Every so often someone asks me: \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite country, other than your own?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always had the same answer: Taiwan. \u201cTaiwan? Why Taiwan?\u201d\u009d people ask.<\/p>\n
Very simple: Because Taiwan is a barren rock in a typhoon-laden sea with no natural resources to live off of \u201d\u201d it even has to import sand and gravel from China for construction \u201d\u201d yet it has the fourth-largest financial reserves in the world. Because rather than digging in the ground and mining whatever comes up, Taiwan has mined its 23 million people, their talent, energy and intelligence \u201d\u201d men and women. I always tell my friends in Taiwan: \u201cYou\u2019re the luckiest people in the world. How did you get so lucky? You have no oil, no iron ore, no forests, no diamonds, no gold, just a few small deposits of coal and natural gas \u201d\u201d and because of that you developed the habits and culture of honing your people\u2019s skills, which turns out to be the most valuable and only truly renewable resource in the world today. How did you get so lucky?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n