Must deal with “process”

When an industrious person decides to go into commercial farming, he studies the risk involved in a venture that requires a lot of his time, energy and resources. If he isn’t an heir to a huge arable land, he must look at leasing public land for this purpose. It may even require borrowing some seed money from CDA to begin his project.

At issue is the process involved in putting his conceived commercial plan into action. He organizes his plan that entails number of farm hands (labor), seeds and quantity, equipment rental, need for an irrigation system; land clearing, plowing and replowing, consumer tastes, marketing, etc.

He knows from the outset that he must constantly review his bottomline figures to make amends that would allow for appreciable profit to pay the loan, his employees and taxes while supporting his family. He then begins the proverbial long journey with the first step.

The same is true in the initial stages of planning a new business. It takes a process from planning to implementation and subsequent refinement. While the process is obviously inevitable, we also have an equally juvenile attitude about the road to success be it an undertaking in commercial farming or starting a small business.
We want instant gratification and if at all possible, attempt to short-circuit the system. In short, our penchant for instant gratification permits for quick fixes even on substantive economic issues.

If we may say so, when bad times descend upon any community, it is a natural behavior for the struggling populace to look towared leadership for help and guidance. But policymakers have unleashed one assault after another against the various industries here by approving more strangling regulations that discourage what we all look for in words: lasting investments or wealth and jobs creation. It seems we also have turned the word “planning” on its head.

To date, no one has really buckled down to review the pile of anti-investment policies that have done nothing but trumpet instability of the NMI as an investment venue. Interestingly, too, we don’t have any plan at all that ensures integrated socio-economic development. At the same time, we turn saying one thing while doing the exact opposite into a close of the century fine art.

Gentlemen, let’s organize our house and put together a coherent and fully reasoned plan to guide the future of these isles in the next millennium. Paradigms have changed and no longer can we employ the usual ad hoc approach we’ve rendered even the most substantive issues.

In sum, the process is inevitable and all must learn to deal with it. After all, success is granted only to those who’re willing to work for it that involves, well, a process. Si Yuus Maase`!