Pivotal Moments

The pivotal moments of one's life are not always recognized as such.  There is no doubt that a moment like September 11, 2001, for it's horrific magnitude was certainly recognized as a pivotal moment.  But perhaps not in the way that most people think of pivotal moments.

Nationalism changed.  At least for a while.  At the time, being an American evoked emotion and devotion unlike any period I had lived through.

International warfare changed.  As Americans, we knew we were hated more than we knew the reasons why and more than we knew the identities of those who hated us.  National security required new tactics.

Public policy changed.  A sympathetic view emerged that supposed that anti-American attitudes originated from constrained economic opportunities.  A fresh agenda emerged that attempted to address economic underdevelopment in countries that had anti-American populations.

I changed.  Although I had already focused my attention on the economic development of rural areas in Asia, a new demographic captured my attention.  Countries where Islam is the majority religion got on my radar and stayed there.  As I probed villages in Indonesia, it became clear that natural resource extraction, rather than innovation, drove economic development.  Although agricultural research and development has improved productivity, the gains from those efforts have not exceeded the returns to labor of rock extraction in locations where suitable construction materials can be obtained.  In places, like rural villages in Indonesia, where extraction dominates innovation the local economy abandons value creation as a driver.  Consequently, their economic prospects diminish.  I didn't fully grasp these notions eleven years ago when my life direction shifted unnoticeably.  

Eleven years ago I never imagined I would be championing products from rural Indonesia.  I never imagined I would be promoting value-added technologies and processes that could double the annual incomes of those who participated.  I never imagined that I would be training a group of villagers to acquire skills and abilities that help them do more than just extract rock from the mountains and streams in their area.

On September 11, 2001, the direction of my life changed.  It wasn't because of nationalism or international conflict or public policy or anything else that might have changed on that day.  It was my own pivotal moment, which was hardly recognized as such.