Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Create your own Moon Shots!!

Dear friends,

Before my class started yesterday, I happened to come across this must read article by Thomas Friedman entitled "Their Moon Shot and ours" in Today page 19.

What is a "Moon Shot"?
Well it is not a tequila shot. It is big multi-billion dollar, 25-year horizon, game-changing investments.

Examples of moon shots by China:-
  • building a network of ultra modern airports;
  • a web of high speed trains connecting its cities
  • buying and using 128 DNA sequencers (one of the world largest collections of such equipment)
The author contrasted that with an example in US ie. a consultant trying to sell its firm's intellectual knowledge on tackling terrorism to US government. He said we should be in race with China and not with Al-Qaeda. I am sure it is not all doom and gloom in US but perhaps we can see our future by looking at US now. While Asia could still be in its economic prime for many years to come, it is not forever.

Singapore too has been quietly and surely building its own moon shots eg. reducing its reliance of imported water by investing in purification plants and network of sewage systems to recycle waste water.

While personally I am not in the league of multi-billion game changing moves for my own career, nonetheless it is important for each of us to invest in ourselves for our ST and LT future. We need to see beyond the horizon and make ourselves relevant to that horizon beyond this horizon.

Create your own moon shots!!!

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