Dreamers and entrepreneurs

A store in Utrecht, Holland (photo NS/IS)

While reading the blogs and stories written by american expats in Paris, London , Berlin, even in Finland, I am extremely surprised by the way they turn their ideas and dreams in to the reality. They start companies selling cookies on internet, make name as stylists, write books and blogs about their new life in some already wellknown spot of the world, and get paid for their writings, make cooking their mission, sell cupcakes, icecream, jewelry and do all kinds of things to make a living, at least partially .

I am not a devoted fan of US, but there is one thing I throughly and deeply admire in americans: entrepreneurship. It also makes me wonder, why don´t we have the same spirit here and now? Why does it feel so much more comprehensible to tell my daughter in Holland to start baking cinnamon rolls fore sale there, than to tell her to do the same thing, or something similar, here. And honestly Ines, I really ment what I said. Being an entrepreneur in Finland can´t be that much harder than anywhere else. Of course there are a lot of things that can restrain your efforts, but still … that ´s how it is everywhere, I guess.

Some years ago a lecturer in today´s Aalto university told us: ”We don´t need any pizza makers in Finland , we need big companies ...” . Yeah right. Maybe that attitude was, and still is, a bit of a problem. Maybe that small pizza company is a start for something bigger. IKEA´s Kamprad sold pins and nails in the beginning.

Or are we just so afraid to fail, to be regarded as loosers and daydreamers, even in the cost of our own wellbeing and not caring about the feeling: ”this is what I want to do with my life”. And then there are the high costs of living and … and … and … I really don´t know what.

But there are strong signs of a new era. There are small grocery stores opening in Helsinki, companies making quality clothing, ecological producers, arts and crafts etc. (Now I can almost hear all my skeptical friends thinking: ”Okay. Those shops are nice and some of the owners have been lucky, but in the long run …. ”. Yeah sure. But at least those people tried to fulfill their dreams, make a living and more  - and some of them got lucky. )

And speaking of fulfilling one´s dreams and before I start fulfilling my own dreams, Dreams of a Rich (which I am not) Hippie (which I might be, but a little overaged one maybe), I am especially proud of knowing a couple who fulfilled one of their ideas and dreams by reopening a small grocery store, Skärgårdsbutiken – Saaristokauppa in Suvisaaristo in Espoo archipelago, a couple of days ago. I wish you all the luck with the store Miiru and Lauri!

And because I really love small stores of all kind, I´ll probably write more about "Skärgårdsbutiken" when I have time to visit the place.