Street Smart vs Book Smart

As-salam and Good Evening,

Today, at the GAAM gathering, i met with Pok Cik, a long time friend from my A-Level period. He managed to further his study in Germany, whereas i was here, "furthering" my study at UNITEN. I really dont want to talk about why such thing happened. I believe most of my readers are learned and able to deduce why.

Well, our conversation ranges lots of thing. From mh17 to MAS and slowly move towards Proton dilemma. Then, we touched on success in life, particularly on whether paper credentials really help an entrepreneur. While me myself do believe that those credentials help the person, one cannot denies the ingenuity of a natural born business person.

He believes that, what ever it is the papers show you, the most important substance is the "daring" spirit with huge common business sense. He proved to me that many billionaires and including him, are successful in business regardless the magnitude of the return. I do agree with him. Take a look at the list of top 10 billionaires in the world, most of them are street smart. These street smart rely on guts and observation. Taking into their experience with people and stakeholders, pointing straight at their target, and never look back.

However, one cannot discredit the book smart. They are trained with the most updated tools and skills that very useful in the business. Tools and skills they received in business schools or any training center will add the value and able to compete with the street smart. Plus, they are trained in pitching and negotiating, together with compelling writing technique to woo the financier. These book smart leverage on careful study and thorough research in making their business decision.

Well, i want to add up another group. I think, we should have more of this. A hybrid of street smart and book smart. A combination, a synchronization and a unique mixed that has the tools and skills of book smart with spirit and ingenuity of street smart. Surely such mixture will create wonders. Imagine the decision making process will be amplified at large and the guts of taking risk will be moderated by comprehensive analyzed data.

Therefore, i believe, we cant discount any of these two groups and together steered them towards becoming the third group. The street smart has to gain the paper credentials, at least to raise their level of trust. It will help them in wooing the stringent financier. The book smart must have the spirit of risk taking. Have a bit of guts and trained the guts to adapt with the bid data provided. It shall be a wonder.

I guess, the Government realized this matter. With the establishment of MaGIC and various agencies to help nurture young entrepreneurs and SMEs, we hope the hybrid will benefits us, the Rakyat with high income job, low unemployment, high innovation. Take a look at the Koreans, Kia and Hyundai. I read it in Harvard Business Review (HBR), the Koreans have the eastern work ethics, complemented with guts of the western. The hybrids are proven.

Regards

Azwan