“Apple market cap touches $600 billion!” Is Brunei being left out?
“Apple market cap touches $600 billion!” news reported by the Wall Street Journal on April 10, 2012 speaks volumes about our national economic standing. The question that we should ask ourselves here is: “Is Brunei being left out?”
In this article, I will firstly outline why I thought of this, secondly how it matters to each citizen of Brunei Darussalam and finally how we should embrace a more entrepreneurial economy by assimilating and adapting the youths in a capitalistic mindset by working part-time whilst studying.
When one tries to compare Brunei Darussalam’s gross domestic product of around $22 billion in 2012 to Apple’s $600 billion, it is like comparing a baby pigeon to an eagle. Simply put, Apple is worth 27 times the total economic output of Brunei Darussalam!!! This is a nation against a public enterprise’s value, the latter worth more than the former, which speak massive volumes in terms of our global standing. That a company is worth much more than a nation is simply hard to digest, at first sight.
But any student interested in national development cannot miss seeing his or her country underperforming against a private enterprise. Apple, a company conceived by Steve jobs in a lifetime, outperforms a nation’s GDP, and has been extending the enterprise to unconquerable heights that only a few can ever hope to achieve.
Does this pose adequate evidence that capitalists are the ones who actually pull the strings of the world?
Why does this matters to Bruneians? It is mind boggling as one starts to comprehend the fact that a public company such as Apple can produce an output than exceeds that of a nation’s which is rich for its oil and gas reserves. Think of it, if Brunei had such an output of $600 billion, where would we all be today? Heck, we would be the Dubai of the East already! Or we could say Dubai was the Brunei of the Middle East!
Brunei has a total of $30 billion in its sovereign wealth fund, which sounds much, but in fact is same to the asset value that one of the most successful global capitalists, George Soros, holds in its fund company. I think it would be better if we’d hire him as one of our main fund managers!!! At least that would multiply our wealth by the folds.
One man, one enterprise. One man, one nation. Guess who wins this race?
Brunei should not be left behind. Some Bruneians think we should not try to copy others, but this is a limiting thinking. The moment when we try to set benchmarks only on ourselves is the moment we become complacent. In my opinion, it is healthy for us to know how other nations are hustling and bustling their way into developing their country. This makes us competitive and keeps us on the edge. The “Kiasu” mindset is there. In this context, however, comparing ourselves with a private company is way beyond our capacity. At least for now.
We all should learn how to run our nation like an enterprise, and we should minimise the number of beggars and bums of society who do nothing but beg and bum around. This includes those youths who are unemployed or at least that is what they consider themselves to be. They say that unemployment is high in Brunei and that recent graduates could not find decent jobs. Well, the message I can give to these people is to try harder! Be a waiter, be a cleaner, do something! Contrary to popular belief, there are actually plenty of jobs to go around, at least that will give anyone experience so they can negotiate with their future employer one day. Not only that it shapes their character.
Why I mention unemployment and jobs all roots in the question of “Is Brunei being left out?”. Apple, Google, Soros Fund Management and the likes are way ahead in their own industries partly because they have capable human capital resources which they can utilise at will. If Brunei is going to be as successful in managing its affairs it has to learn how to build strong human capital resources that are imaginative, visionary and bold as Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and George Soros.
Part of the solution is to have students and the youths taking part-time jobs so as to help them getting into the working mindset early in life. It’s more than just education alone, it’s experience that is necessary to inspire the youths to build up our country. In my article entitled A Capitalist Manifesto of Brunei Darussalam after Oil and Gas it has been outlined how we Bruneians should think as capitalists in order to transform our nation.
To conclude, a private enterprise outvaluing a nation such as ours is simply hard to digest. It shows that our nation is still in need of further development in many fields of endeavour. Our sovereign wealth fund is performing very well, but how well compared to private enterprise management funds? Furthermore, we need more leaders in the nation and most of them will have to come from this generation of youths. Part of the solution is to enforce or coaxe the youths to take part-time jobs in order to help mold and shape their characters. This means: Implementing a capitalistic mindset to finally develop a capitalistic nation.
The greater Brunei Darussalam of 2035 will be of global reckoning.
“Apple market cap touches $600 billion!” news reported by the Wall Street Journal on April 10, 2012 speaks volumes about our national economic standing. The question that we should ask ourselves here is: “Is Brunei being left out?” In this article, I will firstly outline why I thought of this, secondly how it matters to each citizen of Brunei Darussalam and finally how we should embrace a more entrepreneurial economy by assimilating and adapting the youths in a capitalistic mindset by working part-time whilst studying. When one tries to compare Brunei Darussalam’s gross domestic product of around $22 billion in...
“Apple market cap touches $600 billion!” news reported by the Wall Street Journal on April 10, 2012 speaks volumes about our national economic standing. The question that we should ask ourselves here is: “Is Brunei being left out?”
In this article, I will firstly outline why I thought of this, secondly how it matters to each citizen of Brunei Darussalam and finally how we should embrace a more entrepreneurial economy by assimilating and adapting the youths in a capitalistic mindset by working part-time whilst studying.
When one tries to compare Brunei Darussalam’s gross domestic product of around $22 billion in 2012 to Apple’s $600 billion, it is like comparing a baby pigeon to an eagle. Simply put, Apple is worth 27 times the total economic output of Brunei Darussalam!!! This is a nation against a public enterprise’s value, the latter worth more than the former, which speak massive volumes in terms of our global standing. That a company is worth much more than a nation is simply hard to digest, at first sight.
But any student interested in national development cannot miss seeing his or her country underperforming against a private enterprise. Apple, a company conceived by Steve jobs in a lifetime, outperforms a nation’s GDP, and has been extending the enterprise to unconquerable heights that only a few can ever hope to achieve.
Does this pose adequate evidence that capitalists are the ones who actually pull the strings of the world?
Why does this matters to Bruneians? It is mind boggling as one starts to comprehend the fact that a public company such as Apple can produce an output than exceeds that of a nation’s which is rich for its oil and gas reserves. Think of it, if Brunei had such an output of $600 billion, where would we all be today? Heck, we would be the Dubai of the East already! Or we could say Dubai was the Brunei of the Middle East!
Brunei has a total of $30 billion in its sovereign wealth fund, which sounds much, but in fact is same to the asset value that one of the most successful global capitalists, George Soros, holds in its fund company. I think it would be better if we’d hire him as one of our main fund managers!!! At least that would multiply our wealth by the folds.
One man, one enterprise. One man, one nation. Guess who wins this race?
Brunei should not be left behind. Some Bruneians think we should not try to copy others, but this is a limiting thinking. The moment when we try to set benchmarks only on ourselves is the moment we become complacent. In my opinion, it is healthy for us to know how other nations are hustling and bustling their way into developing their country. This makes us competitive and keeps us on the edge. The “Kiasu” mindset is there. In this context, however, comparing ourselves with a private company is way beyond our capacity. At least for now.
We all should learn how to run our nation like an enterprise, and we should minimise the number of beggars and bums of society who do nothing but beg and bum around. This includes those youths who are unemployed or at least that is what they consider themselves to be. They say that unemployment is high in Brunei and that recent graduates could not find decent jobs. Well, the message I can give to these people is to try harder! Be a waiter, be a cleaner, do something! Contrary to popular belief, there are actually plenty of jobs to go around, at least that will give anyone experience so they can negotiate with their future employer one day. Not only that it shapes their character.
Why I mention unemployment and jobs all roots in the question of “Is Brunei being left out?”. Apple, Google, Soros Fund Management and the likes are way ahead in their own industries partly because they have capable human capital resources which they can utilise at will. If Brunei is going to be as successful in managing its affairs it has to learn how to build strong human capital resources that are imaginative, visionary and bold as Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and George Soros.
Part of the solution is to have students and the youths taking part-time jobs so as to help them getting into the working mindset early in life. It’s more than just education alone, it’s experience that is necessary to inspire the youths to build up our country. In my article entitled A Capitalist Manifesto of Brunei Darussalam after Oil and Gas it has been outlined how we Bruneians should think as capitalists in order to transform our nation.
To conclude, a private enterprise outvaluing a nation such as ours is simply hard to digest. It shows that our nation is still in need of further development in many fields of endeavour. Our sovereign wealth fund is performing very well, but how well compared to private enterprise management funds? Furthermore, we need more leaders in the nation and most of them will have to come from this generation of youths. Part of the solution is to enforce or coaxe the youths to take part-time jobs in order to help mold and shape their characters. This means: Implementing a capitalistic mindset to finally develop a capitalistic nation.
The greater Brunei Darussalam of 2035 will be of global reckoning.
