I saw a post on face book which read “the EU needs more entrepreneurship.  The plan is to offer more training”.. It got me thinking.

I run my own technology and communications consulting business with clients in BeLux and USA at 28 years old, I’m from the USA. I’ve consistently see the EU always aiming to train people as a solution to get itself out of the economic hardship it’s experiencing..

Education sure, great –  to some extent, but I’m not sold.. lower taxes – more cash on hand to spend on opportunities that pop up is essential, and less stress on those who are starting a business is key. 70% of wealth is inherited in BE for example, and I was further amazed to hear the horribly run government here has the audacity to decided if you are competent to run a business. As if it’s competent to decide anything itself, which it’s not. This is where EU federalism could step in, make things more liquid and really make a difference.

Further EU citizens must come to grips that in order to make aggressive progress there are inherent risks involved… back to EDU – I’m skeptical that institutions can provide any relevant training – especially in Europe which is is run by institutions. Nothing here has really been created and perfected on globally competitive level for years in new fields – not one EU tech company is in the top 10 for example. Nokia is 13 and failing harder and harder as the world/business moves faster and faster. Perhaps that is chance, but perhaps EU society is not well equipped to deal with the adversity and speed of modern business because it rely so heavily on ingrained “training, education” which has created a lot of over head  and diluted what the word talent actually means , being educated or being really good at something are  more often than not different.  When I see “According to the plan” is part of the idea – and as a business owner knowing plans never go according to plan. A focus on knowledge management and handling adversity is key, but very difficult to create a curriculum, it needs to be ingrained in the culture of progress and risk is fun, don’t look back.

In general entrepreneurs such as myself carry a bit of disdain for institutional process and tradition, something tightly ingrained in European culture. All the great modern, dynamic companies were basically and for the most part built by institutional dropouts, failures or pure genius which never had a need for them. In France your career track and whether you go to HEC or ScPo is decided at 10 or so years old. Think of the opportunity loss on intellectual capital, for what in general is a partially false knowledge system propped up by a robust, far reaching institutional system. For any federal system such as the EU, that has aspiration of being reverent/competitive on the global level this should be considered unacceptable. Nonetheless this outlook is perpetuated in EU society. The first thing I’m asked after I explain what I do is where was I educated, as if it matters, I learned nothing from education that I do now – I run my business off my own Ideas not others – this is how business grow/succeed, not repeating and learning from the very people, ideas, and institutions that created the problems in the first place. Take a look at the past, take what is needed,continuously improve and prove your own ideas wrong. Never settle.