I just got back from a week-long trip to India and I was blown away  by how much growth the country is experiencing. The economy is booming and there’s opportunity everywhere. Infrastructure is straining to keep up - there’s traffic everywhere, airports are clogged, streets are crowded, there’s advertising everywhere you look - in short, the country is going nuts.

Traffic in Kolkata

Going from the US, where the talk around the economy is so negative, to India where most people are making hay, made the contrast even more jarring. There’s a sense of optimism overseas which is pretty inspiring. If you’re not thinking about how you can leverage assets overseas or how global consumers are relevant to what you’re trying to do, you’re missing out on tremendous potential.

On an unrelated note, a ton of people I spoke to out there view the current situation in the US (declining stock markets, real estate prices, subprime meltdown) as a buying opportunity. I don’t know if this is a bottom yet (actually, I’m pretty sure it’s not) but if you can be a buyer when everyone else is selling, in general, that’s probably a good thing.