Tear Down The Wall

So what I remember most vividly about November 9, 1989, is the train ride home. I had just visited with my grandparents who had found a way to escape from East Germany some thirty years earlier.  

And here I was traveling back home, looking out the window, sensing that there was a fundamental change in the air. But never in a million years would I have thought that this was going to be the day that the Iron Curtain would actually come crashing down. I had settled for what I believed would never change, and I certainly had underestimated what people can do if they put their mind to it. 

Today, I work a job at ProGlove, an organization that probably would have never been established had it not been for that gray November day in 1989. Because without that day, Germany would not have been reunited and one of our four founders would have never made his way to the west.

I did see a border go that I thought would stay forever. However, up to this very day, I see people struggling with the borders and divisions in their heads, hearst, and minds. So one of the things I would like to share today is the value of diversity. ProGlove is an organization that is home to some 200 staff from more than 40 different countries. And that is only possible because we remove the borders that separate us. But you know what the greatest thing about our diversity is? We learn to complement each other, make up for each other’s weaknesses, and enjoy to provide support for each other. In other words: We care!   

Yet working at ProGlove has also taught me that we should always challenge things and strive to become better. 5 years ago, most people would have told you that barcode scanning is barcode scanning, and that’s the end of it. Not our founders. They did not settle for less because they knew they were onto something. So they unleashed barcode scanning from the shackles of conventional scanner guns.  

Barcode scanning broke free at last as did East Germany 30 years ago! It is a day I will always remember fondly.