I don’t watch a lot of sports. To tell you the truth I’d like to watch more, it would give me more in common with a lot of folks that I know. But the fact is, unless it is a pivotal San Diego game (Padres or Chargers) or the X games I’m bored out of my skull before long and have gone to clean the garage or hit the beach.

Except for every couple of years when the Olympics roll around and I am completely hooked. I don’t know why or what it is about the Olympics, but I am. So like a few million others I watched the opening ceremonies the other night and it actually lived up to the hype. It was off the hook good as far as I was concerned.

But here was what I really took away from those 4 hours:

As I watched the opening sequence, 2008 drummers created a roar that made the fireworks pale in comparison. I was taken with the power of the mass of humanity. It was an incredible site and from the wide shots, it looked like a choreographed ant farm creating the thunder of heaven. But then they started showing some close ups of the drummers. They smiled, they laughed, they yelled, they sang, they had passion and yes, they were all damn fine drummers. I’ve drummed a bit in my life and these were all masters at what they did.

Then there were the Tai Chi masters, 2008 of them, in perfect harmony. Again, I’ve done enough Tai Qi to know that these folks weren’t the beginning class from the Beijing YMCA, these were seasoned practitioners that had done this for years and years. And then, on those incredible close up shots, you saw the passion, the joy, the personality, the individual mastery.

This was repeated over and over in each chapter as the opening ceremonies unfolded. An incredible mass, moving in perfect sync with each other. But beyond that, I saw that each of the 15,000 who performed were total professionals. They each one had attained a degree of success (can we say greatness?) in their chosen field.

And then they came together. Without sacrificing anything that they had achieved individually, they united and created something the world had never seen before. They raised the bar.

I don’t know about you, but I see more than a few parallels between those opening ceremonies and what’s happening on the internet via things like blogs and social media sites like Facebook. How can we use these amazing tools and combine our individuality, personality and areas of expertise (yes, GREATNESS) with those of like mind for the benefit of this planet and people everywhere?

I’m still not that good at Tai QI or drums, but I feel very grateful to be in this company and very excited about the future.