Archives September 2026

I had the chance to go to Brevard, North Carolina for a client and on Friday and Saturday morning took a break from work to explore the town.

Friday evening featured a visit to the Transylvania County Library where as part of a Fall Concert Series, The Foreign Landers were playing (pictured above). The music was wonderful but it was the weather that made the experience particularly majestic: thunder rumbled in the background and lightning flashed in the clouds ahead of us and behind us. But the venue itself was an oasis of calm.

On Saturday, as part of the Brevard Plein Air Festival I had the chance to meet Patricia Sweet, the artist who won accolades for her piece titled “Pounder Mill Overlook” (amongst others). She talked me through how she painted with her hands and only used one colour.

You’ll often hear businesspeople talk about athletes and sports teams and the lessons that can be learnt from them. In my view, in the modern business environment, there’s a lot to be learned from artists too.

In sports a certain degree of success is preordained. There will always be a team that wins the trophy.  The same isn’t true for art. Artists have to compete with all of history – a musician has to convince you to listen to their song instead of to the music you already know and love. Success for a sportsperson has clear rules. An artist has to navigate ambiguities. Sport is, by its nature, zero sum: for someone to win, someone else has to lose. Artists exist in a world where opportunities are unlimited, and as they pursue them, artists build open each other’s work.

Business looks much more like a painter’s easel than a playing field.

Dear *Name*,

When the Euro was introduced the income gap between the average European and the average American was 11%. Today it is 35%.

The latest OECD forecasts suggest that China will never overtake the USA in GDP. Not GDP per capita but in GDP.

Despite Trump, despite everything, the United States is the pre-eminent economic power in the world, and it isn’t even close. The gap between the US and the rest of the world is widening. The US economy has something about it that causes it to be superior to every other economy.

And it has been determined that your presence is needed there. It’s not just *Client*, the owner of a multimillion-dollar business, who wants you there; it’s a whole host of brokers and customers who are expecting to speak with you. We supply some of the top names in the world. The people who want you there have been working in this industry for decades. There are thousands of people that they have in their network, and that they need to work with. *Customer* is amongst the most successful businesses ever built. They do not lack on any level access to top talent, and a key affiliate of theirs is looking forward to speak with you at the show. *Customer* and their team could get you (or really any professional in the industry) at any time on a video call but they want to spend time with you in person in Chicago. And you’ve only seriously been at this for maybe a year.

This is partly what makes the USA successful – it welcomes top minds from around the world and encourages them to contribute. In America you’ll have more freedom than you ever did in China, and unlike in China, in America, no one is going to even remember that you’re a foreigner.

But it’s also a testament to you and your capabilities. It would be easy to be blasé about this and think that being asked to travel to the Unites States is not a big deal. You shouldn’t be and it is. I hope you’re excited and I hope you’re proud of yourself and what you’ve achieved.

I also hope that even as you contribute to America, you absorb some of the things that make America as successful as it is. And I hope you return with those lessons and work with me to combine America’s approach, capability, and excellence with the things that, in my opinion, make India unique in being the one country that has the potential to exceed even the United States.