Israel: build to scale
A prosperous land built on top of scarcity and adversities.
I recently had the experience of spending a week in Israel deep diving into its entire ecosystem. Several different moving parts come together to influence the way that the country, the government, the families, and each person lead their lives and make decisions.
Israel is a country the size of Brazil’s smallest state (Sergipe) with 22,000 km2 and a population of 9,5 million people. With more than half of its land dominated by the Negev desert and the other half divided between hills, mountains, oceans, and seas there is little prospering land to cultivate agriculture in. Unlike its neighbors, Israel has no access to raw commodities like petroleum and in addition to that very little to no water resources. And even though Israel is a politically isolated and war-torn country, it was able to prosper and become one the world’s leading experts in innovation and a start-up builder.
Israel’s GDP per capita is about US $52K and R&D Investment is 5.4% of that. Proportionally speaking, Israel is the country that invests the most in R&D in the world. The Israeli government spends more money on education than it does on its military, a fact that comes most shockingly given the region and geo-political situation that Israel is in. Nevertheless, Israelis understand that to prosper they need to invest in their people to overcome it.
Something that was said in one of the speeches that resonated with me was: "The context of a situation is given, you can't change the context in which you are inserted. What you can do, is accept it and either prosper or complain and fail". The Israelis chose to accept and prosper — make do with what they have.
But how and what turns the engine behind this prospering nation? The mindset.
The Israeli Mindset
“A reform happens when you change the policy of the government; a revolution happens when you change the mind-set of a country.”
- Dan Senor, Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle
It doesn't matter who you talk to and what background that person has, the Israelis have one mindset and they live by it. From the researchers, to the professors, to the founders and the investors they all speak the same language (not literally as the Israelis often have different backgrounds — but they speak the same truth).
The Israelis work for the best of the country and that puts them in an advantageous position of prospering not only for themselves but for the next person as well. This means that everything that is built is built to grow and to scale, to provide for the many and not just for the one. This mentality has allowed them to define a few "rules" that they abide by for all of this work.
Chutzpah
The term most mentioned during our interactions. Chutzpah is to speak your mind, to be audacious, to question common ideas, and to stimulate intellectual challenges. When reading it, seems quite obvious and most would say that they practice or "are" chutzpah — but place yourself in front of your boss, or better yet, your boss's boss. In faced with a situation where you don't completely understand the decision that was made or perhaps even disagree with it, would you speak your mind?
In Israel, it is said that when the kids come back from school parents don’t often ask how their day was or what they learned in class but instead, they ask: did you ask a good question today? From a very young age, they are taught to question and instigate positive discussions.
An important thing to understand is that for this to work, hierarchies must mean very little. People see each other as equal and everyone has a place at the table to discuss and promote ideas.
Tachless
To talk and be straight to the point. Tachless is a Yiddish variation (and Israeli slang) of the actual Hebrew word tachlit, which means “essence” or “purpose”. So when Israelis talk about tachless they both mean the attitude of not beating around the bush as well as working and building for a single purpose and objective. The word tachless also carries the meaning of admiration and doing things with love. In the end when all of that meet it builds extraordinary things.
Firgun
Firgun is more direct to the point definition and it does not need a lot of explanation. Firgun means to give without expecting anything in return. That’s it, that simple.
Global Vision
This is a key factor and probably caused by the scarcity which Israel was forced to overcome. Everything is built to scale, it has to. Israel has no nearby allies. It’s isolated in its region and must look beyond its immediate neighbors to grow. So everything has to be built to have a global reach. The market within Israel is small and around it, it's nonexistent.
Take Risk and Fail
At last, Israelis are not scared to fail or averse to risk. To build extraordinary solutions and companies Israelis have been told that failing is OK as long as they take calculated and yet audacious risks. No one is saying that you should always take the jump, but do not toss out an idea because it scares you, understand it, analyze it, and then decide; is it worth the risk? Statistically speaking, second-time founders are more likely to succeed than first-time founders so take the risk, fail, learn, and try again.
There is a sixth element to it all that helps with the Israeli mindset and culture of growth which I could not leave out of this piece: the army experience.
The Army: Israel Defense Forces
All Israelis are called to serve in the army. During those valuable years, they learn discipline and understand the importance of serving their country; it unites the people and the nation. They end their service with a common mentality of serving the people. They understand that they are there for the greater good, of the nation.
After the army, most Israelis travel abroad and experience the world around them. They become cultured and more diverse individuals. They come back to Israel with new ideas, new experiences, journeys and they exchange. In this tiny country which is Israel, you have perhaps the widest range of individual diversity. And the coming together of this is powerful.
I’m sure that all that was said in theory sounds incredible and unrealistic at times. You try to relate and bring it back to the experiences that you’ve lived and it seemed nearly impossible to function let alone prosper. But rest assured in this small little piece of land in the dead center of the Middle East, it works, it grows, it amazes.
If I have one thing to add, if you have the opportunity, take the time to live it and experience it. It is something truly mind-opening.
If you liked this piece please let me know. This could turn into a series of posts about the amazing places and companies that I had the opportunity to see.
