A MORE INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

I'm back from a four-day conference in Richmond VA. It was the National Business Incubation Association's 17th annual International Conference on Incubation. I've attended this conference seven times in the last eight years, and each year it gets more and more international. We Americans often act like we have a monopoly on good ideas, that the world revolves around us, and that whatever's happening outside our country isn't that important. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Why, just by keeping my ears open this week, I've learned about the importance of family in Jordan, the lack of infrastructure in Rwanda, and the amazing growth of entrepreneurship in Taiwan. I've heard non-US folks lament that we call our baseball finals the "World Series" when it only involves teams from two countries. I've marveled at workshop presenters sharing excellent information and fielding difficult questions in their second (or even third or fourth) language, knowing I couldn't possibly do the same in Taiwanese or French or Mandarin.

I've been fortunate to have opportunities to travel, and to be in situations where I am in the minority as an American. So I feel a little more attuned to such things. Nevertheless, I too have my narrow blinders and incorrect assumptions. I sometimes forget that speaking English with an accent doesn't make you stupid if it's not your first language. I casually share fundraising strategies as gospel truths, oblivious to the fact that people and corporations in other countries have different values than those in the US. And I complain about how constrained our organization and community are in their resources, conveniently forgetting that most of the rest of the world would consider us impossibly rich in money and technology and infrastructure.

But I believe I will now think these incorrect things less often, for having had the opportunity to interact with so many professionals who traveled to our country to learn more about incubation. And in that regard, this conference was a very useful one for me, as a person and a Christian and a professional.