Columbus Day and Spirit of Discovery

In the US we are celebrating Columbus Day which recognizes Christopher Columbus who discovered America. It was October 12, 1492, that the explorer first spotted land after a two-month voyage from Europe.

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1970. Today, it is primarily observed in schools used to teach students a history lesson about America’s dawning days.

In October 1892, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the first “Discovery Day” and asked Americans to “cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”

Rather than a celebration of the man, it honored the spirit of the Americas’ discovery. It was a time of jubilant celebration and displays of patriotism… as well as solemn reflection on the blessings and opportunities we owe to those who came before us.

Those long ago observances celebrated that uniquely American spirit of risk-taking and pioneerism — the same spirit that took a sparsely inhabited wilderness and built it into an ever improving nation rich in freedom, opportunity, and success.

I remember fondly the days when my children were in school, and they would come home after learning their Columbus Day lesson about how Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue” with the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. Columbus Day is certainly a fitting time for that history lesson.

But I can’t help but think that, now more than ever, the real value in Columbus Day can be found not in a lesson from a history textbook, but in a rediscovery of those ideals that made America great.

His journeys inspired other risk-takers and dreamers to test the bounds of their imagination and gave them the courage to accomplish great feats, whether crossing the world's oceans or walking on the moon.

In the spirit of Columbus Day take some time to discover and learn about your company, your employees, your problems, your processes, and your customers so that you can think Lean improvement.