As Trump unleashes mayhem, keep calm and carry on; reading more might help

NOT too long ago, I met a well-respected senior figure who, as he talked about this and that and the general state of the world, said that it was important to have ideas. What he meant, I reckon, was that business leaders in particular needed to have ideas or at least have people around them who could provide valuable insights and suggestions. Ideas are the fundamental step in taking a business forward. 

More recently, I was reminded of his comment when I interviewed DBS CEO Piyush Gupta, who has since stepped down from the role. His tenure at the bank was a remarkable one, where he pioneered many initiatives and instituted new ways of doing things.

One of the things we discussed was the source of his various ideas. His answer? “People ask me, ‘Where do your ideas come from?’ One is reading and the other is talking to people. If you’re willing to read, you can make associations and connect the dots. So my biggest advice to young Singaporeans is to pay more attention to reading.”

A voracious reader, Gupta’s aim was to read two books a month, and he’s likely to have more time on his hands now. 

He revealed that a short while back, he had finished The Ministry for the Future, a climate-fiction book by Kim Stanley Robinson. The ministry in the title refers to the fictional organisation set up by the United Nations to advocate for future citizens and fight climate change. Another interesting idea from the book centres on a new reserve currency called the carboni which is meant to encourage countries’ decarbonisation.

Post-DBS, Gupta will focus on his areas of interest – education, nature and conservation. He is chairman of the Mandai Park Holdings board. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Singapore Management University, which probably makes him more aware than most of how many of our young ones are disinclined to approach any book aside from their assigned reading material.    

As stock markets hurtle about like a rollercoaster, picking up a book could well be seen as ignoring reality. But reading up on economic history can help in understanding where US President Donald Trump is coming from, and hence in seeing where he could be headed next, and yield insights into how to navigate such troubling times. 

If nothing else, as investment portfolios wither, consider reading for the perspectives it offers about whatever is happening.  

To conclude, here’s food for thought with an excerpt from the 2017 shareholder letter from Warren Buffett, which has been doing the rounds among Wall Street’s shell-shocked investors.   

Buffett talks about the stock market where “the light can at any time go from green to red without pausing at yellow. When major declines occur, however, they offer extraordinary opportunities to those who are not handicapped by debt”.

He advises shareholders to heed these lines from Rudyard Kipling’s poem If: 

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...  If you can wait and not be tired by waiting... If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim...  If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...  Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it...”