Murray Hunter

Bio

Murray has been around the traps of entrepreneurship for too long. He is a long time expat from Australia who has made Malaysia his home and tried his hand at everything from agriculture to computers, to food, to spas and to cosmetics. Now he is taking the easy life as an associate professor at a university close to you. Murray spends half his time in Thailand and the other half looking for opportunities in Malaysia. Murray is passionate and deadly earnest about entrepreneurship and believes everybody should have the chance to “have a go”. Murray’s columns focus on giving some simple and practical ideas about the game of entrepreneurship and personal development based on his immense experience and the insights. His pleasure is your success.
The Taliban's Most Dangerous New Weapon? Philanthropy For Islamic Education
By Murray Hunter
If a frequent traveler to Thailand goes around the country today, a rapid rise in the prominence of Muslims will be noticed, stretching from Chiang Rai in the north of the country right down into the south of the country. Many of Thailand's 6-7…
The Coming Revolution in Europe: A Cultural Euro Crisis
By Murray Hunter
Old Europe was once a grouping of feudal societies that occasionally interacted with each other. As transport and communication developed many of these feudal societies amalgamated to form larger societies known as nations, where strings of…
Why Nauru is Australia's Guantanamo
By Murray Hunter
Australia is now sending refugees again to Nauru, just like the Howard government did almost a decade ago. Accommodations there are makeshift tents with little ventilation and very basic conditions. There are a number of cases of self-mutilation,…
Obama South East Asia Trip: Trouble In Cambodia
By Murray Hunter
Obama's visits to both Thailand and Burma went symbolically well. He did all the right things in Thailand and in spite of all the reservations about Obama's Burma visit, he may have sent all the right messages, particularly through the way the visit…
War in Israel: Israel Breaks International Law, and the West Condones It
By Murray Hunter
Just one day after being anointed the U.S. deputy sheriff in Asia, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made comments about the Israel and Hamas escalation implicitly supporting the Israeli assassination of the Hamas leader Ahmed Said Khalil…
Israel War Casts Dark Cloud Over Obama, Could Determine If Hillary Clinton Runs in 2016
By Murray Hunter
U.S. President Barack Obama embarks on a well-planned trip to Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia starting on Saturday. One would suspect that Obama's trip was timed to start creating momentum for his legacy in Asia. However, although Obama may return…
Hillary Clinton for President: Secretary of State Amps Up Statesmanship in Asia Trip
By Murray Hunter
We are now into Hillary Clinton's second day of "blitzkrieg" in Australia where she is showing her potential presidential charm and vision of dividing up the world just like the "axis" powers tried to do during WWII. Hillary now wants to "outsource"…
Obama Asia Trip: Obama Could Start a Cold War With China, and Here is How
By Murray Hunter
Just one week after winning a second term, Barack Obama is about to make a trip to Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia to bolster support for the U.S. in the region. During his first stop in Thailand, Obama will utilize his best personal asset — charm —…
US China Relations Could Get Complicated With New Australian Foreign Policy
By Murray Hunter
The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard released a long awaited white paper Australia in the Asian Century yesterday. The white paper basically affirms that Australia's future lies with Asia, and consequently immense economic opportunities exist…
Nobel Peace Given to the European Union Could Be Illegal
By Murray Hunter
The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize awarded by the Norwegian Peace prize committee to the European Union could prima facie contravene the Nobel character and personal sentiments of Alfred Nobel himself, according to his will. According to the will of Alfred…
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg: This is How They Helped Their Companies Succeed
By Murray Hunter
What did Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common? Yes they were all highly successful start-up entrepreneurs. But they had something else more in common, which I'll mention later. This week I want to talk about…
How to Build a Business By Copying and Improving Other Businesses
By Murray Hunter
The world is full of imitators. Give me an original idea and soon a dozen imitations are available – just look at the popularity of the latest Paris fashions. Soon the world is full of imitations left, right and centre. Before there was Coke and…
Business Plan: How to Start Your Own Business and Succeed as an Entrepreneur
By Murray Hunter
Let’s have a look at why people start their own businesses in the first place. If you were having coffee with someone and they asked you why do people start a business? What would you say? Off the cuff without thinking too much about it, you might…
Entrepreneurship Tips: 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Order to Win in Your Startup
By Murray Hunter
Entrepreneurship has been glorified by conferences, media stories, biographies of successful entrepreneurs, and events like ‘entrepreneurship week,’ ‘business plan competitions,’ and ‘entrepreneurship awards.’  Business schools have developed…
Bill Gates Was Once a Failure: The Secret Behind His Business Success
By Murray Hunter
What do Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Henry John Heinz, Walt Disney, Milton Hershey, Soichiro Honda, Akio Morita, Bill Gates, Harland David Sanders, and Donald Trump have in common? They were all failures at some time in their life.  For most, the…
Lady Gaga, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates: The Surprising Secret Behind Their Success
By Murray Hunter
The human race has sent men to the moon, cured many diseases, mapped the human genome, and descended to the deepest depths of the world’s oceans, but nobody can be really too sure about the reasons why one business is successful and another business…
Success in Business Has Nothing to do With Intelligence
By Murray Hunter
Take a minute and think about all the friends you have in business. How many of them are PhDs? How many of them are geniuses? Probably very few. High intelligence is not a prerequisite for success. Being a nerd isn’t much use, unless you’re a nerd…
Islamic Banking: If Muslims Ran Wall Street, America Could Have Avoided the 2008 Economic Crisis
By Murray Hunter
With the coming Muslim festival of Eid, this is perhaps a good week to see what lessons Islam can teach us about business. Most of what we read about Islam in business is about finance and morals. However, did you know that many parts of the Qur’an…