The word “Prosperity” is sometimes considered paradoxical in third world countries. But in its actual connotation, it is a cue of stability, happiness, mind-satisfaction, comforts, reliability, innovations, and it does not bring social unrest. Many questions are arising in our mind right now, few of them are Why prosperity is considered as an unachievable artefact in the third world countries? why everything looks impossible in our mind? Are we scared of failures? We will try to solve these questions by and by.
Why is prosperity considered an unachievable artefact in third world countries?
In its explication, prosperity is itself an innovation, which can be brought within our mind to deliver it physically in different ways. We often have seen various innovations in developed countries, one of the great examples is Japan, the third-largest economy in the world right now. Today after 100 years, Japan is considered as one of the advanced countries. If we say, it is the first country where any sort of innovation comes very first, then it will be correct also.
Back in its 1920’s, Japan was a penurious country that suffered from a retrenchment after the boom of the first World War, for most of the decade, the economy remained dull with low economic growth and less infrastructure or not at all, where prosperity was a paradox in the mindset of Japanese people. Henry Ford, who was an American-Industrialist and the founder of Ford Motor Company, thought to introduce his Automotive Industry in Japan. Where thousands of people lived below the poverty line, the chances of prosperity were less. In 1925, his company introduced a vehicle named “T-model” in Japan, only a few hundreds of cars were sold in its first phase. The car was made according to the road infrastructure in Japan. At the time Japan had only 9000+ kilometres of roads, of which only 1000+ kilometres of roads were in use, but they were not in a better condition. Henry Ford’s story is impressive, that how he made it possible in Japan, and switched non-consumers into consumers by introducing cheap vehicles, and paved new roads with the help of the government of Japan. He made prosperity possible in a country where it was impossible. Today Ford Motor Company is the 6th largest automaker industry with its 5.7 million sales worldwide.
Why everything looks impossible in our mind?
“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
-Nelson Mandela
Before anything we achieve, looks everything impossible. The success story of Mo. Ibrahim; could help us better, to understand the long road to prosperity. He is a Sudanese-British billionaire and has worked for several telecommunication companies before he found Celtel in African countries. Before starting his journey, when he first told his friends about the idea, he was being discouraged by them, they showed no maturity and called him dumb. But Mo. Ibrahim was on its way to bring prosperity in Africa in the 1990s, where people used to travel seven days to talk to their family, neither they had employment source nor adequate resources in life. His idea to introduce scratch-cards, cheap cellphones and telecommunication towers at the land where there were only non-consumers, and the people live below the poverty line, was quite dangerous but not impossible. Today he has sold over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries and has invested $750 million in these territories. Celtel has also given vast employment opportunities, which have changed the lives of thousands of people in Africa.
Are we scared of failure?
From the above discussions, it is clearly understood that prosperity is not a piece of cake, but it is just the tip of the iceberg of success. We often think that before we do anything, we should learn from others’ mistakes, so that we can go forward without making too many mistakes. But in actual life, failures are the first step to success. Henry Ford and Mo. Ibrahim thought to bring innovations but they were not sure enough if their ideas will pave the way to prosperity, and they failed many times, yet they did not lose their high hopes for prosperity. They did it, because they believed in themselves, instead of focusing on the problems they choose to go for solutions. Life is all about ups and downs, but in that ambience, we need to work hard and make things possible in a smarter way. These two great minds are just an example of thousands of people, who are involved in bringing distinct innovations to the world.
