Paris 2024 - 100 Years in the Making

"We are an overnight sensation, twenty years in the making.“

I love that expression in all the various forms I have heard it from leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. In all of the different situations where it applies, the message is the same. Most high-profile, seemingly instantaneous successes are the product of tireless groundwork and preparation. Even projects that may be new to the achiever are often the beneficiaries of that group or individual's previous groundwork or training.

If it took Paris one hundred years to plan the 2024 Olympic Games, given that the last time they hosted was in 1924, then I would say the effort was well worth it. The organizers had many competitive advantages in planning these games, beginning with the canvas of the most beautiful city in the world and including a fabulous metro system, and they poured it on.

The organizers innovated and decorated with a plan featuring the first-ever public marathon on the Olympic course, hosting the surfing in far away Tahiti, to myriad public spaces and free events with non-existent lines. The colour pallet and branding were terrific. The event flow and staging were magnetic. The precision and detail were faultless.

However, the real magic of this moment may not have been in the presentation of these Olympics but in the preservation of humanity.

In a year when divisiveness and anger seem to be coming to a boiling point not seen in decades. An unrelenting waterfall of bloody conflicts around the world, including lightly covered but equally as tragic violence in places such as Haiti and Sudan. The seemingly unchecked rise of dictatorial leaders in major countries far and wide, with France tearing itself in three political directions as a country. With a U.S. election marked once again by disgusting bigotry not seen since 2008, perhaps these Olympics made a breakthrough.

I confess that being in Paris was akin to the Truman Show. The serenity of this moment may be as manufactured as the scent of the Shangri-La hotel lobby. However, I felt it here. I read it in the media. I saw it on social.

The Paris Olympics brought a thread of unity back into the world. It has been six years since the Olympics and eight since the Summer Games. I believe these are moments that matter not just to each of us but to the collective. We need more triumph and achievement in our world, media, and feeds.

We have just spent four years brainwashing ourselves the world is coming to an end. It is not. Not overnight, anyway.

However, if we do want to make ourselves extinct, destroy the future for our grandchildren and their heirs, and send the whole planet up in smoke, we can. All we need to do is say the Olympics don't matter, that friendship doesn't matter, that family doesn't matter, and we will not be in Paris in 2124. Failure, like success, can appear to be sudden when, in fact, it took years to create.

If you appreciate the good vibes and feelings that the Paris Olympics are conjuring, bookmark this moment and draw on it constantly. Bring it to situations where harmony is battling hysteria. Leverage it internally when you feel off. Share it with people who may be low on motivation. Do all of the above as frequently as necessary.

Paris 2024 gave all of us a gift. We can't spend the next 100 years wasting it.