Nothing feels close to the freedom you have as a student when you’re done with exams in secondary school. During the few days before going on term break, teachers don’t enforce rules and anything goes. School clubs sometimes organize career seminars, where some teachers are invited.
I remember being in one of those seminars and a teacher asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. I laughed and jokingly said that I would love to become the president of the United States. The teacher and the whole gathering laughed. Slowly I frowned, thinking they are wrong to think it’s impossible. Then the teacher explain that only a natural-born citizen can become the US president. He then asked again, what I would want to be. I said something hilarious again, but that’s story for another day.
When you look at it, that’s some gut! In my imagination, I left my home country to want to become the president of another country, where our skins are like night and day. Looking back now, I took the phrase “change the world” too serious. And I know someone, somewhere, thinks that way too.
Why do we want to be world-class so bad?
Yeah, it’s a harmless thought, but where do we draw the line between reality and fantasy. If I asked you who’s the most famous Turkish musician, you’d probably stutter or have no idea. There’re 195 countries in the world, and most people can’t name beyond 20. The world is so big that trying to be world-class is a foolish goal.
There are millions of celebrities in the world you don’t know because they are country-class. Some are musicians and actors who make art in their local language and that leaves the rest of the world wondering in awe. They don’t compete for Grammy or International trophies. They simply enjoy the country-class benefits and live good life.
I know in this part of the world, many africans yearn to compete on the international level, ignoring the local problems that need to be solved. We prefer to export our talents, and not products. Little do they know that most world-class people are country-class, but they have leverage based on their country’s power on the global scene.
Like Archimedes said, give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.
In this case, the lever is your talent, the fulcrum is the country in which you reside. If your country is not in order, there’s little you can do to change the world. This is why people move abroad to move the world.
Encouraging more people to see their country as yardstick for success would open a lot of conversations on the problems to be solved. Also, we get to shape our perception without trying too hard.
Summary - Create for your country. If the world wants it, business. That’s how the world works.