It’s the same with our country. We’re not perfect, but I and millions of
others love the United States in spite of its flaws and failures. I don’t know where else in the world a couple
of guys in their 60s, along with a staff and other owners, the youngest of whom
is 46, could put together an Internet company, have the freedom to build it the
way they want and have an incredible infrastructure to tap into to make all
this possible.
There is a lot to be thankful for, but for this blog, I’ll
just touch briefly on freedom and infrastructure.
Freedom
Thanks to the men and women of the armed forces, including
our intelligence agencies, from the time of the Revolutionary War to today, for
their bravery, willingness to endure months of boredom and moments of terror,
for the years of their lives and in too many cases, their lives
themselves. We would not have the freedom to create our
business without them.
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Happy Birthday U.S.A. |
Thanks to Winston Churchill.
He recognized the Nazi threat, endured years of ridicule, and simply
refused to give up. I shudder to think
what the world would have been like had he not been so stubborn – and so right.
Infrastructure
Thanks to Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, for listening to
their passions and creating computers that are easy enough for the rest of us
to use.
Thanks to Jeff Bezos for creating Amazon.com and building
Amazon Web Services, an incredibly reliable, secure and reasonably priced data
storage service. Without AWS, we
probably could never have raised enough capital to get SafelyFiled started.
Thanks to Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Al Gore (yes, that Al
Gore – seriously). Kahn and Cerf were brilliant engineers who developed
Internet protocols, so computers could talk to each other. And Al Gore, who as a Representative, Senator
and then Vice President saw the future value of what became known as the
Internet, drafted and sponsored legislation to create the digital
communications backbone we use today and got it out of the government’s
control, into the private industry where it could be further developed into the
best communication tool ever.
This List Deserves to be Longer
This list could go on and on. There are plenty more individuals who deserve
our thanks so feel free to add them in the comments section below.
A nation is not the land inside the borders that show up on
a map. It’s the people - the individuals
who by their work, creativity and persistence continually build the foundation
for the rest of us to build upon. May we
be worthy of the efforts and sacrifices of those who came before us and may our own contributions be a
solid foundation for those who come after us.
I love this country.
Happy Birthday.