China Today
Globalization is a fact of life in today’s environment. As Robert described China and India as growing economies we must watch, I simply smiled—as once again we have been thinking alike. Many people think it will take years for China and/or India to approach America’s position as the largest economic power. But this may be yet another example of groupthink in process. Both Robert and I have seen their global impact already.
Recently, I was talking to a friend who lives in Europe, and he mentioned the huge amount of coverage China gets over there, compared with what we have about it in the United States. It’s a very big topic there. There are two facts alone about China that will indicate how that country is doing and where that country is going:
1. The first Starbucks opened in China two years ago. There are now more Starbucks in China than in the United States.
2. In the 1970s, Shanghai had exactly one skyscraper. It now has close to 800.
As a builder of skyscrapers and having a Starbucks in Trump Tower, I find those two facts staggering. Those are just two examples, yet easily visualized examples that should bring something home: China is a big force. Its population is such that one in every five people on the entire planet is Chinese. China has a vibrant economy and workforce and has adapted very well to the new technology. The Chinese are industrious and disciplined. What does this mean? We can either close our eyes and be blown aside, or we can study China and position ourselves to benefit from the changes.
India Today
My two eldest children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, who work at the Trump Organization, were in India recently, so I decided to do some research of my own. But first a story that happened recently at Trump Tower:
Last year, an employee of mine was taking a car service to the airport and was picked up at Trump Tower. The driver was a young man from India, and it was his first trip as a driver to the airport, but he was more interested in finding out if his passenger had ever seen Mr. Donald Trump. My employee replied, “Yes, about five minutes ago.”
The driver was very impressed and said, “You saw Donald Trump five minutes ago? In Trump Tower?”
“Yes, his office is there, and we work there.”
The young man was even more impressed. He said, “You mean Donald Trump works?!” He couldn’t believe his ears. So my employee proceeded to explain the reality of my life, which is long hours in the office, and that we have Post-its, pencils, copy machines and everything else that any office has.
The driver remained impressed and then decided to explain some things about his country while he was navigating his way to the airport. He gave a history of India that was condensed to a few minutes. He also explained that there were hundreds of languages and dialects in his country, a different accent every 30 miles, but that no matter if you were in the provinces somewhere or in Punjab, there were two words everybody knew.
It was my employee’s turn to be curious, and she asked, “What are they?”
The driver took his hands off the wheel to act out and say “You’re fired!” with great glee.
My employee had a good laugh and then kindly asked him if he knew where the airport was, and he said not to worry, he would try to find it. Which, I’m happy to say, he did and with no problem. He obviously had a very good sense of direction, as well as a sense of sharing about his country.
Do we have any sense of the direction India is going? Do we know anything about India?
Here are a few facts to get us going:
• India is the world’s largest, oldest continuous civilization.
• In the last 10,000 years, India has never invaded any country.
• India is the world’s largest democracy.
• India is one of the few countries in the world that gained independence without violence.
• The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6,000 years ago. (Maybe that’s where that young driver was from).
• Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages.
• India was the richest country on earth until the 17th Century, when the British invaded.
• Chess was invented in India.
• India invented the number system. Albert Einstein said: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
• Algebra, trigonometry and calculus originated in India.
• The value of “pi” was first calculated by the mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered it in the 6th century, which was long before European mathematicians.
• India is the largest English-speaking nation in the world.
My point is that India is definitely worth looking into and knowing something about. Plus, 38 percent of doctors in the United States are of Indian descent, and 12 percent of scientists are as well. They represent the wealthiest of all ethnic groups in the United States as well as globally. Education is stressed and many Indians run large U.S. and global corporations.
India itself has become a major economic force on its own once again and deserves our attention, not just as a destination point or a piece of history. India is important to our future, and as globally aware citizens, we need to spend some time learning about this fascinating and dynamic country.
It definitely means the world has some very viable competition, specifically in China and India! Which is good—I’ve always believed that competition can get rid of complacency, and fast. Mark Twain said: “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
That can apply to a lot of things. Let’s give that some thought. How can you use this information to your advantage? The rich will spot the opportunities, while the poor will hide their heads and pretend it isn’t happening.
Can you spot opportunities that may arise from these economic changes?
Robert’s View
Solve Problems
Everyone has money problems. If you want to make yourself rich, solve problems. Identifying a problem creates the opportunity for creating a solution.
Every generation will have its own unique set of financial problems. For my parents’ generation, their challenges included a Depression and a World War. Their solution to those problems was to go
