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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
Upheaval (2019) takes us through some of modern history’s biggest national crises to find out how each nation ended up in such trouble, and how they managed to get out of it. Looking at seven different nations, author Jared Diamond reveals how some of the same problems and solutions have emerged time and again, whether we’re looking at Chile and Indonesia in the 1970s, or Australia and Germany after WWII.
Once you reach a certain age, you’re all but guaranteed to have faced a personal crisis or two. Most people experience crises when the circumstances of life challenge them, like during the major life transitions of adolescence, mid-life, retirement and old age.
Crises can be sudden, such as a relationship coming to a painful and abrupt end, or the onset of a serious illness. Or it can develop gradually, which is what often happens when a person continually refuses to change their behavior to correspond with a changing environment. In either case, a crisis is generally a sign that your current approach to life isn’t working as well as it could be, and needs to be changed.
And this isn’t just true for us individuals – it also goes for countries as a whole. Consider the statistic that suggests US cities will face a technological crisis every 12 years, as the systems and infrastructure keeping the city running become obsolete.
But whether a crisis is gradual or immediate, personal or national, the author has identified 12 factors that often contribute to finding a solution:
In the blinks that follow, we’ll see how these factors were relevant in the history of seven nations: Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia and the US. Let’s start with Finland as many of these factors came into play in order for its crisis to be resolved.
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Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma