Every once in awhile, I read something that makes such good common sense that it makes me wonder why it’s so rare. In a Wall Street Journal interview, the soon to be retiring CEO of United Technologies, George David, talks about opportunities for productivity being everywhere and the link to education. A few choice quotes:

"You can’t walk through life with a trained eye and not see the opportunities for productivity. Every time you sit in traffic, that’s productivity loss. Every time you go to the doctor and fill out a bunch of forms and he refers you to somebody else and you fill out the same forms all over again, there’s a loss of productivity Whenever you wait for something, that’s waste…..I believe you can have 10 times more [of]..everything. …Just look at the differences in personal productivity between people, educated versus not educated.  Or people in good, really productive labor environments, versus people who are kind of struggling because they’re in disorganized or ineffective companies." 

"There’s a part of the world that doesn’t believe in the rights of women.  Why on earth would you live in a society where half the people are deemed to be nonproductive? If you would like to have a little more, isn’t it a good idea to have actually every single person participate, evey single person be educated?"

When asked whether spending more than $600 million for higher education for United Technologies’ employees was worth it, the CEO responds:

"Categorically…education is definitely the most powerful force in life. Educated people are more thoughtful. They’re more widely read. They’re more alert to change. They’re more confident."

Educated in my mind is not just obtaining degrees or taking classes. It’s about opening your mind to new perspectives and possibilities, constantly, by being lifelong learners. Being a voracious reader helps. And as my husband has told our two sons, since they were old enough to read, "Readers are leaders."