Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, talked of stasis when he said that he has pursued his Blue Origin project because "I believe if we don't, we will eventually end up with a civilization of stasis, which I find very demoralizing. I don't want my great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren to live in a civilization of stasis. We all enjoy a dynamic civilization of growth and change."
The word 'stasis' was absorbed by my brains. It is very, very challenging to stop stopping. At certain points in our lives, there is a period of inactivity other than sleeping. We stand still, intentionally or unintentionally. There is a halt, driven by internal and / or external, visible and / or invisible forces that stop us from doing something.
For some of us, the challenge is how to step forward from that point of stasis. The first thing to do is to know that we are in that status, and the next to do is to know more better than we know before, to seek knowledge.
If we know that something is not right with our status, we have to figure out how to fix it. We just ignore the noises as others do not know the vast 'universe' in our own brains. The word is 'rectify', to make it right, to correct it -- whatever it takes.
The government of United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, is now helping many people living in the darkness to correct their residency status and related problems thru the three-month amnesty period. The fact that many people who were granted amnesty decide to stay for another grace of the government, that is, 3 to 6-month jobseeker visa, shows that they think it is the right thing to do. Many of those who returned to their home countries plan to return back to UAE, and again they think that is the right thing to do.
In Dubai, the future host to World Expo 2020, the people and environment are being driven to knowledge economy. This is the goal. They are opening the door to more talents, not only to rich ones.
See how Jeff Bezos, son of Cuban immigrant, humbly rose to no 1 world's richest, provided jobs to many people and donated substantial amount of money to the needy. He started his Amazon business in a very humble space, where he and his few team members had to kneel down in packaging the boxes for delivery to customers, as there was no packaging table then in their office.
The government's plan to introduce a longer residency visa, 10 years, for investors and certain categories of talents, deserves a praise to have home-grown success stories.
The final implementing guidelines will be announced in the last quarter of 2018. I read an article about a person suggesting that an investor must have at least AED1M and generate a certain number of job opportunities to be granted 10-year investor visa. I forgot to save the link but I will google it later.
Per Alliance Business Advisor newsletter, "UAE has highly attractive and relatively uncomplicated way of obtaining investor visa. If, for example, in the European countries, to receive such visa you need to invest a substantial amount of money or make a company and create new jobs, the UAE investor visa is associated with a very reasonable costs and requirements."
My opinion is that the local government will streamline things and will make it easier and faster for people, particularly those in knowledge circles, to come and apply for investor visa at reasonable costs.
I remember the story of a salesman. He has at least 12 hours (time is gift given to all, equally) to go on field work. Suppose he gets 20% commision for AED100 worth of product, and he can close 10 per day, then he gets AED200 / day or AED5,200 / 26 days or a month. But if he has at least 10 sales associates and he gets an override of 5%, with each to close 10 products a day, then he earns AED13K/override commissions, on top of personal sales. AED13K versus AED5,200 shows the difference when you know mathematics and the power of leveraging. Besides there are more intangible gains like knowledge and skills shared and acquired along the process.
If we are to pursue an economy path with intellectual or knowledge capital -- an intangible asset which is not shown on balance sheets but does matter a lot -- for a great reason, an easy paver for knowledge economy entrepreneurs to share and trade their knowledge and services, is a great attractor.
According to Investopedia online, "The World Bank defines knowledge economies according to four (4) pillars: institutional structures that provide incentives for entrepreneurship and the use of knowledge, skilled labor availability and good education systems, ICT (information and communications technology) infrastructure and access and a vibrant innovation landscape that includes academia, the private sector and civil society."
Incentivizing entities for entrepreneurship and use of knowledge weighs a ton. Encouraging people to be hungry for knowledge, to know more, learn more, to utilize the knowledge and do business in a knowledge economy, by giving incentives -- say, reduced costs in business setting up and registration, speedy processing and approval thereof, flexibility in choice of location with no restriction in area size unless very crucial in the operation, more business centers where spaces can be shared, more virtual offices allowed, payment of fees in installment, etc. -- can help activate growth at all fronts.
Google was founded on 4 September 1998. I recall that in the beta test period, I could only create an account if I was invited by a friend. Now after two (2) decades Google is the king of search engines and free web-based emails, no cost for users, no need also to invite a friend so he can create his account. Users are bombarded with advertisements -- but who cares when it serves the purpose of knowledge / information seekers? From this business model, the utilization of human capital works. Information is traded for free, but the company earns from paid advertisements and other revenue streams. There is a massive base of target audience which they capitalize effectively. Everything gets linked and globally interconnected.
Incentive comes in different packages, including free offerings. To incentivize, according to Cambridge Dictionary online, is 'to make someone want to do something, such as to buy something or to do work, especially by offering prizes or rewards'. One of the examples given: "Headquarters has incentivuzed employees with free offers of tickets to sporting events."
We gift ourselves with what we truly deserve in life if we invest in priceless knowledge which is timely and relevant. It cannot be stolen by anybody else.
So it is a process. Everything in knowledge economy is a process. All informative resources that come to our senses are processed into knowledge thru our human processing center in the brains. It is like refining of something. The more refined our intellectual assets, the more they command a high price.
Passionately magnifying the essence of KNOWLEDGE is the new beautiful or handsome. Wear the brand confidently for growth and change.
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Photo credits: Pixabay
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