>Musk said it was important that societies create an environment where it’s “important it’s seen as a socially desirable thing to be an entrepreneur.”
I think this is something whose importance is hard to fathom when living in hot startup ecosystems. When I was living in Japan, I was shocked at how people saw entrepreneurship in an undesirable light. In fact, new graduate polls showed that the most desirable type of profession was a public sector worker, followed by megacorp employee, then SME employee. Entrepreneur was literally at the bottom of the ladder [1].
This is in sharp contrast to the States, where polls show that people look up to and want to become entrepreneurs (the "start ups are cool" mentality) and see public sector workers as the most undesirable type of employment [2].
It's hard to live a life that isn't widely socially accepted, and having a society that looks favorably upon entrepreneurship or sole proprietorships is hugely important for giving people the peace of mind and confidence to embark on their individual paths [3]. Say what you will about the current proliferation of startups, but anything that promotes the long term social acceptability of starting a company is a net positive in the long run for making it easier for people to take the plunge themselves in the future.
Our environment skews our perspective, and our perspective determines what we think is possible. We tend to believe in the triumph of the individual spirit and determination over mental hurdles, but it's a rare specimen that has the both the hard skills to create something great and the mental power to actually convince themselves to do so against conventional wisdom. Don't you that that it'd be desirable to reduce the mental hurdles so that those with different mental predispositions can roam freely?
[1] I think doctor/lawyer/accountant were omitted because there are very few who enter these professions each year and is statistically somewhat irrelevant.
[2] This isn't to say that working in the public sector is actually a bad gig or not useful, but public perception does matter in many ways in attracting talent.
[3] In fact, patio11's lifestyle is generally derided in Japan, even though us HN'ers look up to the example he sets both in terms of skills and lifestyle. I have friends who work in the same city that patio11 used to (and perhaps even in the same industry...) who cannot get themselves to leave their megacorp jobs even though they have mid-5-figure income streams from their side gigs that they could obviously grow if they resigned from their day jobs and committed themselves to it. Their reasoning? They fear that they would no longer be accepted by society without said megacorp job. You need supreme confidence in your self worth to live without the "social proof" of an establishment on your shoulder in this culture, and it's a disservice to the world that great talent remains locked up because of this.
Could the mindset of Japan be related in part to the idea of a strong long-term social contract between employee and corporation that exists in Japan? I read somewhere that in Japan, corporations are expected to take care of the employees in an almost familial sense, and in return, employees are expected to give their life energy to the corporation. I would be willing to wager that employee turnover in Japanese companies is lower than in the United States, and that quitting and working for a competitor for a higher salary would be seen as betrayal.
If this is the case, perhaps having a Megacorp job in Japan makes an employee feel protected and safe in a way that doesn't exist (any more) in US Megacorp jobs. I recall in 2008, Toyota bragged about not closing factories or laying people off, and saying how they care about their employees. This is in spite of Toyota factories being without unions, and it probably being more profitable to have layoffs during the economic downturn.
The situation in Japan is that all individualistic thought is progressively destroyed in the early years at school. When kids are thought not to ask any question or to challenge the professor, it is unlikely you will end up with an environment where entrepreneurs will flourish and thrive. The society in Japan is also very effective in making sure everyone fits the same mold.
This being said, there is still fascination for entrepreneurs in Japan. There is one TV program I watch every week, called "Canbria Kyuden" (Palace Cambria) discussing exclusively stories of Japanese entrepreneurs based on new market insights. They review large and small corporations alike and this is a very famous program here in Japan. It is probably "edgy" in a way, but I guess the interest/public is there as well.
The gist of your comment is correct, in the sense that a megacorp job in Japan is safer than a job at an American one.
However, the principle of lifetime employment in Japan has been slowly eroded in the past couple of decades. Toyota's employees still enjoy lifetime employment, but most of the manufacturing needed to make a car gets done by Toyota subsidiaries or subcontractors. These employ people on a contract basis, and they can stop renewing the contracts at any time. E.g. while Toyota was bragging about not laying off employees, their subcontractors were slashing jobs. Lots of workers were unemployed; the government kindly invited Brazilian workers to go back to Brazil and not to come back.
By the way, Toyota employees do belong to a union. It wouldn't be easy for Toyota to have a layoff. For comparison, JAL (Japan Airlines) got sued after laying off people, even though it was basically bankrupt.
I think you're right, and I think it's all about culture.
In the west, there's the aspiration of the self-made man. Western culture values individual freedom, personal satisfaction and people who get rich in no time.
In Japan, they value hard work and communal values come before the individual's. So it's more desirable to join a large organization or work on the public sector, and work until you retire.
There are supposed to be two threads in Japanese society. One that comes from the values of peasant farmers, which emphasizes communal values, and one which comes out of the old feudal power structure, which emphasizes personal loyalty over all else. I suspect that both of those would tend to work against the aspiration of the self made man.
Employee turnover is very low compared to the US. There is absolutely a feeling of safety in your employment, which is just one of the reasons why suicides spike in the spring at the end of the fiscal year. Pay grade generally scales with years spent at the company, so there is little chance or incentive for younger employees to rise too efficiently.
Interesting that you bring this up, as I was just reading patio11's article and thinking the same thing. When I was 18 I pivoted my business (freelancing, design work mostly plus webdev) to 'consulting' after discovering that my value wasn't in being on someone's hourly payroll, but rather providing ideas and solutions that were worth much more in the long run. I'm 20 now, and after a spell of no work (while in school, which I am no longer) I've been kicking things back into gear by trying to expand further into developer circles. I've spent the last week in my own Cocoa/iOS bootcamp while managing any current client work I have which I no longer bill by the hour. I'm only mentioning all of this here because I had the same experience while living in Japan, with a few optimistic exceptions– my fiancées parents. They and and a few other people I've met actually seemed very accepting of how I've done things so far, despite being quite risky. We're hoping to move back to Yokohama semi-permanently in the next couple years, and one of our primary goals is to bring more of that mentality back to the people who can do something with it, since even Japan's most 'creative' fields appear sorely lacking.
I think this is something whose importance is hard to fathom when living in hot startup ecosystems. When I was living in Japan, I was shocked at how people saw entrepreneurship in an undesirable light. In fact, new graduate polls showed that the most desirable type of profession was a public sector worker, followed by megacorp employee, then SME employee. Entrepreneur was literally at the bottom of the ladder [1].
This is in sharp contrast to the States, where polls show that people look up to and want to become entrepreneurs (the "start ups are cool" mentality) and see public sector workers as the most undesirable type of employment [2].
It's hard to live a life that isn't widely socially accepted, and having a society that looks favorably upon entrepreneurship or sole proprietorships is hugely important for giving people the peace of mind and confidence to embark on their individual paths [3]. Say what you will about the current proliferation of startups, but anything that promotes the long term social acceptability of starting a company is a net positive in the long run for making it easier for people to take the plunge themselves in the future.
Our environment skews our perspective, and our perspective determines what we think is possible. We tend to believe in the triumph of the individual spirit and determination over mental hurdles, but it's a rare specimen that has the both the hard skills to create something great and the mental power to actually convince themselves to do so against conventional wisdom. Don't you that that it'd be desirable to reduce the mental hurdles so that those with different mental predispositions can roam freely?
[1] I think doctor/lawyer/accountant were omitted because there are very few who enter these professions each year and is statistically somewhat irrelevant.
[2] This isn't to say that working in the public sector is actually a bad gig or not useful, but public perception does matter in many ways in attracting talent.
[3] In fact, patio11's lifestyle is generally derided in Japan, even though us HN'ers look up to the example he sets both in terms of skills and lifestyle. I have friends who work in the same city that patio11 used to (and perhaps even in the same industry...) who cannot get themselves to leave their megacorp jobs even though they have mid-5-figure income streams from their side gigs that they could obviously grow if they resigned from their day jobs and committed themselves to it. Their reasoning? They fear that they would no longer be accepted by society without said megacorp job. You need supreme confidence in your self worth to live without the "social proof" of an establishment on your shoulder in this culture, and it's a disservice to the world that great talent remains locked up because of this.