Globalization and the World Cup

CEO, Trump University

If you believe that global business has made all the people of the world into one big happy family, you haven't turned on your TV to watch any of the FIFA World Cup soccer games. I can't recall any event, ever, where athletes and their fans have demonstrated such fierce national pride. The Paraguayans are wild about being from Paraguay, the Swedes are crazy about their Swedishness – and the list goes on.

Despite the fact that some of the players engage in dirty tactics and some of the fans brawl, I find it this display of national pride reassuring. It tells me that even though we have all been drawn into a global business network, we still know who we are.

When I walk into an American store and buy a computer, I feel better when I think that it got there thanks to the retailing know-how of passionate Americans at work. When I notice that the computer was built in China, I like to think that the people who put it together were passionately proud of their country's astonishing economic progress over the last decade. If something goes wrong with the computer and I call a help line and speak with someone in India or Canada, I like to think that I am speaking with a person who is a participating in a culture of intense national pride. Proud people with something to prove do things better.

Now, sports are not real life. In business, no referee ever blows a whistle and says that the game is over. But who could fail to learn some inspiring success lessons from our American team? After a stunning loss to the Czechs in our first World Cup game, we came back and tied Italy in a game that sometimes looked more like a street brawl than a soccer match. We refused to lose. It was a test of sheer will and mettle. That tie saved our necks and on June 22nd, we take on Ghana.

Sure, we face a team of inspired fanatics from Ghana. But we are the inspired fanatics from America. They better watch out for us. I personally find that to be a pretty beautiful thing. Don't you?