“ADAPT OR PERISH.” That stark warning from H. G. Wells in his 1945 book, Mind at the End of Its Tether, remains “nature’s inexorable imperative.”
Fortunately for us, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances remains America’s greatest advantage in the global marketplace. Whether or not we maintain that advantage will determine our success or failure as an economic power, and as a country, in the two hundred fifty years ahead.
Throughout my career as an entrepreneur, investor and sports team owner, it’s become clear to me that our ability to invent things—critical as it is—is not our most important asset. Our true superpower is our ability to adapt inventions for the greatest economic and social benefit.
Henry Ford didn’t invent mass production—that was done centuries ago. However, his adaptation of this industrial technique to the manufacture of automobiles was world-changing.
While hard to believe, package delivery didn’t start with Jeff Bezos. The Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great created a sophisticated relay courier system called the “Angarium” thousands of years ago. In 1907, two American teenagers founded the American Messenger Company that evolved into UPS. The US Postal Service launched Parcel Post in 1913, enabling mail-order giants, like Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck, to serve rural America as never before. Fred Smith’s hub-and-spoke distribution system revolutionized package delivery at Federal Express, and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon reinvented logistics for the e-commerce era.
When I was President of America Online in 1994, most Americans had never heard of the Internet, much less used it. The World Wide Web had just entered the public domain the year before, built on Internet technologies pioneered by DARPA in the Washington D.C. area for government use.
The idea that millions of people would one day communicate, shop, learn, and build businesses online sounded almost unimaginable. We weren’t simply creating an open and free internet for consumers; we were helping society adapt to a new way of living and working.
We took a niche technology, reimagined its application, and paved the way for the internet’s rapid expansion into mainstream use. In doing so, we created “social media,” a term I used naturally and first to describe places where people could be entertained, communicate, and participate in a shared social environment.
We popularized email, making communication faster, cheaper, and more convenient. We introduced AOL Instant Messenger, the basis for today’s text message, and the godfather to Twitter, now X, and Facebook.
I remember sending the first-ever AIM message—it was to my wife. “Don’t be scared … it is me. Love you and miss you.” A small message, but that one moment represented what would come to be a profound shift in how Americans would use the internet.
Built right here in our nation’s capital, AOL reshaped the trajectory of the nation. Students. Families. Fortune 500 companies. Governments. Because of AOL, the internet became the engine for nearly every facet of American life.
This is the enduring genius and power of America. While invention creates new possibilities, it is our ability to continuously adapt and innovate that truly sets America apart.
As owner of the Washington Capitals (NHL), Washington Wizards (NBA), and Washington Mystics (WNBA), I find that this commitment to constant experimentation, innovation, and adaptation is what keeps games invented more than a century ago constantly refreshed in the public imagination, in the fan’s experience, and in the fast-growing business of sports.
Professional sports organizations once focused almost exclusively on winning games and selling tickets. Today’s teams have evolved into technology companies, media companies, real estate developers, community builders, and data-driven enterprises all at once. That is especially true in Washington, D.C.—the world’s most powerful city that sits at the intersection of policy, business, technology, and sports.
We’re on every platform. We’re perennially upgrading our physical facilities. Our athletes are better trained, conditioned, equipped, and coached than ever before. And the biggest winner is the fan.
The same imperative of constant adaptation and innovation must apply to our country, as well.
We are the heirs of the most audacious and successful revolutionaries in the history of the world. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of our independence shouldn’t be an exercise in nostalgia, but an inspiration to carry on our founders’ spirit.
As Thomas Paine said in 1776, “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.” And there’s nothing more exciting or rewarding than that.
If we want that spirit to endure, we have to reward the risk-takers. We have to support the entrepreneurs who are willing to fail—several times if necessary—before they succeed. We have to encourage the dreamers, the builders, and the pioneers spearheading double bottom line innovations in pursuit of a higher calling: changing the world.
There’s never been a more fertile era of adaptation, imagination, innovation, and ambition than now. Those who fear the future won’t create it. Those who are willing to think big, dare all, defy expectations, and serve society in revolutionary ways will lead us to a future we’ll all want to live in.
That’s been the American story for generations, and it’s one we should continue writing.
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