"Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion"
--Anna Pavlova
I am a fan of the Jewish people. With the hands of their neighbors at their throats, they manage to pull off some pretty amazing things. With the founding of Israel, they fought the six day war that pitted three well established countries against the fledgling nation, they manage to become victorious. In South Africa, they manage to take one of the most abundant minerals on earth, through clever marketing and supply restriction, turn it into a gem that every man must fork over at least ten percent of his salary to buy for his bride to be. Living in desert which lack the water for even basic functions, let alone growing crops, they managed to, through conservation, recycling and desalinization of the ocean, create an oasis where they now have surplus of water for the nation. In Hollywood, they managed to create an empire by telling people tales that they want to pay good money to see.
Intellect plays a big part in this. The Ashkenazi Jews are one of the smartest peoples in the world, yet there is something beyond just being smart which allow them to achieve all this success. I believe that what allowed them to achieve all that success is their ability to seize the initiative. Someone had to make a choice between living a comfortable live working as an accountant. or go start a new venture making movies. While many people have seen diamonds as a mineral, or even as a gem, it takes someone with initiative to see the future in something that everyone must buy for their bride to be( diamonds were not always the gift of choice from the groom ).
If passion gives you a sense of direction in life, initiative is what converts that sense of direction, along with your intellect, into actual accomplishments. Many of us take what we see everyday for granted. But yet, everything that we touch, from the house we live in to the car we drive to the television that we watch, it did not exist at one point in the human history. Someone, after coming up with an insight into some natural phenomenon, had to be the first human to create it.
Growing up in China, I was not much of a sports guy. I did not understand the zeal that Americans have for sports. It was not until my kids started playing basketball that I realize basketball and sports in general provide great training and build a lot of skills that kids need when they grow up. Basketball is a game that rewards initiatives. A player passes the ball to his teammate. Out of nowhere, a short kid jumps a couple of feet in front of the intended target and steals the ball, then dribbles it all the way to the other side and do a lay up. This is a scene that I see over and over again watching kids play basketball. She just used her initiative to tilt the game in her team's favor beyond the athletic ability and skill the team has.
We Chinese are law and order kind of people, yet if you look at the results, we have a lot of initiatives where it counted. Originally came to build the rail roads, the Chinese made a living operating restaurants and laundry mats. Fast forward to 2017 in the Bay Area, we work as engineers and managers. We are doctors and nurses, We run supermarkets and bakeries. There are Chinese mechanics, insurance sales and real estate sales. In 2007, when the real estates crashed, I know a lot of Chinese bought houses at the low point. If you look at what is happening in China, it is even more impressive. To grow double digit for several decades means millions of companies have to be started from scratch by someone. This happened with Mao still looming large, where everything was owned by the state, with the stultifying mindset from that era. The Chinese went from making shoes and toys to making everything under the sun. Now they are pushing to be a big maker in robotics.
However, if you observe who are taking these initiatives, it is still a small minority of the population. The vast majority could do a lot better. They will do a lot better if we teach kids from a young age to do more things of their own will. Kids should learn from a young age to take the bull by the horn. Sports is an excellent tool to teach kids take more initiatives.
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