Where are the Young European Entrepreneurs?
It’s become so ubiquitous for another American student or recent graduate to start a company. I’m sure if you really though about, you can name at least 3 of your friends who are either running a business or are in the process of starting their first venture. But why is it that we don’t hear much about young entrepreneurs from Europe?
Could it be due to the different approaches in our school systems? In a recent article focused on capitalism from Newsweek I found that it was common for a European student to learn to fear capitalism:
“They taught us the market economy was a dangerous wilderness full of risk and bankruptcy”
So could it be that many of these students are still caught in the era of Karl Marx when they should really be thinking more like Adam Smith? Like anywhere else in the world, a good mix of fear and an unsupportive school system is enough to dissuade a young group of people to look away from entrepreneurship.
What do I say about that? It’s time for a counterattack against the anti-capitalist garbage that’s being imbued in the minds of European students — extinguishing their dreams of becoming successful entrepreneurs and making their mark in the world.
It’s great to see organizations such as YES help foster young entrepreneurship throughout Europe. In time I believe that progress will be made and we’ll start to see more and more young European entrepreneurs.
Until then, I can only hope that young entrepreneurs in Europe do everything in their power to open the gates of entrepreneurship by creating companies, forming partnerships, and helping other young entrepreneurs bring their visions into real services that can solve problems and enter markets worldwide.
2 Comments
Adam
August 8th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Great post David - I think (right or wrong) our culture is more condusive to entrepreneurialism. Europeans work less hours, have more vacation time, and (from my experiences) tend to look at Americans as work-a-holics. In America, entrepreneurs are looked at as work-a-holics compared to the norm, but the norm is looked at as a work-a-holic in a European’s eyes. I think the jump in commitment to succeed entrepreneurially is a lot in that culture (it’s hard enough for us in our culture).
Obviously I’m doing a lot of generalizing, but there’s a reason our economy kicks the living crap out of theirs, and I think a large part of that is “the american dream” that they don’t share.
David Askaripour
August 8th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
You’re right, Americans are more likely to follow their dreams and do whatever it takes to accomplish that — at least statistically speaking. And I wouldn’t argue with you when you say that we are work-a-holics, hence our massive success as a nation. Heck, entrepreneurs have fueled this country and will continue to do so for time to come. It’ll be interesting when Europeans really kick it up a notch within the area of entrepreneurship. Right on.
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