I was reading slashdot and how George Lucas will redo Star Wars in 3-D. George sets a good example of what works in this country and why this country leads in many ways. George has built up a tight franchise and come up with many marketable deliverables. It's an engine that fuels growth. This idea of making a pre-quel a generation after the first movies came out, if deliberate, was genius. Imagine your kids wanting to know what happened next. Well, there's a whole new market for you old movie creations.

This economic engine Lucas has built unfortunately is a rare example and not the norm. Why can't all companies be set up as economic engines this way? Covey says a lot in his 8th Habit. He says too many companies have people who wait to do what there boss says, whose imagination has been stifled by being slapped on the hands for trying new things. Not enough entrepreneurs are out there advancing the art and science of American business. Perhaps with all the mounting, exponentially growing competition from emerging superpowers like China and India, we can see the sense of urgency in making each one of our citizens into fast thinking, imaginative entrepreneurs.

A little off the track musing on politics...

I've been hearing so much on NPR about China growing in influence. In my parent's country, the Philippines, China already owns most of the banks. It is not hard to see how small countries like the Philippines can be slowly taken over by this emerging super power. But wait, the Philippines was once a U.S. territory. With China owning much of U.S. debt, maybe if China were to take over the Philippines, the U.S. would be influenced not to intervene. This is how it starts.