No one says it’s easy being an entrepreneur. In recent years it is made out to look like anyone who puts on a cool sweater and buys the latest laptop can become one. It requires a certain mind set, resistance, tough skin, persistence, salesmanship…
Salesmanship? Uh-oh!

This is where the trouble starts. Finns are extremely intelligent and well educated people but they are introverts in general; in other words they like minding their own business without having to observe the ghost of a chance of ruffling any feathers rearing its ugly head along the way. Besides if you come forward and express an opinion a bit too passionately you could easily be considered arrogant:

You know… the “who is that bastard who doesn’t keep his opinions to himself and thinks he is better than the rest of us” kind of an attitude. Therefore many people choose to keep their ideas to themselves and not take any risks in anyway.

But it’s a competitive world we’re living in that keeps getting more and more unforgiving. If you have a great idea that is a sure shot, something that everyone on Earth is after to make ludicrous amount of money you can get away with being introvert or shy (not the same thing, mind you). But lately there doesn’t seem to be many of those ideas around in Finland.

Not surprisingly everyone here seems to want to work for someone else instead of building their own company. But if everyone tries to do that soon there will be no work places left to hire anyone. “Hei Halooo?” as they would say in Helsinki. Of course consumer friendly laws that keeps Finnish entrepreneurs in a grid-lock is also to be mentioned here. People, even the ones with ideas that would work are scared to even move for crying out loud, because they could end up at a place which might make their current position seem like Eden’s candy store.

The idea of living minding your own business doesn’t apply anymore. You gotta be in the jungle with other contestants and grab the lion by the balls, so to speak, just to survive. If you learn the rules of the jungle game and use them to your advantage, only then you’d have the chance of striking big. Otherwise who knows where we’re going.

Let’s be honest I’m not a big risk taker myself but can’t help but express my views on the issue anyway.
See ya!