Our greatest enemy is ourselves: Europe and technological change.

If you look around Europe these days, you get the feeling that we are on the ropes. That we can’t do anything anymore. And that we celebrate it like never before with our very own desire to be submissive. How stupid.

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“Welcome to a world of full throttle changes”

I have been preaching for quite some time that we do not have to master the “digital transformation”, but that we are at the beginning of an era of extreme, technology-driven change.

I expected that this would be a challenge for a culture “designed for eternity” like the one we cultivate here in Europe. However, I am – frankly – quite surprised at the extent of the problems and the perception of them.

If you analyze the various problem strands/challenges, you can divide them into two basic categories. The actual real challenges that arise from external influences such as market shifts induced by new technology, foreign policy changes and social challenges. And secondly, the more virtual challenges that we impose on ourselves.

Problems wherever you look

And yes, of course there are problems: For example, a once glorious automotive industry that epitomized German quality consciousness, product excellence and rectitude like nothing else on the planet. I fully expected that it would be a challenge for German manufacturers in terms of technological change. But I could never have imagined that they would shoot themselves in the foot so amateurishly with a large-scale scam. And we are only at the beginning of this matter. Every day the situation becomes more complicated and more difficult to resolve.

The same applies to data protection, for example. Peter Thiel is right when he says that the GDPR is a huge own goal. It is just that, an unbelievable stupidity. I have spoken to dozens of managers about this in recent months. They all say exactly the same thing. What’s more, my experience with many users is that many find it bad when data is stolen or misused somewhere. But as soon as there is something free in return for data, data protection doesn’t matter. Real problems look different.

And the legislator is making a monster out of various, perhaps not so wrong motives, which has already kept us incredibly busy and unnecessarily hinders us in probably many things that we will do in the future economy.

There are endless examples like this, i.e. those in which we cause problems for ourselves. On the one hand, this is bitter. On the other hand, it is also positive. Because if we are involved in many problems ourselves, it also means that we can solve them relatively easily.

Negative culture

But more than others, we are good at making ourselves look bad. I don’t know how often I hear people say that Europe has few or no Unicorns. Embarrassingly, many of those who complain about this have no idea just how unstable valuations are in the start-up environment (especially the big ones). The fact that there are more Unicorns in the USA than in Europe, for example, is also due to the fact that valuations are generally more conservative in Europe.

And these litanies about what we can’t do, how the boards are dusty and how we just can’t get anything done here. What’s the point of that? We should be cheering on the people who are doing something.

For example, we don’t stand at the side of the track at a bike race and shout to the second and third-placed riders: “You’re light years behind, you can’t do anything, it’s going to be really difficult for you now. You whistle!

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No. We cheer people on, we want to see them win.

Nobody in Germany wants to see anyone else win anymore. Everyone just wants to avoid losing anything themselves. And before you Swiss or Austrians secretly rejoice, that applies to you just as much.

We have to stop this complaining, the whining, the constant prophesying of a possible European apocalypse. And this is especially true for thought leaders from the digital and start-up economy. Because everyone woke up a long time ago. The signs of the times have been recognized.

We can do it.

It’s funny in a bitter way that this battle cry of all things has become synonymous with the culture of failure in the wider European population. As if refugees and terror were real problems. We lack a view of the facts.

But that’s exactly what we need: people who stand up and say “We can do it!” It’s not you who can do it, it’s all of us together.

Cultural change

We can change things by stopping telling everyone who wants to do something that it will be difficult or impossible.

Everything, absolutely everything, that leads to great results is difficult.

I still remember when I once told an older friend about my entrepreneurial plans and she replied that I “wasn’t Steve Jobs” and that I should have smaller ambitions and bake smaller rolls. I thought at the time that the good lady was really out of her mind. Of course I can achieve my super-ambitious plans. Today, a good 10 years later, not all of these super-ambitious plans have come to fruition. But I was able to achieve a lot, make a difference and also create jobs. If I had taken this advice at face value back then, I would probably have ended up in a secure, conformist job. I would never have dared to do what I do today.

We really need to stop telling our young people that they can’t do the crazy things. We should be cheering them on and we should be conditioning them that it’s much more important to build or make great things than to make money in the short term and go home at 5pm and take it easy. Because more than ever before, young entrepreneurs are building the economic reality of tomorrow. And it’s simply a lot more fun than this “fitter, happier, more productive“.

And learn to put in the necessary work again

And, I don’t think I’m making any friends with this, we have to learn to work hard again. I’ve met a lot of young people who think they’re stupid when they really get stuck in somewhere. Many of them are completely unable to pull off 12 hours without a break. I consider the welfare state to be one of the most significant and important achievements of the European continent. We should be proud of it and take good care of it.

One disadvantage from an economic point of view is that this welfare also means that many very capable people no longer use all their creative energy and indulge in idleness. Work and commitment must become cool. In the USA, with which we constantly compare ourselves, this is generally the case. And, as we often forget, there is no other way to make ends meet in the USA than by working hard. It’s enough to compare the statutory vacation entitlements. Great things only happen when you do them.

Let’s do it

Our future is great. It is only not great if we do not actively shape it and try to manage and defend the status quo.

What we need to do is invest on a broad front: The state, by improving the framework conditions and the breeding ground for social entrepreneurship and solving the real problems, the investor with, surprise surprise, much higher and riskier capital investment, the entrepreneur with greatly increased risk-taking and offering daily support, including moral support, to everyone else in society. Then, as much as you may not like to hear it now, yes, then we can do it.