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Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

My 2¢ in taking to people from other countries, it's the American attitude. Americans for better or worse think we can do anything, and they will try incessantly. They will start a business with far less experience and qualifications than others, pull themselves up by the bootstraps and potentially fail spectacularly - just to get right back up and do it again.

I do not get this sense taking to people from other countries at all, largely in part Canada and the UK. They aren't trying to change the world.

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Also, critically, the US government (mostly) allows this. Many other countries have laws or regulations that impede the dynamicity of the economy and disincentivize entrepreneurship (or at least incentivize it less).

I think it's largely in the past now. There's a crapton of regulation, licencing etc. in the US now, maybe a little less than in some other developed places, but it's far from "the land of the free".

This might be true globally, but all across the western world you are pretty much free to start a software company

Laws would change if the culture changes. I think it s cultural, first

I agree. My biggest fear is that we're getting a little too heavy on protectionism and regulation. We have giants in a lot of industries with regulatory capture. I think China's loose approach to IP may allow them to eat our lunch.

I think because of China’s approach to IP it is impossible for companies such as Microsoft to appear there.

I honestly don’t know. I hear from friends that in Shenzhen at least there’s a big ecosystem of small companies helping other small companies for little more than the promise they’ll be helped in return when the time comes. In my eyes that could lead to a very positive feedback loop if it continues.

Nah thats why china is having so much trouble consolidating companies. They have the BAT companies but not much else. If not for their protectist policy I doubt they'd have those.

I think there’s a financial angle to this too, America’s system encouraged entrepreneurship a lot more than other countries. Niall Ferguson put it best when he said:

> The ability to walk away from unsustainable debts and start all over again is one of the distinctive quirks of American capitalism. Since 1898, it has been every American’s right to file for Chapter VII (liquidation) or XIII (voluntary personal reorganization). Rich and poor alike, people in the United States appear to regard bankruptcy as an ‘unalienable right’ almost on a par with ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. Ascent of money, p61

Giving people a second chance created a better environment for risk takers, using trial and error until they perfect their business model.

American attitude???

Andy Grove: Hungarian

Nikola Tesla: Serbian

Sergey Brin: Russian

Patrick and John Collison: Irish

Mathilde Collin: French

Jerry Yang: Taiwanese

America attracts innovators. They do it in America because they can’t do it at home. Whether it’s true or not, for immigrants, there’s a sense that upward mobility is possible in America.

There was an old episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was driving around an exotic car in America. He noted that Americans were super excited about the car, giving him complements, posing for pictures, saying that one day they’ll own one and generally being positive and optimistic.

In contrast, he reflected that if he did the same thing in the UK, he’d either get insulted for “showing off” or people would be generally negative/pessimistic because they could never afford one.

That's incredibly depressing to me. If he really talked to a representative cross-section of America, almost all of those optimistic people will never be wealthy enough to afford the car. At least the Brits know where they stand. We're never going to be able to effectively address wealth inequality if every person on the street believes that they're going to be a multimillionaire some day.

You're missing the point.

Americans believe we can and that belief allows the mental and emotional energy to try

No one is guaranteed success. But if you never believe you even could you would be much less inclined to even try.

I'm sorry, but I would call that false hope.

And arguably they came to America where their attitude could flourish. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist elsewhere but it’s not encouraged elsewhere.

Can you follow up with how many of those people spent 90% or more of their successful business days in their country of origin vs How many emigrated to America? Because foreign nationals needing America as a catalyst still makes it a U.S. built business.

Thats very American. Americans don't differentiate between immigrates that move to the US and people born here. An ambitious immigrant is more "American" than an unambitious natural born "American"

And yet none of them returned to their ‘country’

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