I wouldn’t have thought twice about today being any more significant than yesterday, though thanks to Google I was reminded otherwise. Today is an incredibly significant day in fact – marking the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first steps beyond Planet Earth. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin left our atmosphere on April 12, 1961.

Consider all that goes in to venturing to a new place for the very first time…consider that on a personal level, and then multiply that by the taking on of that venture by a single man on behalf of us all. Wow. Setting out into uncharted time and space comes with calculated risks, but a huge factor of the unknown – and striving to better contemplate that unknown is the fundamental driver in our existence.

Today, I encourage you to celebrate Yuri’s great accomplishment, and consider how much further along we would be today if we sought to collaborate and cooperate, rather than compete, on a global scale and all for the betterment of the human race. There are frontiers out there for the taking, but ‘opposition’ becomes the word to deflate. Think and dream cooperation, and a renewed model to improve our quality of life here on Earth.