I said this in an earlier article and for the sake of emphasis, I’m saying it again. Life is all about choices. The choices you make today will determine your tomorrow. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will repeat this too. Many things, which appear disadvantageous on the surface, are actually not. They may just be camouflaged as such but the discerning individual, equipped with the right attitude will detect the jewel within and make the right choices.
There is always a risk of getting pricked by thorns when you reach out for that beautiful rose but the risk doesn’t in anyway diminish the rose’s beauty. If anything, it only heightens the joy of possessing it. The bold individual will brace up and square up to the situation. He will dig deep within himself to employ his talents and in the process, will invariably discover even greater strengths that he never knew he had. No human being prays for adversity even when it has been shown time and again to bring out the best in us. The tiny state of Israel is a case in point.
Lacking in natural resources, unlike many of its neighbours and situated in the midst of enemy nations that would not think twice about wiping it off the face of the earth, if only they had the capacity to do so, this nation has thrived not just in spite of adversity but because of it. As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of all invention” and one needs look no further than Israel and Jews in the Diaspora to confirm this truism. By making use of innovative technology, Israel has been able to achieve the impossible. It transformed desert into arable land and placed it amongst the world’s leading agricultural nations. No mean feat by anyone’s standard.
Accustomed to living day to day with the very real danger of obliteration, Israel has developed a can-do spirit that you are not likely to see anywhere else. Constant danger and being in a permanent state of alert makes “dynamism” their middle name, as they never have the luxury of time in making crucial decisions. Reminiscent of the words of Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern day Singapore, Israel is fully aware that there are no soft options that will lead it anywhere, therefore from a very young age, its people develop an uncanny ability to make tough decisions on the spot.
Reading the book, Start Up Nation, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer was an eye opener for me. It went a long way to confirm what I already knew, which is the brilliance of the Jewish people but it did more than that. It revealed why they are so brilliant and why they are who they are. I’m one of those people who believes few things in life are totally random. There is usually a history of incidences and circumstances which eventually result in whatever it is we see today and I believe this to be true when it comes to the general character or competencies of a nation’s people too. For instance, the fact that many of the most celebrated fashion designers in the United States are Jews is not by chance. Nor is it a coincidence that most of them are New Yorkers. Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book, Outliers, reveals that these famous designers are in fact descendants of Jews who fled persecution in Europe in the early to mid 1900s and most of them settled in New York, being the shortest distance from Europe. These ancestors of theirs were seamstresses and tailors in Europe so when they landed in the US with little or no education, they turned to what they knew best to do to make ends meet. The likes of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan of New York (DKNY), Bill Blass, Mark Jacobs, Tory Burch, Michael Kors and Kenneth Cole are names you may recognize. They are all American Jews plying their trade at the top of the fashion industry.
So, what is it that makes Israel different? After all, they are not the only country in world history to have suffered prolonged adversity. I believe it lies in the attitude they choose to adopt when facing difficulties. Part of what makes them different can be traced to their determination to turn “disadvantageous” situations into opportunities to innovate. Instead of hoisting their arms up in surrender and despair, they brace up to the challenge and “choose to swim”. If I was asked to pick one word to define Israelis, it would be “innovative”. To quote from the book, Start Up Nation, “something about coming from an embattled sliver of a country – home to just one one-thousandth of the world’s population – makes Israelis skeptical of conventional explanations about what is possible”. The country’s continued existence alone, defies human logic.
The nation of Israel has all the makings of an enigma and the disproportionate success rate of Jews across the globe is something even the most foolhardy cannot deny. The facts and figures say it all. This country of just 9 million people doesn’t only boast of having the highest density of start-ups in the world, it has more companies listed on the US NASDAQ exchange than all European countries put together! Whether you believe their success is divinely ordained or not would largely depend on which side of the religious divide you stand on. However, there is one thing that I want to draw from this and I will do so by asking one question. How would you define a blessing? I ask this because if being blessed means being at peace, facing no conflict or affliction and generally getting things with ease, then “blessed” is definitely not a term one would readily ascribe to Israel. So why does it flourish nonetheless?
It all comes down to attitude. While enduring adversity wherever they found themselves over the centuries, the Jews have acquired useful knowledge, learned valuable skills and developed a mindset that make “disadvantages” work for them. So, contrary to how many of us believe God’s blessings should look like or how we expect them to come, the Jew’s blessings have in fact emanated from consistent persecution. They see themselves as the David in a world of Goliaths. This reminds me of a certain Richard Branson (not Jewish) who regards his dyslexia as an asset in the world of business rather than a liability. Rather than get bogged down by all the distracting details like everyone else, his unique way of looking at things allows him to zoom in quickly on the big picture. That is how the Virgin Atlantic founder was able to, against all odds, take on the British Airways giant several decades ago, and carve out a large chunk of the airline travel market for himself. Perception. Attitude. Mindset.
Changing the nation…one mind at a time
