LIFE sometimes derails our plans. Some derailments are beyond our control, such as the impoverishment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet others stem from personal mistakes and policy missteps.
On Sept 16, 1963, Malaysia was formed through the jurisdictional merger of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. It saw the birth of a new country with immense promise.
Sadly, on Aug 9, 1965, Singapore was ejected from Malaysia in what was called "Separation". Our truncated country retained the bulk of the people and almost all natural resources.
Singapore, led by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, was cast adrift — a mainly ethnic Chinese island in a vast Malay Archipelago — with few resources other than competent, clean leaders.
Today, in 2022, Singapore's population is about one-sixth of Malaysia's near 33 million. Yet Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of about US$10,000 is one-sixth Singapore's US$60,000.
This means the aggregate GDP of both countries is about equal. What lessons might individuals, regardless of where they live, glean from the journeys of these two linked countries?
Consider these three:
1. Everything in life rises and falls on the quality of leadership, including self-leadership;
2. Working hard separates men from boys; and
3. Working smart separates winners from losers.
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP
In financial planning, personal or self-driven leadership is more relevant than national leadership. However, living in a country with a strengthening currency prospers its populace in absolute global terms more than if the country's currency keeps sliding.
Regardless of currency trends, though, how might personal leadership boost personal finances? Through self-discipline and a stubborn strain of self-sacrifice fuelling a prodigious work ethic.
In George S. Clason's classic book The Richest Man in Babylon, which largely comprises parables set in ancient Babylon and its environs, we meet a character named Megiddo — a farmer-turned-slave.
Addressing another shackled captive named Sharru Nada, as they and others are herded toward Babylon's slave market, Megiddo says: "I don't shirk. I like to work and I like to do good work, for work is the best friend I've ever known."
Later in that same chapter of Clason's masterpiece, Sharru Nada meets Megiddo again. His friend explains: "My master does appreciate my good work for now I am a foreman… Work is helping me to recover from my great trouble. Someday it will help me to buy my freedom and once more own a farm of my own."
Shifting our focus now to one of Lee Kuan Yew's illuminating autobiographical books, From Third World to First, Lee quotes from a 1985 speech he delivered when Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister of Britain, visited Singapore. Lee addressed Thatcher:
"For nearly four decades since (World War 2), successive British governments seemed to assume that the creation of wealth came about naturally, and that what needed government attention and ingenuity was the redistribution of wealth..."
Lee delivered this speech a month before my 21st birthday, while I was at university in London and ignorant of the hard won wisdom he was sharing with Britain's Iron Lady. Today, with 37 years of hindsight, I appreciate how right he was.
Lee continued: "... So, governments devised ingenious ways to transfer incomes from the successful to the less successful. In this climate, it requires a prime minister with very strong nerves to tell voters the truth, that creators of wealth are precious members of a society who deserve honour plus the right to keep a better part of their rewards."
In 1985 Singapore's per capita GDP was US$6,500 against Britain's US$8,200. A decade later, Singapore's number stood at US$26,000, more than 30 per cent ahead of Britain's 1995 per capita GDP of US$19,700.
HEED THE LESSONS
Lee's speech contains clues on how that economic miracle was achieved. He told Thatcher:
"(Singapore has) used to advantage what Britain left behind: the English language, the legal system, parliamentary government and impartial administration. However, we have studiously avoided the practices of the welfare state. We saw how (the British) reduced themselves to mediocrity by levelling down."
I believe Malaysia's per capita level of wealth today, just 17 per cent of our small neighbour's, stems from our failure to optimally harness the identical legacies colonial Britain left us. Personally, though, each one of us can heed precious lessons about what works and what doesn't work in the real world.
No one is stopping us from outworking everyone else around us. The greatest successes I know worldwide heed that truth every day. Thankfully, even if you haven't (yet) unleashed an enriching work ethic upon your sphere of influence, tomorrow is a new day. So, take heart.
REAPING THE REWARDS
While there is breath, there is hope. We can clawback everything that wrong ideas, damaging policies, the pandemic and even personal laziness have stolen from us. Admittedly, doing so will be hard; it will require those of us unaccustomed to learning from others to set aside hubris. But it's possible.
Margaret Thatcher's 1985 response to Lee's speech was simultaneously gracious and humble:
"I like to think that once you learnt it from Britain. And now we are relearning it from you… Talent, initiative, adventure, endeavour, risk, confidence, vigour have made Singapore an example to other nations of success — an example whose clear message is that you can't enjoy the fruits of effort without first making the effort."
© 2022 Rajen Devadason
Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a Licensed Financial Planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via rajen@RajenDevadason.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on YouTube (Rajen Devadason).