The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle
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Dan Senor and Saul Singer
Notes
While the United States continues to be rated the world’s most competitive economy, there is a widespread sense that something fundamental has gone wrong.
…either at home, in school, or in the army—Israelis learn that assertiveness is the norm, reticence something that risks your being left behind…there is a tendency to treat all performance—both successful and unsuccessful—in training and simulations, and sometimes even in battle, as value-neutral. So long as the risk was taken intelligently, and not recklessly, there is something to be learned.
Innovation often depends on having a different perspective. Perspective comes from experience.
Israel now leads the world in recycling waste water; over 70 percent is recycled, which is three times the percentage recycled in Spain, the country in second place.
Israel has one commanding advantage: a sense of purpose. Israelis may not have affluence… or the quiet life. But they have what affluence tends to smother: a motive.
New York Times’ Thomas Friedman put it, “I would much rather have Israel’s problems, which are mostly financial, mostly about governance, and mostly about infrastructure, rather than Singapore’s problem because Singapore’s problem is culture-bound.”
“The greatest contribution of the Jewish people in history is dissatisfaction. That’s poor for politics but good for science.”
Peres
It seems that Israel has two other essential ingredients: mission orientation and a cultural acceptance of the need to take risks. Those are the themes that we encourage policymakers and business leaders to focus on.