Over the past several decades, I’ve taught business professionals from Latin America and traveled extensively through countries often grouped under the label “Global South.”

If there is one conclusion I’ve come to, it’s this:

There is far more world-class talent in these countries than many people in the United States or Europe seem to realize.

This isn’t theoretical for me. It’s based on experience.

I have lived in Mexico for ten years and traveled through most of its states. Over time, Mexico has become more than a place where I work. It has become part of my identity.

In my classroom, I’ve worked with Mexican executives who manage international operations while studying English at night. I’ve seen engineers who move comfortably between technical precision and strategic thinking. I’ve met entrepreneurs building companies that operate across borders — often without the institutional support their counterparts in the Global North take for granted.

And yet, I sometimes sense a quiet insecurity — an assumption that “real” innovation or sophistication lives somewhere else.

That has not been my experience.

Mexico alone offers powerful evidence of global impact.

Grupo Bimbo is the largest bread producer in the world, operating across dozens of countries.

Modelo Especial is the best-selling beer in the United States.

Mexican cuisine has become global — not just popular, but influential. Mezcal is one of the fastest-growing categories in premium spirits worldwide. Mexican companies operate across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia in ways that often go unnoticed in U.S. conversations.

And Mexico is not just exporting products. It is exporting professionals — engineers, doctors, architects, creatives — who compete at the highest levels internationally.

What has struck me most is not just competence.

It is adaptability.

In Mexico, as in many countries I’ve visited — India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and South Africa — professionals are accustomed to navigating volatility. Economic shifts, political uncertainty, infrastructure challenges — and still they build, innovate, and compete.

That creates a kind of resilience that is difficult to teach.

I’ve met government officials and medical professionals in Chile whose expertise rivals anything I’ve seen in Washington or London. I’ve seen young programmers in India teaching themselves advanced coding languages in modest internet cafés. I’ve visited factories in Morocco and India operating with precision under constraints that would frustrate many Western firms.

I’ve had dinners in Buenos Aires, Lima, and Mumbai that would compete easily with the best restaurants in New York or Paris. I’ve met professionals across Latin America, Africa, and Asia who move between five or six languages with ease.

And yet, there remains a quiet assumption in parts of the Global North that excellence flows primarily from a few traditional centers.

That assumption feels increasingly outdated.

Over time, something else became clear to me.

Many of the people I’ve met in these places underestimate themselves. They assume that “real” innovation or sophistication lives somewhere else.

From what I’ve seen, that belief is misplaced.

Perhaps I’m able to see this more easily because I grew up in California.

Today, California is arguably one of the centers of the global economic universe. But it hasn’t always been that way. For the Spanish Empire, California was peripheral — distant, marginal, far from the core of power. Even within the United States, California was once considered remote and undeveloped.

My grandparents didn’t go to California because it was the center of anything. They went because it offered opportunity precisely because it was peripheral. It was a place where reinvention was possible.

History has a way of shifting what we consider “central” and what we consider “marginal.”

That’s part of why I hesitate when I hear assumptions about where talent resides. I’ve seen too much ability, intelligence, and resilience in places that are still described as emerging or secondary.

I’m not predicting which countries will dominate the future. I’m not arguing that one bloc will win over another.

What I am saying is this:

After years of living in Mexico, teaching across Latin America, and traveling through countries that are too often underestimated, I feel more optimistic than the headlines would suggest.

Because the intelligence is there. The work ethic is there. The creativity is there. The adaptability is there.

And if history teaches us anything, it’s that today’s periphery can become tomorrow’s center.

If the future is shaped in part by the people I’ve met — in classrooms, factories, offices, and cafés across these countries — then I feel hopeful.