I was eager to read the book Start-up Nation written by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. In my interactions with Israeli businessmen, I have found them to be direct, assertive, and knowledgeable.  In the book, I discovered the word to label their particular attitude – chutzpah. The book reveals that it is this very chutzpah combined with the antihierarchical culture promoted in the military service that makes it okay for an Israeli to ask his superior:  Why are you my manager? why am I not your manager?  I nearly did a double take when I read this as I know of a friend who once in utter frustration asked his boss in an Indian company a variant of this question: Who made you my manager? Unfortunately for my friend, the challenge did not go down well with his manager; rather it served as a guillotine chop on his career in the company. 

But such cultural differences only partly explain Israel’s success and its transformation from a small, isolated country into a global hub of high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship. The book brilliantly demystifies the development of Israel into a centre of innovation through rich examples, anecdotes and historical context.  The combination of military and civilian experiences (the term used is mashup), an immigrant mindset, a culture of acceptance of failure, the constant need to counter threat to survival and strong government policies have all contributed to make Israel an economic powerhouse. 

There are many lessons that India and other countries can learn from the Israeli model.  The establishment of Startup India is indeed a step in the right direction.  But for Indian startups to really take off, the Indian mother needs to teach her children that that is okay to take risks.  It is only by embracing failure rather than stigmatizing it that a true startup culture will flourish in any society.