I had the opportunity to visit Dubai. This country used to be poor and small, with most of its land covered by desert, like the Safari desert where I am standing now, thinking of ideas to share with you in this article.
Dubai left many overwhelming impressions on me, not because of the country's “renowned” extravagance—police routinely patrolling in Lamborghinis, wild animals like lions and leopards kept as pets by wealthy Dubai residents and commonly seen on the streets, extremely luxurious hotels with rooms starting at $5,000/night… I also tried Dubai's Water Park, with admission costing… more than 3 million Vietnamese đồng per person, while meals at fairly good restaurants here cost nearly $100 each. Without working hard and building businesses over the past 7 years, I probably could not have afforded this place's spectacular travel experiences.
What truly impressed me about Dubai was that although it was already so wealthy, beautiful, prosperous and luxurious, with such successful tourism publicity and so many achievements, it did not ‘rest on its laurels.’ On the contrary, even at such a high level of development, Dubai’s transformation remained astonishingly rapid. Magnificent developments, shopping centers, restaurants, hotels and skyscrapers continued to spring up ‘like mushrooms after rain,’ drawing large numbers of visitors to these spectacular structures. Dubai still looked like a ‘giant construction site,’ with valuable real estate appearing every day, yet its planning did not inconvenience residents or tourists. Despite such success, its pace of change remained extremely fast, making me reflect sadly on some countries that remain poor yet change very slowly, seemingly ‘unwilling to develop.’
As the Finnish friend traveling with me said (I had booked a local tour here): ‘A few years ago, when I visited Dubai, this place (where the vehicle was passing) was still an endless desert.’ The place he referred to is now a busy, bustling highway. Transforming a desert is no simple task. In just a few years, everything changed extremely quickly.
Dubai is like a girl who has won a beauty pageant but whose beauty has reached only 30% of its potential, becoming more beautiful every day.
I read an excellent post about Dubai on Nguyễn Đình Nam's Facebook. It covered all the points I observed, asked about, explored, and wanted to share from my recent trip, so I have taken the liberty of quoting it here. Its wording is intended only to make it approachable and comfortable to read, so please relax, smile, let it pass, and focus on its valuable content.
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The other day I heard 1 story like this:
Dubai is a small kingdom covering 4100 km2, with a population of 2.1 million, 83% of whom are immigrants from India, Pakistan… yet it holds many world records.
– GDP per capita is among the highest, at $65k
– The tallest building: 828m
– The largest seaports, airports, supermarkets…
– 20% of the world's cranes are operating in Dubai.
Until 1970, few people knew Dubai. The entire city had only 3 hotels and a few dozen cars. How did they develop so quickly?
Many think it is because they have oil. Wrong. Oil income accounts for less than 5% of GDP.
Once, Vietnamese officials visited their economy minister to learn from him. He said: This region used to be very poor, mainly fishing and working as porters for traders. There was little land, all sand, and a small, uneducated population. We did not extract the first drop of oil until 1971, and it was far offshore. There were also constant wars with our neighbors. We suffered like beasts. Later, we asked the British to mediate, stopped fighting, and united 7 emirates into the UAE.
If we are not fighting, let's think about making money. We asked the Americans, and they said oil would run out, and 90% of oil-producing countries were miserable—Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria, Venezuela, the Soviet Union… “You specialize in hauling goods, so keep doing that, but take it to a new level.” I said, “I don't fucking get it.” The Americans said, “It's simple. You used to transport goods for people by camel; now use ships, planes and cars.” So we built seaports, airports and roads, charged very low transit fees, built telecommunications systems and exempted all businesses from income tax so they would invest here. That is called infrastructure.
After finishing the infrastructure, we didn't know what the fuck to do, so we asked the Americans again. They said, “Enough hauling goods. Do something else—tourism.” But we only have sand and camels; what will attract visitors? They suggested building big, tall, beautiful, expensive hotels and magnificent shopping centers, hosting top-level golf and tennis tournaments and music festivals… and visitors would come. So we did that too, and it worked.
Again, we didn't know what the hell to do next. The Americans suggested that after transport, tourism and trade, we invest in financial services, healthcare and education. How did it go? Finance and healthcare are doing quite well, but education is harder and will probably take longer.
Vietnam: America has encouraged a billion others too, but not everyone has succeeded like you guys. What's the secret?
Dubai: Probably because my people aren't fucking smart (you lot keep telling that joke that Arabs can't count past 10, so when Soviet experts tell them to pull a grenade's pin, count to 11, and throw it, after counting all 10 fingers, Arab soldiers have to tuck the grenade between their legs to keep counting, and end up getting their dicks blown off, right?). Whatever the British and Americans tell us, we do—no fucking discussion, no resolutions. If it works, we keep doing it; when we finish and have no damn idea what to do, we ask them. Then we keep doing what they say.
Finishing the story, he turned to ask the Vietnamese official:
So how is business going for you guys?
Vietnam: We don't fucking have to listen to anyone. We've got forests of gold and seas of silver, our people are smart and creative, and the wise working class leads the way. Anyone who tries to lecture us will get beaten and chased out.
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Sometimes being too “clever” becomes “foolish”: we think we “know it all,” but it turns out that “what we know is always less than what we do not know,” and “what we know is only a grain of salt, while what we do not know is an entire ocean.”
A startup founder who thinks they know everything, or are so clever that they can just act and fix mistakes along the way—why ask experienced mentors, what do those guys know, only I know my path, I am clever so I ignore anyone who tries to advise me—may reach 60 without knowing success. Another person, a little “naive,” does what they are told but seriously absorbs a mentor's experience, filters and selects what they learn from their teacher, follows it closely with skillful adjustments for their situation, and still understands that the path already exists and success depends on speed and execution, may ultimately succeed before 30.
In my life experience, people who seem a little foolish or naive sometimes succeed more spectacularly than smart people who know everything, a little of each thing. That is not rare. What matters is the drive to improve, fortunate connections, and the luck of finding a good teacher to guide you.
TMT
