Making Things Happen

I’m not happy to see all these reactions to Le Web, in particular to the behavior of Micheal Arrington at the conference, where basically he said the Europeans are lazy, provoking the reaction of the whole European entrepreneurs community as well as the one of LeWeb’s organizer, Loic Le Meur.

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I strongly believe, as an European, that Micheal is right. Indeed he could have used different words and be less arrogant as he was a guest, but let’s face it: what he said is true!

However first of all we must underline that we cannot speak of Europe as we can of the USA. They have 50 states that, one by one, entered the federation willing to share a set of common values and recognized being an American as the bottom line of their being. The 27 states that form today’s Europe entered the union not pushed by a general sentiment of fellowship moved by its citizens, but from the unilateral decision of their leaders that wanted strong economic relations and free trade among European countries.

This caused the European Union to be everything but an unite and homogeneous set of countries. We can all agree on the fact that Alaska and Georgia have a lot more in common than Portugal and Latvia.

Just read Paul Carr’s article on the Guardian to see for yourself you old antagonisms between countries and cultures are still actual.

Micheal shouldn’t have said that “Europeans” as a whole are lazy, but should have kept his comment restricted perhaps to southern Europe. Italians and French may be slow, but just fly to London or Amsterdam and you’ll experience a totally different vibe.

In countries like Italy and France the entrepreneur faces different challenges, such as being seen as a stealer who exploits labor, high taxes, bureaucracy and a general attitude that tend to do things at a slow pace.

It’s clear that in such situation is truly ridiculous to still believe that Europe can reach the USA, especially in the internet and tech business where time to market, high response times and high risk taking entrepreneurs are required!

Why be offended by Micheal’s words? I’m European and I wasn’t offended, as he just had the guts to tell what every (clever) European knows, but fail to admit!

Sure, there are some exceptions such as the French startup Meetic that was born after the bubble burst and now has more than 600m $ in revenues, but we can’t build a system or find our excuses on exceptions!

I’m a strong believer of the European Union, but I still think that there’s a lot of work to do. People must feel European, the European Union has to be a grassroots change, not a rule imposed by the the governments.

In the past years when the people had a chance to talk about the Euro and the European Union, they generally expressed themselves against it! Just think about Ireland and Denmark! The politicians failed. They weren’t able to spread the European culture, the great opportunity that a unite Europe is.

Until Europe realizes its potential as unique united country, it will never be able to compete with the USA and other giant emerging economies. So, let’s face it, while the appearance of Micheal’s words can be irritating and annoying, the core meaning is true!