As a leader in the Jamaican government, you may be confronted by the economic situation we find ourselves in. While some colleagues are busy extracting personal gains when they can, you actually want to serve and contribute. How can you do so against the odds?

Recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness laid out the bare facts. Jamaica's productivity at US$9/hour is only slightly better than that of Haiti. Measured by GDP divided by total hours worked, we lag other countries by multiples: Barbadians are more than twice as productive. Panamanians are five times as productive.

Consequently, simply relocating a worker in a hotel from our island to another country makes her two or more times as productive.