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I went to Dubai about a year and a half ago, at the apparent height, we now know, of their bubble.  This week they crashed, and it is almost fun to watch.  Do you remember the story of Icarus, the character in Greek mythology that built wings of wax to fly?  His ego allowed him to soar to the heavens, but the sun melted the wax, and he plummeted to Earth.

I am sort of lucky.  I plummeted to Earth in 2001 when a company I was running met with difficult times.  I hope I learned my lesson then, never to be forgotten.  When I was in Dubai, they were acting like nothing bad could ever happen to their economy.  Buildings and islands were going up everywhere.  Spec office and condo towers were being built with no tenants at all.  Prices just went up and up.  We went to lunch at the Burj Hotel, the only 7 star hotel in the world, or so they say.  It is the one that looks like a huge sail, and as an architecture hobbyist, I was excited to see it.  The inside was lavish, but ugly, clearly designed by someone with more money than taste.  Our meal was prepaid, all except water, which turned out to cost over a hundred dollars per person.   I know we were in a desert, but they ran sprinklers everywhere non-stop.

The executives we met acted like the expansion would go on forever.  I bet half of them are unemployed right now.  Life teaches that whatever goes up, comes down.  Business has cycles.  Good times do not last forever.  Neither do bad times.  The people and leaders of Dubai forgot this, and today, they are paying the price.   Hundreds of skyscrapers remain half finished.

How does this relate to the Entrepreneur School?   By teaching you to not take risk, we should be helping you avoid a plummet.  Its hard to crash if you have no debt!  You may run into tougher times, but they will not destroy you.