Sheikh Mohammed pens letter to new generation set to lead change, shape the future

Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has addressed a deeply personal letter to the new generation that will lead change, make history and shape the future.

In his message, Sheikh Mohammed urged young people to embrace artificial intelligence and seize the opportunities of a rapidly changing world without losing sight of their values, identity and humanity.

In “A Letter to the New Generation”, part of Sheikh Mohammed’s book "The Letters", the Vice President shares reflections, experiences and lessons shaped by decades of leadership.

“A letter to the generation that will lead change. To the generation that will write a new chapter in the history of the future. I dedicate this letter to you,” Sheikh Mohammed wrote.

Addressing the young as his sons, daughters and grandchildren, he said life had taught him that every era has its own spirit, every generation its own mission and every age its own people.

Sheikh Mohammed told the new generation that their world, knowledge, tools and ambitions were fundamentally different from those of previous generations and that their achievements and work should therefore also be different.

“You have grown up in a world without geographical or cultural boundaries to knowledge,” he wrote, describing a globally connected age in which knowledge is no longer confined by borders and human skills are increasingly intertwined with intelligent technologies and communication algorithms.

He said today’s young people had grown up surrounded by institutions, well developed cities and advanced infrastructure, while laws, knowledge, capabilities and resources had been made available to them.

But he stressed that the greatest advantage they possess is access to knowledge. “Your most powerful tool is the machine that thinks, proposes, writes, plans and executes,” he wrote, referring to artificial intelligence, while adding that young talent is now connected through a global network of human capabilities.

Sheikh Mohammed contrasted his generation’s upbringing with the vastly different world confronting young people today.

A young person, he said, can follow a conference in the United States, work with a team in Asia and learn a new skill from an expert in Europe, all while sitting at home.

He described this as a world in which geographical distance no longer presents the same barrier to learning, collaboration and achievement.

Yet Sheikh Mohammed cautioned that some members of the new generation could be affected by boredom, complacency and haste, despite possessing sharper minds, new skills and vast opportunities capable of shaping the world they will build.

Recalling his own childhood, Sheikh Mohammed said the world in which his generation grew up was limited, with daily life revolving around the home, school and playground.

Today, he said, young people’s world extends far beyond their immediate surroundings, with their screens opening windows onto countless worlds and connecting them with millions of people through digital platforms.

Technological change in his generation, he said, once amounted to modest industrial progress. For today’s generation, technological development comes in enormous leaps, with major transformations unfolding at a pace measured in days rather than years.

Education has undergone a similar transformation. Sheikh Mohammed said learning in his generation relied heavily on instruction, memorisation and repetition, while education today should be built around questioning, creativity and innovation.

Work, too, has changed fundamentally. Where organisations once relied on teams of employees to complete tasks, he said a single person today can deploy thousands of intelligent algorithms to help accomplish a mission and accelerate the pursuit of ambitions.

Sheikh Mohammed said he was optimistic about the new generation because the human mind today is broader in knowledge and awareness, while individual capabilities are greater, faster and potentially more influential.

“Your tools are greater. Your capabilities are stronger,” he wrote, telling young people that they had been created for a different world in which they would achieve things their parents and grandparents could never have imagined.

But he warned that the modern world does not need young people simply to repeat the past.

Success, he said, should not be measured by preserving the characteristics of previous generations, but by acquiring the skills required for the future.

Despite the scale of technological and social change, Sheikh Mohammed devoted a central part of his letter to values, warning that progress should never come at the cost of character, identity or humanity.

“My sons and grandchildren, wisdom is not for you to live with the minds of your fathers,” he wrote. “True wisdom is to live by their values, morals and principles.”

Values, he said, do not change with time, and authenticity is not made obsolete by the passing of generations.

Honesty remains essential in every age and place, he wrote, while trustworthiness, keeping promises, justice, tolerance, compassion and respect for others remain indispensable foundations of human life.

Life, he said, cannot be sustained without such values, and genuine balance cannot be achieved without them.

Sheikh Mohammed also warned against losing cultural identity in an increasingly interconnected world.

A person without a past, he said, has no present, while someone without a cultural identity in today’s world lacks a sense of belonging to the future.

Those without a system of values to protect and guide them, he added, risk being swept into a world of continuing disorder.

“Life has taught me that whoever abandons his roots has no foundation, whoever abandons his culture has no weight, and whoever abandons his values has no meaning in life,” Sheikh Mohammed wrote.

He concluded the letter with a message of confidence in the generation that will inherit responsibility for the country.

“My sons and grandchildren, we see in your eyes a new world, in your dreams a great renaissance and in your homeland your shoulders carrying it towards new heights,” he wrote.

“Make your knowledge your weapon, your roots your strength, your ambitions your sky, and your values your compass.”

Sheikh Mohammed ended his letter as saying: “May God protect you and grant you success.”