Thursday, July 30, 2009

Towers Of Achievement


New York sprouts out of the bedrock on which it sits like towers of opportunity. There's something about the very nature of New York that is inspiring and encouraging.

Maybe it's because there's a sense of achievement around you, everywhere you go.

Feats of great engineering are speeding through tunnels, millions of tiny light bulbs illuminate great buildings that were just empty lots, that now tower over the city, each of them medallions of somebody's architectural achievement.  

And beyond all of this, surrounding these great towers of achievement, there is art. 

Art, culture, tradition, modernity, and individuals more daring and bold than you could find anywhere else.

Because the population of this city scatter to their destination at speed, and the average New Yorker artfully darts between the power-walking feet of a crowded street, you feel like you need to keep up. And if you miss-step, for just one second, the crowd will beat you.

This has become  major metaphor for me since I moved to New York. The miss-step can as easily be made in business, in friendships, in life... 

There is no text book answer for why New York has the appeal that it does. There's no telling why so any people gravitate here. 

There has always been an almost unspoken sense of challenge here. The theory that new York, being a difficult nut to crack, is somewhere to go and conquer.  It's unspoken, but not necessarily unsung since Frank Sinatra sang, 'If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere"
 
New York, like London was, is a constant challenge for me. I'm sometimes living on the very edge of my financial means, trying to navigate through the unpredictable storm of the fluctuating economy, the result of which has meant much reinvention for people like myself, who work freelance. And where better to reinvent than in the most inspirational city, at least in my experience, in the world.

If I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere!













1 comment:

[LaLa] Lauren said...

New York is the greatest city in the world.

Just don't let it get to your head. And remember the things that have always mattered to you most.