Language of Optimism
Dark clouds appear everywhere right now. Inflation and recession fears. Autocracy and protracted war. Inequity and endemic Covid. Yet in April, I was sitting in Gaborone, Botswana, for the inaugural Under 30 Summit Africa, surrounded by something entirely different: optimism. On a continent of 1.4 billion people, 70 percent of whom are younger than 30, hundreds of leaders from 40 countries grasped that the biggest challenges present the biggest opportunities, and that a path forward—the only realistic one to create the tens of millions of jobs required there—exists in entrepreneurship. For four days, this cohort learned, taught and, most of all, engaged, with intent and hope. Forbes saw that in March as well, when we transformed International Women’s Day from a hashtag into a community, bringing hundreds of amazing women to…
