Can We Gain Success Without "Resources"?

Can you gain success without much resources? Yes!

Let's look into the history book......

At first glance, Hong Kong and Singapore are undeniably similar. Both are small densely populated city-states with a predominantly Chinese population of immigrant stock. Despite having virtually no natural resources, their strategic locations and excellent harbors led the British to acquire them in the early nineteenth century for the primary purpose of trading; Hong Kong was to become a center for the China trade while Singapore was founded to counter the Dutch monopoly in South-East Asian maritime commerce.

In their roles as British free ports, both economies prospered from entrepot trade and later “diversified … into the production of labor-intensive manufactures for the world markets. Hong Kong did so in the early 1950s when its entrepôt trade with China was closed off by trade embargoes following China’s involvement in the Korean War.

Singapore’s export-oriented industrialization took off only after its separation from Malaysia in 1965. In the 1970s, both city-states moved into services, including finance, transport and communications, and tourism. In both places, export-led growth, accompanied by slowing population growth, brought full employment and rapidly rising standards of living. They’re also among the few countries in the world whose foreign trade exceeds their GDP.(Kenneth Tan, May 2002)

Tin :- Besides ample land, the Malay Peninsula also contained substantial deposits of tin. International demand for tin rose progressively in the nineteenth century due to the discovery of a more efficient method for producing tinplate (for canned food). From the 1840s the discovery of large deposits in the Peninsula states of Perak and Selangor attracted large numbers of Chinese migrants who dominated the industry in the nineteenth century bringing new technology which improved ore recovery and water control, facilitating mining to greater depths. By the end of the century Malayan tin exports (at approximately 52,000 metric tons) supplied just over half the world output. Singapore was a major center for smelting (refining) the ore into ingots.

Rubber :- While tin mining brought considerable prosperity, it was a non-renewable resource. In the early twentieth century it was the agricultural sector which came to the forefront. The cultivation of rubber-yielding trees became commercially attractive as a raw material for new industries in the West, notably for tires for the booming automobile industry especially in the U.S. Cultivation on estates generated economies of scale. In the 1870s the British government organized the transport of specimens of the tree Hevea Brasiliensis from Brazil to colonies in the East, notably Ceylon and Singapore. By 1921 the rubber acreage in Malaysia (mostly in the Peninsula) had reached 935 000 hectares (about 1.34 million acres) or some 55 percent of the total in South and Southeast Asia while output stood at 50 percent of world production. Singapore was a major centre for rubber based manufacturing.

This is a very good example where YOU can gain success without much 'resources' -understanding and gaining the formula of success is essential . Let's continue on the history.....The resource rich country awakes!

The Federation of Malaysia, formed in 1963, originally consisted of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah. Due to internal political tensions Singapore was obliged to leave in 1965. Malaya is now known as Peninsular Malaysia, and the two other territories on the island of Borneo as East Malaysia. Prior to 1963 these territories were under British rule for varying periods from the late eighteenth century. Malaya gained independence in 1957, Sarawak and Sabah (the latter known previously as British North Borneo) in 1963, and Singapore full independence in 1965.

Malaysia is generally regarded as one of the most successful non-western countries to have achieved a relatively smooth transition to modern economic growth over the last century or so.Since the late nineteenth century it has been a major supplier of primary products to the industrialized countries; tin, rubber, palm oil, timber, oil, liquified natural gas, etc. However, since about 1970 the leading sector in development has been a range of export-oriented manufacturing industries such as textiles, electrical and electronic goods, rubber products etc. Government policy has generally accorded a central role to foreign capital, while at the same time working towards more substantial participation for domestic, especially bumiputera, capital and enterprise.

By 1990 the country had largely met the criteria for a Newly-Industrialized Country (NIC) status (30 percent of exports to consist of manufactured goods).While the Asian economic crisis of 1997-98 slowed growth temporarily, the current plan, titled Vision 2020, aims to achieve "a fully developed industrialized economy by that date. This will require an annual growth rate in real GDP of 7 percent" (Far Eastern Economic Review, Nov. 6, 2003).

Malaysia is perhaps the best example of a country in which the economic roles and interests of various racial groups have been pragmatically managed in the long-term without significant loss of growth momentum.

So what's the secret of gaining success without much 'resources'?...soon!

Team Education - The Key of SUCCESS

Team education is a powerful learning tool. Peer influence motivates team members to be the best they can. The sharing of knowledge increases knowledge for everyone in the team while developing responsibility skills with a commitment to reach a common goal. Motivation is high. Anyone at any education level who is in a team that shares knowledge and decisions will produce the same attitudes. The problem is, non-college employees are put in an environment where they only take orders. Taking orders without input produces the opposite effect, a lack of responsibility with a lack of motivation. Lack of opportunity to be a team player creates the impression that non-college people can't learn or assume responsibility.

Team Education - Team member training team member is the most powerful education system in the world. The team has a common goal and all give input to reach that goal. Motivated team members set the example that others want to follow. Team members learn to be responsible for each other. The attitude "this is our task" replaces the destructive attitude "that is your problem, not mine." Peer pressure is a highly motivating force.

Learning by Teaching - Students teaching students expands knowledge of all while creating a desire to learn. The teacher and the student both develop a better understanding of the concept.

Research and Analyzing - Knowing how to find information and analyze it for quality, is a developed skill. There is a lot of garbage out there mixed with a few gems of quality information. Knowing how to identify the gems and adapt them to your project is the secret to being viewed as a genius.

Self-education - With today's fast-changing technology, self-education skills can be more valuable to an employer than formal education. New concepts must always be learned and there is no time to go back to the classroom for knowledge. Self-educated people learn to take responsibility for their own education. Time or money is not a hindrance.

Trial and Error, Learning by Doing - People learn when they try and fail. If people do not have opportunity to try, they will never fail. If they never fail they will never learn. It takes many experiments to find the correct answer. People trying and failing is different from taking orders and failing.

Instinctive Knowledge - Innovation, inventions, or winning strategies are produced by mixing experience with instinctive knowledge. Opportunity is often found in our gut feelings. Instinctive knowledge only works for people who are motivated, either to find a better way if positively motivated or to find ways to do less if negatively motivated.

Changing The Mindset

A high percentage of well-paid blue-collar workers started their career at the bottom, they did not serve a formal apprenticeship. As teenagers, they were education rejects and did not know what their natural talent was. They searched for jobs in environments that appealed to them.

Then suddenly, by accident, they were offered opportunity that was in harmony with their natural talent. Being motivated, they learned a professional skill fast and advanced. Many successful blue-collar professionals started at the bottom of the ladder and accidentally found opportunity.

Instead of waiting for an accident to happen, why not train teenagers on how to start from the bottom?

What is wrong with starting a career at the bottom of the ladder and working up? Many successful people started their career this way. Why not make it an element of career planning?

People who have opportunity to start a few rungs up are given advice on how to advance. Why not do the same for people who don't have that opportunity and must start at the bottom?

Our society says no one should start at the bottom of the ladder. Get an education and start a few rungs up. This is fine for people with the resources to acquire the skill that puts them in the lead, but there will always be people needed at the bottom, there will always be people willing to fill those slots and there will always be people without the resources to start at a higher level.

Society seems to think, anyone who starts at the bottom will stay there. There is no reason to stay at the starting position. With aggressive attitudes, individuals can move up, but they need to know how.

In the blue-collar world, job-hopping is the way to advance until one is employed by a high wage company. Low wage companies are training grounds for high wage companies. High wage companies hire quality and experience, requirements that can be acquired by job-hopping from the bottom.You say you heard that job-hopping is bad for your résumé. That is true in the white-collar world, not the blue-collar.

In the blue-collar world, a high percent of skilled craftsmen do not go through a formal apprentice program, they start as helpers or machine operators. At job interviews, interviewers are not interested in years attended school, they are interested in work ethics, level of ambition and the ability to follow instructions. In other words, they are looking for positive self-esteem. This type of person will adapt easily to the company's needs.

Once on the job, unskilled have opportunity to work with skilled craftsmen and gain experience. Opportunity for advancement is based on the desire to learn, which is based on knowing how to learn. There are always tasks between unskilled and skilled. The aggressive worker can fill that void and, in time, become a qualified craftsman.