THINK SMARTER. WORK HARDER

I went to a conference at the University of Brighton last week. It was inspiring and optimistic stuff on how a symbiotic relationship could be built between the creative industries which abound in Brighton and the University.

A story of brains and commercial can-do working in brilliant accord.
A Professor of The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen confided he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. In Scotland the relationship between commerce and academia is constant and utterly normal.
But down south we tend to be more squeamish.
We need to be more open minded and use the best that’s available to come up with smarter and more creative solutions. We need to trawl the Universities for ideas but, more importantly, the sort of people who have contagiously creative ways of thinking.
We need to prize and encourage creativity not exam results.
And we need to work harder.

Tabitha Ogilvie, who is just thirteen going on thirty, wants to be Prime Minister on the platform of turning Britain from a nation of lazy bastards into a nation of hard workers. The Greeks I know are fainting at this very idea of work (let alone “hard work”) but she is deadly serious.
And she’s right.
The work ethic in Asia operates at levels few of us could imagine. They believe the more you work the more you earn, the more you can pay to learn more, the more effectively you can work to earn more and so on.
They believe in the future. They are working to improve their lives.

We are trying to get away with defending the lives to which many believe they are simply entitled.
But it’s game-over for lead-swingers and small “c” conservatives. The rules of the game have changed.

Harder and smarter.
That’s how it’s going to be in the future.