One of the things that I remind young people, just to offer them a little bit of perspective, is that no matter how grim the news sometimes seems, no matter how extraordinary the challenges that humanity or America seems to be facing at any given moment, if you had to choose a moment in human history in which to be born, and you didn’t know ahead of time who you were going to be –- what your nationality was, or your gender, or race, or class -– if you had to pick one moment in history that gave you the best chance to succeed, you would choose right now. You would choose this moment, when the world is wealthier, better educated, more open, more tolerant, more connected than it has ever been at any time in human history. Less violent. Less driven by division. You’d choose today.
And as I think about what you’re doing here in this hall, I’d add a corollary to that observation. If you could choose any place and time to invest your business’s precious resources, I believe you’d choose right here, right now. If you choose a place to expand your portfolio, to place your bets, to open up a plant, to start building the next great new business or service, you would select the USA -– because nowhere in the world and never in history has there been a better place to grow your business.
Read President Obama’s full SelectUSA Summit remarks at whitehouse.gov!
