Jun 21, 2017
Wannabe Entrepreneurs?
“Addressing the Silicon Gulf: From Tribal Raiding & Trading to Modern Innovating and other Western Misconceptions”
Egregio signore Lorenzo Niola,
While I’m sure you meant wannabe in a playful and non-derogatory way (i.e. not as a poser, follower, charlatan of sorts, or someone who copies or imitates all or most of the aspects dealing with the ideal) and certainly not in a Spice Girls sort of way either, I please ask that you choose your words wisely. Some of us in Kuwait can be quite sensitive.
Please do not consider this a personal attack on you. By all means and as Arabs, we Kuwaitis are proud of our hospitality, just as much as we are proud of our country and our heritage.
You see, before oil was blissfully discovered on the 22nd of February 1938, our grandfathers used to dive for pearls and then traverse the seas to the Indian subcontinent and sell them in order to buy rice, spices and other necessary items.
Actually, even a millennia and couple of centuries before Kuwait was founded as a modern state in 1613, we Arabs were world renowned traders (and raiders, but we won’t get into that now). My own tribe was famous for sending two sets of caravans from Makkah all the way to Damascus/Yemen and back. In fact, there is a Quranic verse that captures this very ritual:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
1) For the covenants (of security and safeguard enjoyed) by the Quraish,
2) Their covenants (covering) journeys by winter and summer,-
3) Let them adore the Lord of this House,
4) Who provides them with food against hunger, and with security against fear (of danger).
Unfortunately, the general contempt of the west for our more modern entrepreneurial endeavors in the Middle East is nothing new. I use the word endeavor, because back in 2010, the perennially cheshire cat smiling founder of Endeavor.org, Linda Rottenberg, famously claimed that the word ‘entrepreneurship’ didn’t even exist in the Middle East until her organization brought it here.
Now, I certainly do not have a problem with exuberant entrepreneurial experts that are in the business of helping other startups start up even though they may or may not have started any startups themselves. I take issue with certain corporate crusaders who believe that they are coming to our oil blessed/cursed region to show ‘them Arabs’ a thing or two about innovation and entrepreneurship.
Of course we welcome our guest with open arms and we are happy to pour you a finjan of Arabic coffee and an istikana of tea (remember to shake the small cup when you are done Donald), but please do not come to proselytize the Silicon Valley, Silicon Shire, Silicon Docks or Silicon Allee way. We have our own Silicon Gulf ways.
Now regrettably, we are partly to blame for the misconception that Arabs know naught about entrepreneurship. A merchant mentality still prevails even amongst the youth of today. International arbitrage is king as many local entrepreneurs still prefer to raid the intellectual property of the west and east creating a proverbial Silicon Gulf in terms of expertise and innovation.
What’s chiefly concerning however, is that many of our decision makers still suffer from the so-called “Khawaja Complex” They are bewitched by economic hit men and experts with blue eyes or blonde hair that work for entities pre-fixed by the words “world” or “united.” This is indeed something I have experienced personally during my former life as a management consultant and government advisor.
“But your sheikhness, he has an Ivy League degree”
“Yes I know, but he is dressed in a dishdasha”
“Well, he is from Kuwait isn’t he?”
“Exactly, why are we working with someone that is from here?”
Unfortunately the buck does not stop there, since our governments and national champion companies are more often than not plagued by nepotistic hiring tendencies. The powers-that-be tend to overlook technocrats and instead prefer to empower boxocrats. What’s a boxocrat you ask? It’s a bureaucrat that is as empty as a box or can, which we call قواطي in Kuwait. Why the extra ‘O’ after the word box? Apart from the fact that I personally hate it when two consonants are too close, the extra O represents the open space where the brain of the boxocrat is supposed to be.
So while these boxocrats are tasked with steering the ship of our collective future welfare, many capable technocrats are left on the sidelines, some of whom even end up writing cathartic blog posts.
The Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. The Romans used to divide it into three parts — Arabia Petraea (from the Latin -petrus which means rocky, this is also the root of the name Peter and the first part of petroleum), Arabia Desserta (self-explanatory) or Arabia Magna (“Great Arabia”) and Arabia Felix (from the Latin “fecund, fertile” but also “happy, fortunate, blessed which gives a special meaning to my former home sickness cure spot). The point I am trying to make is that whether you are taking about Arabs in Africa or Arabs that live in between the red sea of Qulzum to schizophrenic Arabian/Persian Gulf (let’s just call it the Islamic Gulf), we have a strong and proud tradition of entrepreneurship. I mean, you are by default extremely entrepreneurial if you choose to live in a desert.
Yes, today, our gulf may be mostly a technological one but that is changing rapidly. Recent celebrated exits (both announced and unannounced) and unicamel statuses aside, it is important to highlight how our region has progressed tremendously in the post $145 per barrel days of steady oil price decline. Entrepreneurs are increasingly stepping out of their comfort zones, setting up myriads of different businesses across different industries. They are breaking down traditional barriers and joining together into a single strong modern Arabia Magna, making Arabia great again.
I am very confident that we will (and are) eventually moving away from a mentality focused on trading and raiding to one focused on innovating and cultivating. It is also supremely self-evident, that we will get there as most entrepreneurs do, by the brute obtrusiveness of our own oil-slicked boot straps.
Distinti saluti,
Docere Mussaad M. Al-Razouki
