{"id":33480,"date":"2019-10-11T03:36:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T10:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=33480"},"modified":"2019-10-11T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T07:22:09","slug":"the-future-requires-chutzpah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/10\/11\/the-future-requires-chutzpah\/","title":{"rendered":"The future requires chutzpah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inbal Arieli recently published the book Chutzpah: Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em>. (photo by Micha Loubaton)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Inbal Arieli has always been fascinated by what motivates and drives people, as well as what blocks their paths. \u201cThroughout my career, which was mainly as a business executive, I always kept an eye on the human factor,\u201d Arieli told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cAnd so, the businesses I started were somehow all related to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arieli, who is also a lawyer, is the owner and co-chief executive officer of Israeli start-up accelerator Synthesis. The company provides leadership assessment, as well as business training and development, in Israel, Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about the effect of the most critical skills that I think anyone should have today,\u201d said Arieli about her recently published book Chutzpah: Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em>. \u201cThese are, according to the World Economic Forum, the skills which are required in the future, for anyone, regardless of your profession or future position. These are basic life skills \u2013 of critical thinking, decision-making, taking on initiative, etc., etc. There\u2019s a long list of soft skills. The book is about these skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s still interesting to me is, when looking at these skills, thinking about the future \u2013 the future of my kids, the future of the entrepreneurs here in Israel, the future of the job market in the world \u2013 about how can one practise these skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book shows the journey of a typical Israeli child from a very young age, as young as 3 or 4, until after military [age], young adult.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Chutzpah<\/em>, Arieli shows how, in the five stages of childhood \u2013 infancy, childhood, adolescence, military service and then the big trip after the military \u2013 Israeli culture and society have produced principles, a framework and settings to foster these skills.<\/p>\n

The book is not about Israel in and of itself. It is designed to help readers develop their own set of skills using the Israeli experience as an analogy.<\/p>\n

Chutzpah<\/em> (audacity), an ingrained trait, is very much nurtured in Israeli kids from a young age, said Arieli.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a very young age, chutzpah comes into play everywhere and anywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of those skills, Israeli education and mindset … I think of them like muscles we all possess … only here, in Israel, we have access to the best gyms to practise these muscles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you play at the playground, at age 3 or 4, the fact that you stand for your own opinion and find your own way of using the slide \u2013 an example I give in the book \u2013 that, in a sense, is a little bit of chutzpah. You don\u2019t necessarily follow guidelines or practices. You bring your own personality [into your decisions and actions] at a very, very young age. So, it starts then, and then it fills up as we grow up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arieli sees Israeli society as being very open to giving freedom to everyone\u2019s chutzpah \u2013 encouraging kids to exercise their chutzpah muscle, to be risk-takers, to stand out from the crowd, encouraging individualism along with a strong sense of collectivism. \u201cDefinitely, the framework that exists here, the environment, so many social structures are helping the muscles to remain developed and strong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chutzpah can be viewed as either negative or positive, and can be used in a positive or negative way. In Hebrew, one can differentiate between the two, depending on where the accent is placed. Arieli does not think it is important to differentiate between the two concepts of chutzpah. Rather, she contends that, just like any other muscle, the use of it needs to be calculated.<\/p>\n

\u201cChutzpah is not a button you can press on or off,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a mindset. In the context of innovation or entrepreneurship, I think it\u2019s a very positive thing. And so are the other skills, ideas or principles spoken about in the book. I think it\u2019s all a matter of finding the right balance between using them or not using them, and when to use them. What\u2019s right for certain stages is less relevant for other stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything, I think it\u2019s the combination of having these skills along with other skills is what\u2019s optimal. But, I also think it\u2019s very challenging to create an innovative society or an innovative team or group of people without allowing them to have a little bit of chutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Arieli, just teaching kids how to work in today\u2019s job market is a recipe for failure, as we have little knowledge of what work will even look like in their generation. The one and only thing we know for sure is that the future job market is uncertain. As such, the only way to prepare children is to equip them with the ability to be highly innovative and creative thinkers, capable of taking on initiatives by shaking things up and changing things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish for my kids that they will have as much chutzpah as possible when thinking about their future,\u201d said Arieli. \u201cThey\u2019ll have to reinvent themselves during their career several times and I want them to be proactive in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another trait Arieli talks about in Chutzpah<\/em> is balagan<\/em> (mess or chaos).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has visited Israel knows what I\u2019m talking about \u2013 be it traffic, on the playground, in restaurants \u2013 everything is really chaotic here,\u201d said Arieli. \u201cBut, that chaos, balagan, propels us toward new order, allowing us to rise every time from that balagan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor Arieli discusses in her book is teamwork and \u201chow Israeli society, while sometimes divided, at its core, has a galvanizing mechanism rooted in survival, through our culture … what we endured as a people and our mandatory army service … all of which unite us like no other nation on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about Arieli or her book, visit inbalarieli.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inbal Arieli recently published the book Chutzpah: Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. (photo by Micha Loubaton) Inbal Arieli has always been fascinated by what motivates and drives people, as well as what blocks their paths. \u201cThroughout my career, which was mainly as a business executive, I always kept an eye on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[3851,31,3129,9384,4330],"class_list":["post-33480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-business","tag-chutzpah","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-inbal-arieli","tag-israel"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}