In 2007, I was writing an essay I submitted for St Gallen university’s prestigious annual symposium. Instead of conventional and well-trodden topics such as leadership/entrepreneurship, I vied to seek out correlations between a nation’s religiousness, leadership, availability of natural resources and economic development.

Based on extensive research of modern Norway, KSA, Hittites and post-Gutenberg Europe, the essay concluded (formula is pretty straightforward):

D = 0.25*N-R + 0.3*R + 0.45*L

where

• D=development (probability)
• N-R=natural-resources
• R=religiousness (if religion is dogma/fixed, R<0)
• L=leadership

I didn’t win – Churchill’s infamous words came to mind:

A modest little person, with much to be modest about.

Your thoughts?