My Fellow Americans:

In the simplest terms, “You win some, you lose some.”

In this case, we'll add, “Thank G-d that we're all still playing in the same league.”

What the hand-wringers after this election seem to have forgotten is that there may be more than one view of the world that is worthy of consideration. People have different ideas about the best way forward. The way of the liberal, at least historically, is to value the promulgation and consideration of ideas, new, old, odd, and just plain different.

What the hand-wringers should be telling their children is that “Wow, we were so sure of the rightness of our own thoughts that we forgot that not everyone thinks like or takes the perspective we do. It could be we're right. But then it could be we're wrong. It certainly seems to a lot of people that what we think is wrong, or at least not the best way forward. Maybe we ought to reach out and engage them. Maybe we can come to some new understanding, some shared ground from which we can all move forward.”

The idea here is that another person's idea should not be seen as an existential challenge (unless his idea is to terminate your existence), but rather as an opportunity to think and learn, and become wiser and grow.

If we truly care about our children, we should suggest that they reach out and learn from this election. Perhaps our ideas are not right in every context. Perhaps there are people who live in different realities. Perhaps it is our job to engage with others and understand what they think and how their thinking gave rise to their choice of a candidate that might not have been our choice. In other words we should invite them to grow.

And if we really take this responsibility seriously, maybe we should check out the election maps, and find the red counties, and take our children to visit and talk to the people there, and ask them what kind of concerns occupy their lives, and what kind of solutions they think would make a difference. And Why?

See, here's the other thing. People have crazy ideas about how an election is going to affect their lives. We have Obama's mortgage lady. We have Trump supporters who think he'll exile the muslims and somehow restore to them opportunity, "make America great again."

The truth is tomorrow will be much like today. America is already great. America is already the land of opportunity. But the only way to experience our greatness is to reach out and grab it. It's to take advantage of the schooling, of the mobility, of the ease of finding work and starting a business, of becoming an idea machine as my virtual mentor James Altucher would suggest. (If you are going to subscribe to his report, I'd appreciate your using my affiliate link.)

And if you don't like his style, Jim Rohn provides another path to owning your greatness. And if you want to invest a little in clearing the path so you can powerfully move forward, I'm all for The Landmark Forum.

The truth is there are infinite paths to a Great America. Your job is to choose yours and start down it. Otherwise the next four years won't look much different than the last, and that's a shame, because you only have one life to live.

May Your Greatness be America's,

David R. Herz
Herz for President