From the charged particles to typewritten manuscripts, the greatest things in life start out small. Here are seven of the world’s greatest things to inspire you today.

 

1. World’s Greatest City: Cape Town

Want to know where you can find the widest variety of flower species in the smallest amount of space? Of course you do! The answer is in Cape Town, South Africa, the world’s greatest city. Cape Town’s UNESCO-protected floral areas contain nearly 20 percent of Africa’s floral species. The city is also home to Table Mountain (the famous flat-topped mountain that overlooks the city), gorgeous white-sand beaches, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the continent’s largest art museum. Best of all, you can eat at The Test Kitchen, one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

 

2. World’s Greatest Restaurant: Osteria Francescana

Speaking of restaurants, Osteria Francescana, located in Modena, Italy, is the world’s yummiest (and an impressively community-minded) restaurant. Chef Massimo Bottura creates innovative, contemporary art–inspired dishes that shake up Italian culinary traditions, winning him three Michelin stars. He also founded a non-profit association, Food for Soul, which helps communities increase social inclusion and individual wellbeing by fighting against food waste. World-class food made by a world-class chef fighting for a world-class cause? Sì, grazie.

 

3. World’s Greatest Investor: Warren Buffett

What makes Warren Buffett the greatest investor ever? When we break down his strategy, it’s actually pretty simple. Instead of buying and selling stocks every year, Buffett has held onto his stocks long-term, allowing him to retain thousands more money after tax than he would have if he had sold every year.  

From 1965 to 2017, Berkshire Hathaway’s gained 2,404,748 percent. Compare this with the market’s 15,508 percent return. Not bad, eh?

 

4. World’s Greatest Cruise Ship: MS Symphony of the Seas

The Oasis-class cruise ship, which launched in 2018, is 1,188 feet long and has a gross tonnage of 228,081. On this floating city, you’ll find 18 decks, 22 restaurants, 24 swimming pools, a park with over 20,000 tropical plants, and the world’s tallest waterslide at sea. But the MS Symphony won’t hold its title long: The Oasis Class plans to launch an even bigger ship in 2021.

 

5. World’s Greatest Detective: Sherlock Holmes

Who would you vote for? Batman or Sherlock Holmes? We’d say Sherlock Holmes, and not just because he came first, inspired the characters of Batman and other characters, and is also the most-portrayed (literary human) character in film and television. Psh, those are no big deal. It’s Holmes’s signature energy, intelligence, and single-minded devotion to his cases that make him the greatest detective ever.

 

6. World’s Greatest Natural Wonder: Northern Lights

Tumultuous streams of glory gushed,

Ten thousand thousand rainbows rushed

And revelled through the boundless sky,

In jousting, flashing radiancy.

Penned by Scottish poet David Vedder, these words are another way of describing the daily cluster of charged particles that flows from the sun and interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field to create Aurora Borealis. Fun fact: Auroras become more active every 11 years as the sun’s magnetic field flips polarity. Not only are auroras stunningly beautiful, they actually reveal practical information about how spacecraft are affected by space weather.

 

7. World’s Greatest Workplace Culture: Simplus

At Simplus, we measure our success as a company by how well our culture is doing, so we are proud to be recognized as having the best workplace culture. How do we measure our culture? By three values: stewardship, critical thinking, and underdog spirit. We exist to make complex things simple for everyone we work with, and we use these values to keep persisting, together, until problems are solved. Even though we’re growing 300 percent year-over-year, we stay hungry and never quit.

 

“Seek not greatness, but seek truth and you will find both,” said Horace Mann. The truth is, in our complex and often-troubling world, the fact that the Northern Lights, delicious food, crazy-huge cruise ships, and supportive workplace cultures exist makes everything seem better. And we think that’s pretty great.