At IdeaLog an interview with Eric Ries addresses what he sees as the New Zealand culture of humility, and how this may be both a weakness and a strength when it comes to getting a startup off the ground.
I’ve become a bit suspicious of the reports I get from Kiwis, because I’ve learned there’s a pathological humility in the culture. So plenty of people say they’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and when I ask what they do now, they say “I run my own business.” Is that not an entrepreneur? And they say “Well it doesn’t really count—it’s not a very good business.”
I’m told New Zealand doesn’t have much of an entrepreneurship culture, and then everyone I meet is running their own business, or wants to. People tell me they’re doing three different projects, but they’re not a ‘real’ entrepreneur.
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I was joking before about the kind of massive Kiwi humility complex, which I find baffling. But humility is a very valuable entrepreneurial trait, and so if you actually harness humility for good, what it means is that when you're confronted with difficult facts that contradict your vision, you'll have the kind of strength of self to see the reality for what it is, which could be very valuable.
Anyway, if I ever become the 'involved in a startup' type of entrepreneur, this article is something I want to remember.
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