Chutzpah: Why Israel Is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

On the question of how Israel got to be “Silicon Vadi,” Arieli, an Israeli military intelligence veteran who founded a leadership coaching company, picks chutzpah as the answer, in her canny but sometimes confused study. The famously prickly Israelis may seem impolite or aggressive, she writes, but they can more accurately be seen as having a no-B.S., all-in approach to pursuing goals. Thus, Israel has the world’s highest research and development expenditure proportionate to GDP, and also boasts disproportionate numbers of scientists, tech innovators, and Nobel Prize winners. Arieli, having spent her career working with Israeli entrepreneurs, traces this success back to child-rearing practices. Israel is not a risk-averse society, she observes, and its children are raised to accept mistakes and failures as part of the learning process, while cultivating resilience and independent thinking. She describes a approach to parenting geared toward validation, resourcefulness, accepting and working within one’s limitations, and a sense of optimism—all fostering entrepreneurship. This could be of great appeal for modern parents, but Arieli seems unsure of whether to focus on child-rearing or on analyzing her own country’s general culture. While there are valuable lessons here, the execution seems too niche to have wide appeal. Agent: Jan Miller Dupree, Miller & Associates. (Aug.)