Funny how technology seems to get credit for everything good in our lives and our business. Can it also be to blame for some of the bad?

With the elections coming up, I was wondering whether a particular President could really change the economic position of our country in the present global market. I also wondered how bad off we really were, and how we got here.

A book I just started, “The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria, seemed to clarify much of my thinking by the end of the first chapter. He stated that the world today was safer and growing its collective economies and wealth like never before. It was the “rising of the rest” that forced us to lose position and competitiveness, not a reduced U.S. capability. Rather a failure of our nation to wake up, get hungry and compete like our lives depended on it. As part of his analysis he also pointed out that our information technology revolution had brought even the smallest of world events and drama into our lives in real time, effectively making the world in our view, far more terrifying and dangerous than it really was.

Clearly the majority of the world economic markets are not being held back by the daily events we hear so much about in the news. As Americans, are we so tuned in to everybody else that we cannot focus on our own needs?

I will leave you with these thoughts. Do not let your information derived by our technology tools overrule your hearts and minds. Learn how to carefully read into your numbers and statistics, and when possible, let your gut play a deeper role in making your next move. Our country needs to quickly tune out the rest of the world’s news and start concentrating on how to generate new services and products that the global market will respond to. Acknowledging we have to end our past entitlement mindset and realize that we are in the fight of our economic lives is the only solution. Our industries and our schools must retool quickly. Those that can’t work in the new models must be torn down. Those who manage and lead with old thinking must also back out of the process going forward. The election of a new President will not dent the issue at hand. We individually own them and will only solve them by first taking personal responsibility.

Technology will help us, but be wary of its limits. Only our imagination and desire has no boundary, and are limitless. On Election Day please vote, but don’t ask the impossible of our next leader. We are the makers of the future of this country, and if we don’t make it happen, “the rise of the rest” will end the glorious growth this country saw over the last century.

Maybe the ballot should have a write-in for your own name. We individually are the leaders. I hope we get elected.

Larry