I am not sure who once said, “The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings.” I am confident that every generation has a point where its members believe they are at a pivotal point in human history. Sadly, we at the Middle East, our generational exceptionalism rarely surfaces and stand-out as in most countries in the world. Why is that?

Evidently, we are becoming a consumer society more than producing economy. Our ability to carry applied research and monetize research is decimal at best. Some of the statistics that I have read are astoundingly alarming. 75% of world refugees are Arabs, 410 million population has 2,900 patents, in contrast, 50 million South Koreans has 20,201 patents. Our books production (as a Middle East in total) is far less than the smallest country in Europe. This is what we have been molded into. Fixed mindset instead of Growth mindset. It is not far into the future when societies are measured on their Digital Assets and NOT natural resources. Where shall we be then? Folks, Human Capital is Key.