It’s funny how sometimes you need to go far away to see what’s going on at home.
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I recently spent some time in the United States and while I was there I saw clearly some of the things happening in Griffith, in NSW and in Australia.
There’s a massive difference between Australians and Americans but it’s not immediately apparent. Here, we’re always trying to tear people down. ‘Tall poppy syndrome’ we call it.
Somewhere along the way, we became so convinced we couldn’t do great things that we attack the people who do. Sure, we love to see our sporting heroes do well, but isn’t it just delicious to see them fall?
Meanwhile, America has 320 million people who are all convinced their individual greatness will one day be recognised. When they see Kardashians, they see something to aspire to, not a cautionary tale like we Aussies would.
It’s remarkable to be surrounded by optimism as boundless as the land itself. Even as their political parties threaten to tear themselves apart, there’s hope for tomorrow.
I wonder, what would Griffith do if the artificial boundaries were removed? I’m not talking about laws, regulations and systems we have to adhere to, I mean the notion that we can’t achieve great things.
If you’ve read any of my editorials over the past year you’ve probably seen me bang on and on about the great stuff in our own backyard that nobody knows about. You know what the only Australian wine I saw over there was? Yellow Tail. So imagine my surprise when I get back and discover we’ve spoken to John Casella for some stories. Kismet, they’d call it.
It’s not just wine. Ugg and Lorna Jane are dominating their markets.
They love Australians over there. They love our celebrities, our accents, our generally friendly nature and in the cities they love our coffee. If we can’t sell them the finest wares we have to offer, we need to find a new sales pitch.
Imagine 320 million customers who speak the language, hold many of the same values and whose currency is worth more than our own. Imagine what they might buy if we’d only offer it to them.
We make come of the best wine, the best rice, the best cotton, the best almonds, all right here within 60 miles. Imagine what we could do as a country if we stopped looking down and started looking up and out.
I’m never looking down again.
-STEPHEN MUDD