starts to feel more like Ireland.
It is at the Olympics that this becomes obvious. Athletes and visitors from everywhere around the world get together and blend without issues. It’s a small world. How are you using that to your advantage?