Transcription
How do you build one of the richest countries in the world without oil, without goal, without even enough land to grow your own food? Singapore's founding father had an answer, and it might change how you think about success. Let's hear from Lee Kuan Yew.
"What makes a nation succeed? Its achievement depends first and foremost upon the quality of its people. Next, the quality of its leaders. Next, the natural resources of the territory." That's Lee's hierarchy of success: people, leaders, resources. And you know what? He's got a point. Many resource-rich countries have turned oil into well, political instability. Resources help, but there are no guarantee of success.
Lee tells Singaporeans, "It's not about what you have, it's about what you do with it. It's basically the anti-lottery mindset." We had an energetic people, high learning speed, they had stamina, they had endurance, they had a high threshold for pain. How much? Well, in Chinatown, you have cubicles, eight or 10 people in the room sharing four bunks because they do shift work, save money. So Lim Kim San, who was who built our HDB flats, once went to a Chinatown cubicle and the man covered himself with a blanket. Pretty warm. So he said, "Why are you with a blanket?" He said, "Because my friend is using my trousers." The sharing economy existed long before people built apps.
I did not do a course in government. But if I did not learn and argue and read and talk and analyze and get to the basics, we wouldn't have got here. We had a group of men who were committed to getting things done because we believed we had assumed that responsibility, and if we didn't discharge it, calamity will be our responsibility.
Even world leaders agreed. How could a country with such a small area and few resources be making such strides? And then I met Prime Minister Lee, and my questions were answered. He is a man of principle and vision. His leadership has provided the vigorous and creative people of Singapore the means to move ahead, to achieve, and to build. Singapore's experience has been in stark contrast to developing countries where political power has been derived from terror and brute force. Instead, Prime Minister Lee's authority has rested on his capacity to mold the opinion of his countrymen and build consensus. He has used his position to free the talents and energy of his people so they could be channeled into constructive society-building activity.
And so Singapore's disadvantages didn't matter that much. But there was one other imponderable which we had, intangible. Without Malaysia those two years, we could not have made it because the place was too fractious, too quarrelsome, the communists were too powerful, too many strikes, too many troubles. Two years in Malaysia taught everybody a real lesson that if we want to survive, we submerge our differences and get going. So after separation, strikes went down, Chinese chauvinism declined, less trouble. The worst chapter in your life becomes the most important lesson. In leadership terms, never waste a crisis.
We got the economy going. And the first thing we insisted upon was honest, efficient government, which means honest, effective ministers. Because without that, you can't have honest, efficient civil servants. Just not possible. And to have honest, efficient ministers, you must have honest MPs, people who can mobilize, inspire their constituents, their people as worthy of trust and leadership. In other words, dedicated men. Good people make good leaders, and good leaders bring out the best in their people. It's a loop. Break it at the top, and the pyramid starts to rot.
Everyone has a theory for why Singapore succeeded. Lee's version: start with good people, add committed leaders, hold the country together in tough times, and repeat for decades. Singapore didn't win the lottery. She wrote the recipe. Thanks for watching.