This passage from KaosPilot A-Z reinforces what I and others have said about entrepreneurship outside the US.
In the US it’s no catastrophe if your company goes bust. On the contrary. If you have the right enterprising approach to life it’s almost expected that you’ve been through a bankruptcy or two – if you really want to make something of yourself. In Scandinavia the exact opposite is true. If an entrepreneur’s company goes bust the entrepreneur in question is branded as risky business by their bank, friends, partners and maybe even their family. And you need more than good persuasive talents if you want a second chance.
The entry goes on to talk about how the school is trying to create an environment where students can succeed and fail.
There is little doubt that Scandinavia could benefit hugely from just a bit of “The American Dream”. It is my impression that in Scandinavia you really only have one bullet when it comes to entrepreneuring. It is not just that you are branded in a socail setting, but it is also very difficult to free yourself from liability when your company goes bust.
I am from Denmark, but the corporate regulations, the income taxation, and the way people tend to look at both entrepreneurs that didn’t make it (“Hah, he should have known better”) and entrepreneurs that made it good (“You don’t get successfull in business without exploiting someone”) was a decisive factor for me moving to UK.
A new generation that can and will settle everywhere will see not only taxation and legislation as competitive factors, but also how they at large will be regarded by the society. This spells trouble for a lot of european countries.