Jay Yoo

I have been following the Changing Gears commentary on what it is going to take to bring about “transformation” in the rust belt (Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago). To me it sounds like a rebirth of the “Quiet Crisis” as the conclusions and conversations are nearly identical.

In all honesty, there are a lot more great things going on in Cleveland simply based on the the growing number of start-ups and efforts to support them. However, the painful truth is that Cleveland is not changing fast enough and more needs to be done; everything that was talked about 10 years ago! The magic bullet to really get things going would be a billionaire with vision, who could cut through all the crap and invest bukoo to make the right things happen. Until then, we can continued to make small incremental improvements and continue to “get things done.”

The Changing Gears commentary did remind me of a conversation I had with an Indian entrepreneur living in Indonesia on how he liked Indonesia compared to his motherland. His answer was simple: “I like Indonesia because when I bribe someone, something gets done.” In other words, when he bribed someone in India, nothing happened; they just took the money.

He gave me a funny example of a time when he was pulled over by a police officer for speeding on the way to the airport. He was late for a flight which he quickly explained to the police officer, then gave him $100. The officer took the money, got on his motorcycle and gave him a high speed police escort to the airport!

I am certainly not condoning bribery or corruption, but it was a topic on Changing Gears. Some people calling in from Chicago actually said corruption helped to get things done. In the next 10 years when someone asks why I live in Cleveland, I simply want to say because things get done (without the corruption).