The Korean Adventure and Lessons Learned

The Korean adventure and lessons learned.

I have just returned from Korea after one of the most exhilarating weeks in my whole career. We launched my latest Korean book, Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet for teenagers amid great reviews by the press and reports that our first book became the most sold self help book in the history of Korea and all books combined have now sold over 2 million copies. To me it is simply incredible and it feels as if I am living a dream.

I don’t think I have worked so hard in my life. My first day started with a press conference, then television interviews and the participation in two one hour television programs.

The second day I had interviews during the day and at 7pm I spoke at Yonsei University with a turnout of 700 people. After the speech I signed at least 200 books.

The third day I opened with a breakfast speech to 150 Korean CEO’s, followed by a luncheon speech to 150 executives from Korean companies and a book signing afterwards. At 3pm I had the privilege of speaking to students of one of the most prestigious and oldest high schools in Korea, the Bosung High School, founded in 1906.

The experience of speaking to these Korean high school students was marvelous. They welcomed me with a standing ovation and during the speech you could hear a pin drop in that gigantic auditorium. They were well dressed, disciplined and well behaved, a great testimony of the excellence of that school. .

My last day in Korea was Friday and I closed with a book singing in Kyobo, Korea’s largest bookstore. I have never seen a bigger bookstore than that one. It has to be at least four or five times the size of Borders in Plaza Las Americas. And it was packed

Like every other country in Asia and in the world, Korea is going through a very critical economic period. People are very worried and they have good reason to be.

They look at the US and they understand that we are close to being in a depression. Unlike recessions, which are easy to define, there are no set rules for what makes a depression. Recessions have two definitions, both going on now, two straight quarters of economic contraction, or when the National Bureau of Economic Research makes the call.

A depression could be defined as a downturn of three years or more with a 10 percent drop in economic output and unemployment above 10 percent. I am afraid that if we use this definition, PR is in the middle of a depression right now.

Korea has no natural resources, yet with only the intelligence, values system and hard work of Koreans, they have catapulted that country to number 13th among the riches countries in the world.
It is the world’s second fastest economy for the last forty years and to give you an idea of its growth, in 1957 it was tied with Ghana in GDP and today it is 17 times bigger than Ghana without natural resources and Ghana with lots of natural resources. One of their biggest companies, if not the biggest, Samsung alone would rank as the 34th biggest economy in the world.

They certainly feel very comfortable with the Marshmallow principle since they have the second highest saving rate in the world.

They have one of the best educational systems in the world and presently rank 7th in the latest educational index.

Although in today’s turbulent world predictions have to be taken with a grain of salt, Goldman Sachs predicted that by 2050 their GDP would quadruple to 4 trillion dollars, with a per capita of $90,000 making it the second richest economy in the world.

Yet, they are extremely worried with the current situation as all of us should be.

So, in my speech I decided to give them a score card to measure how well their economy is doing This required hours of research on my part, and it was well worth it because they paid me very well to speak there, but now I can share it with you because in my opinion, our government should use those measures applicable to Puerto Rico.

So, here are the 16 factors I came up with:

1. % growth in the GDP (use 10 years)
Economic growth is usually measured by the annual change in gross domestic product.

2. Per Capita GDP.
A general measure of wealth: The gross domestic product per person

3. Unemployment Rate:
The percentage of people unemployed and looking for work

4. Ratio of Economic Inequality.
Measured by the Gini Coefficient which is a way of showing the distribution of wealth. Higher Gini coefficient numbers indicate a higher level of inequality between those that have and those that have not.

5. Federal Debt as % of GDP
A way of measuring fiscal health; how much we produce each year compared with how much debt the government has accumulated.

6. Trade balance as a % of GDP
The difference between exports and imports as a % of the gross domestic product.

7. Net National Savings as a % of GDP
The total savings, public and private compared to the GDP.

8. Average Life Expectancy.
The average life expectancy is an indicator of overall health.

9. Healthcare Resources.
Number of Doctors per 1000 of the population. A good indicator of the health resources available.

10. Research and Development
A measure of how much of the GDP is devoted to research and development both in the private and in the public sector.

11. Graduation Rates.
The percentage of the population that has graduated from high school and higher.

12. Education: Test Scores
The average % of correct answers in the National Assessment of Educational Progress Tests. (I told them to use their own assessment tests)

13. High Tech Market Share.
A measure of how much market share a country controls in high tech industries.

14. Air Quality
Emissions of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide.

15. Municipal Waste
The annual amount of waste.

16.Defense capability
How well can your country defend itself from hostile countries. Includes having the right allies and belonging to the right organizations.

It was very surprising to me that lots of people had never heard of Puerto Rico and many thought it was one of the Latin American countries. During interviews when I mentioned that it was a US territory, they were really surprised.

Their airport is simply fabulous. They don’t charge for carts that you use to carry your luggage, (In New York and here we charge people) and they have computer centers in the airport with laptops for you to connect to the internet. It is a clean, modern gigantic airport that puts many of the airports in the US and ours to shame.

I flew Continental on this occasion because I needed to accumulate miles so as not to lose the Elite status and the service was very good. However, when picking up the luggage on carrousel 2, I saw the same big hole in the wall that I saw there a year ago. It hasn’t been fixed and those little details affect our image very negatively. I think it is the airport authorities the ones that have to fix that, not Continental, but I mentioned it here anyway to see if someone can take action.

The Koreans are very proud of their country, of their culture of their accomplishments and we should have that same sense of pride right here in our island.

I left the country but left them with a very powerful message that applies to us as well.

The destiny of Korea is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. The choices they make in the next 12 months will decide their fate. Same thing applies to us.