frankly speaking

Making Things That Matter

There have been a lot of complaints lately, mostly coming from talking heads on TV (who, for the most part, have no idea what they’re talking about) complaining that one of the reasons our company is in a rut is the fact that our country ‘doesn’t make anything, anymore.’

My buddy Bryce wrote a really interesting post the other day about what he makes as a venture capitalist, and along with it a short video about what a teacher makes.

I think it’s extremely short sighted of people to complain that our country doesn’t make anything anymore. We still make lots of things, the things we make these days however, aren’t easily seen and felt. We make technology. We make people’s lives easier. We make people’s lives more social. We make communication across great distances happen faster.

Just because we don’t make big physical things doesn’t mean we’re not capable sustaining, growing and revolutionizing the greatness of our economy, our country and our world; we don’t have to mass produce cars, televisions, clothes and roads to be great. What we have to be great at are the things that allow things to be created - education, mentoring and execution will allow us all to maintain our place in the world.