Dandapani on Unwavering Focus: Hindu Priest & Former Monk
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Generally speaking, I advocate for entrepreneurship as being originating something entirely new – taking it from zero to one, so to speak. This endeavour doesn't strictly have to be a technical startup or a monumental success. The main focus is on initiating something on your own, which essentially leads you into the journey of entrepreneurship. It's a voyage that can be challenging and intricate, marked by a series of failures. Moreover, it's a path that you'll often tread alone.
I think there was a moment around 2009 to 2011 when states got caught off guard a little. They didn't realise social media had the potential it did. And then I think it didn't take very long for authoritarian regimes to get smart and realise they could actually use these tools to stay in power.
What I mean by that is compensation systems- especially for traders- that created go for broke incentives. If you won big, you became fabulously wealthy- and if you lost big- you got a comparative slap across the wrist.
From about 2000, Africa has come into an economic renaissance: Between 2000 and 2008, we saw a marked improvement in macro-economic stability, with inflation falling and interest rates hitting single digits even in areas like Nigeria. We have seen robust GDP growth, 17% in Angola and 5.5% in Ghana and Nigeria in 2008 for example, combined with increases in FDI, which was up 25% year on year between 2000 and 2005.
For me, freedom is living outside social norms, realising that power structures are an illusion and realising that the rules we put on ourselves and others are also illusions. Freedom means that we realise that we don't subscribe to illusions, and free ourselves from dogma.
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