In the United States, companies are founded that end up as huge multimillion-dollar corporations. The only thing that changes compared with other countries is the business mindset and financial education.
In Spain, we go to university because we know that’s how we’ll get a good, well-paid job. In the United States, people go to university so they can better manage their future company.
That simple difference in thinking already sets them apart. Now let’s look at other points where the mindset differs:
1.
- Spanish entrepreneur: the more money he spends and the more people he hires, the more respected and well known he is.
- American entrepreneur: the fewer people he hires and the more money he makes, the more his future investors will love him.
2.
- Spanish entrepreneur: he expects the government to give him grants for his business, and he won’t start it unless he gets the aid he needs.
- American entrepreneur: he doesn’t count on government aid; in fact, there’s hardly any support for entrepreneurs of the kind other countries offer. That’s why they have a culture of private investors. So they neither expect grants nor apply for them, and they usually start up and fund their expansion with private capital.
3.
- Spanish entrepreneurs: they buy luxuries (houses, cars…) to look wealthy, but they only look it, because what they’re really taking on is debt paid off in instalments.
- American entrepreneurs: they buy luxuries only with the profits their assets generate. They spend on luxury once they’re rich.
4.
- Spanish entrepreneurs: it pains them to pay commission to a salesperson. They see it as money leaving the company, an expense.
- American entrepreneurs: they can’t wait for the salesperson to get rich, because it’s a sign that he has made the company rich with his work. They see his pay as an investment in the following month, since that salesperson will work even harder to earn more. As a result, the company makes more profit.
5.
- Spanish entrepreneur: he sets up his business, builds it up, grows its sales and stays in it until the business goes under, or until keeping it alive becomes a constant struggle.
- American entrepreneur: he sets up his business, builds it up, grows its sales and sells it while it’s still growing. With the proceeds he invests in other small businesses and buys some of them, building them up until he sells some and keeps others, repeating the same process again and again. That’s how he ends up building large corporations.
6.
- Spanish entrepreneur: his business is something emotional, sentimental and/or spiritual. It’s the fruit of his hard work, one more child he has to feed, raise and provide for. Selling it or merging it would be like giving away part of his life.
- American entrepreneur: he sees his business for what it is: a business. A money-making machine that has to turn a profit. If there’s more profit in selling it or merging it with another company, he won’t hesitate to do it. Business is about money.
7.
- Spanish entrepreneurs: they hand positions of responsibility to people they trust.
- American entrepreneurs: they hand positions of responsibility to professionals qualified for the job. They place their trust in professionalism and invest more in professionals.
8.
- Spanish entrepreneur: he specialises in his sector and invests his capital in that same sector to get even more out of it.
- American entrepreneur: he specialises in his sector and hires people who specialise in other sectors so he can diversify his investments. That way, if one sector falls, he carries on in the others.
Summary
- The Spanish entrepreneur creates a delicious hamburger, opens a restaurant and works in it until he has saved enough to open a second one. He works 12 hours a day so that at the end of the month, once he has paid the loans, mortgages, staff and insurance, he’s left with a net amount less than or equal to what one of his employees earns.
- The American entrepreneur creates a hamburger that, in my view, leaves a lot to be desired, and in no time builds an empire called McDonald’s.
Further reading
