BRICS Business Magazine English Edition No.3(11)
We all have no time to live and we want changes. We are continuously dissatisfied with something. We have goals, and we need them to be achieved no later than tomorrow. We are not ready to wait; patience is no longer among our virtues. Any long chain of transformations causes us frustration and disappointment, since ready examples will always be found, in the East or in the West, of how it should and has to be. Such impatience is seen everywhere, although, perhaps, more often in rich countries and less often in poor ones. On the one hand, this contains a genuine surge, while on the other, it entails preoccupation with results.
In order to part with this obsession, it bears thinking about the process. Without it (built carefully and for the long term), the result proves to be so expensive or far from the initial intent that its economic, technological, social, or humanitarian purpose is changed. This fully pertains to any innovative goal – from launching a first of its kind space radio telescope to building the world’s best business school in Russia, in spite of widespread disbelief.
Committing oneself to run a long distance requires not only endurance, but also bravery. Results will be demanded from you too early, beyond any doubt. And it will be incredibly difficult not to lower the distance. Who would have vouched for Singapore during the first 10 years after it gained independence? What should be said about the results of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, which recently celebrated its ninth anniversary? They could be listed right now, although the success or failure of any large-scale project can only be judged in a 25-year horizon. In science, the path to acquiring truly new knowledge, toppling traditional notions, can take 50 years or more. Nevertheless, this is no reason to abandon your goals and betray your dream. Ultimately, the evolutionary model, as history shows, is the most effective, even at the scale of human life, since it allows the interests of all societal groups to be reconciled. But only if goal-setting is combined with consistency and the resolve not to abandon the chosen path.
Authors & Experts
Analyst at Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Head of the Sustainability Lab at the Institute for Emerging Market Studies SKOLKOVO
American biologist, Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
Former Minister of Planning of Venezuela, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development of Harvard University
CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, Head of the EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association, and President-Elect of Corpus Christi College at Oxford University
Professor and Head of the School of Asian Studies at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs. He is also a member of the Academic Council of the Higher School of Economics
Head of the Digital Technologies at the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies
Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, Head of the International Laboratory for Political Demography and Macrosociological Dynamics at Moscow’s RANEPA
Director of the BRICLab at Columbia University, where he also teaches international affairs
an economist and banker from Bangladesh. He won the Nobel Prize for his achievements in combatting poverty
a linguist, philosopher, and professor of cultural theory and Russian literature at Emory University (Atlanta, USA) and Durham University (UK). He is also Director of the Centre for Humanities Innovation (Durham University). He has authored of 30 books and over 700 articles and essays, which have been translated into 19 languages overall
one of Russia’s best known international astrophysicists. He initiated a mega ambitious project to deploy interferometers both on Earth and in space with the super long Radioastron and Millimetron bases
Director for Conservation Policy, the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) Russia, Doctor of Geographical Sciences
Vice President – Head of Private Capital and Investment Management Block of Promsvyazbank
