Happy Birthday America

This is my first Independence Day as an American citizen. I have lived half my life in Switzerland and the other half in the US, or more precisely in New York, which by all accounts is not like the rest of the country. At my swearing-in ceremony a few months back quite a few people asked me how I felt as an American: I feel like a New Yorker and always have. Being an American is something I have to get used to.

New York was love at first sight. As any true love we’ve had quarrels, made up and deepened our relationship. 9/11 wounded New York deeply but also sealed my commitment to this city as a place to thrive, live, learn and love. I love New York for its energy, its grit, its people. New York passes no judgment. All nations, colors, levels of madness, cultures, religions, fads and neuroses live here in an unbelievable hodge-podge. Everybody is ‘other’. Every ‘other’ is the ‘normal’. What is there not to love?

Now that I’ve officially upgraded from New Yorker to American I can vote, I moved from “you” to “we”. I’m not an outsider looking in, commenting, I’m now on the inside and I can say “we” when I have an opinion. I can also apply for grants I previously did not qualify for… Most likely I will be called for jury duty the moment I register to vote.

Happy Birthday, America. My wish for you is to leave your teenage years behind and grow up to be a fiscally and politically responsible country, one that values educating future generations and goes out into the world to be a nurturer and not an oppressor. I’ll be watching closely and participating in my civic duties.

Doing Business in the US

On my last blog I ended with the quote: “He/she who makes the most noise will be heard”. This was in relationship to the future of Social Media and the onslaught of information that is coming at us and the need for filtering and curation. Interestingly enough this is also a quote I use each time I make a presentation about how to do business in the US or how to do business as an American in Switzerland. My clients are either Swiss (throw in a few Canadians) who relocate to the US or Americans who move to Switzerland.

One of the few big differences in doing and surviving, business in the US is that you need to speak up – never assume that your actions or accomplishments will speak for themselves – if you don’t make sure all know of them you run the very real risk that someone else will take credit for it.

This goes for meetings and team work as well. Whereas Swiss people will search consensus and a happy medium, Americans will look to choose a leader who will give directives. With all of this there are of course many subtleties and nuances, but the bottom line is: you need to be heard and rise above the fray if you want to succeed in the States. In Switzerland you want to reach a consensus that all can agree on and move forward from there, decisions are taken by a show of hands, the majority rules.