We live in an era of constant change

We live in an era of constant change: sometimes not so noticeable, and sometimes large-scale. It can feel like almost every day we have some sort of crisis, external or internal, that demands our attention and precludes us from getting a start on something new or important. Under these circumstances it’s easy to feel that now is not the time: not the time to study, not the time to get married, to have children, open or scale up a business, or launch new products, and that all of this can wait until a more favorable time.

If we stop and think about it objectively, we need to realize that now is the more favorable time, because challenges will always exist and things will not get any easier. Despite our personal fears, under the objective light of day, a huge number of opportunities in a favorable external environment exist and we need to not just seize the day, but the moment.

And it doesn’t need to be giant steps from the beginning. Small steps are important too. I finished the battle with the problems I had in the morning and went ahead and made some progress on the thing I put off “until a better time.” Even if it’s just a couple of hours, before the next “survival” task comes along. This kind of attitude and progress will not just will bring you closer to your life goals, it will reduce your risk of failure, open up new opportunities for you, give you further energy to move forward and not burn out from the eternal struggle with general life problems. It will bring you knowledge, people, partners, and resources that will quickly help you defeat all the old “monsters” of everyday life. They might, of course, create new ones, but it is arguable that this is precisely how real development happens.

And, you know, the same can be said about government. Everything is always about being the “right time” to do things and there always seems to be too many threats to progress.  What is needed is real courage to risk short term stability, for the broader goal of getting out of the status quo swamp. From a financial perspective, preserving the status quo is in itself already a huge risk. Corporate lending continues to decline as a share of GDP, and business in general not related to the budget, even trade, begins to suffer when faced with a corporate lending rate of 18-19% against the real NB rate in tenge above 15% and inflation at 8%. Yes, there are potential risks in aggressive rate cuts and yes, there will always be objective reasons to be afraid. But we need to make up our minds and quickly reduce the cost of borrowing to be in line with several of our neighbors: approximately 8.5-10%. Now is the time and there may simply not be a better moment. To drive overall societal wealth and wellbeing our country needs real business lending! Not government subsidies and handouts. We are young and enterprising…We need freedom from the status quo!