Failure to start a business is still considered a stigma, an expression of personal failure. Although entrepreneurs in FuckUp-Nights now report about their failures, we prefer to see winners. Failure is entrepreneurial normality.

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Founder Between FuckUp-Nights and Anonymous Bankruptcy

While failed several years ago Founders when anonymous bankrupts met, in FuckUp Nights failure is almost glorified nowadays - at least apparently, because behind closed doors Hand it is then still said: "He just can't do it, it is said."

Failing to start a business is still not an option in Germany Fun and if you fall, you have to reckon with a lot of malice. Failure is business normality, it's just part of it, just like getting up and going on afterwards.

Get up again after failures and carry on

Because it is an expression of the risk that the entrepreneur bears. The Art It's just picking yourself up after failure and moving on. It is important to cultivate that. We need a culture of failure - and of picking yourself up again as part of normality. To glorify this as particularly glamorous in FuckUp Nights is just as exaggerated as the malice or the need to hide.

Anyone who starts his own business has to expect that he will fail, that's how easy it is. But this basic understanding of entrepreneurial thinking is lacking in Germany; on the contrary, whoever falls is still punished. No wonder then that failure is a taboo and should be avoided at all costs - even if it leaves innovations behind. Paradoxically enough, this can lead to the worst case occurring: failure as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Spiessrutenlauf at the foundation

It is precisely this way of thinking that makes it difficult in Germany to become independent at all. Actually, that is still mild, because in fact it resembles a gauntlet: First, there are the bureaucratic hurdles from social insurance to tax law. But even more difficult is the lack of founding culture in Germany.

Because if you want to take the step, you often have to feel like an oddball: "What, you want to give up the secure job for an uncertain existence?" or "The competition is way too big, you'll never make it!" are just two of many prejudices that many founders from the circle of Family, friends and acquaintances as soon as they hesitantly come out with their plan.

Germany is hostile to foundations

And bank advisors also wave at the Financing more innovative ideas gladly with the hint that just not merchandise leaves what one does not know. How stupid!

Even if fast the impression arises that such experiences could be purely subjective, especially since hardly anyone likes to talk about them: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a study that examines the start-up conditions in 42 countries worldwide, comes to the same conclusion: The start-up culture in Germany is anything but as optimal.

Infrastructure good, but ...

Although Germany offers a very good public funding infrastructure, there are enough Office - and commercial space as well as means of transport and communication are available, the protection of intellectual property through patents is guaranteed and founders can access numerous consulting services and suppliers.

On the other hand, Germany performs poorly in international comparison in numerous framework conditions clear worse than other countries: start-ups in this country are slowed down by higher market entry barriers and poorer financing conditions.

... anger at regulation and pessimism

But especially criticize the experts interviewed by GEM the state's excessive regulatory mania, the poor foundation-related Vocational Training and finally the negative social attitude towards founding.

But what good is a good infrastructure and all state support efforts if the overall mood to become self-employed is rather bad? The simple answer: little. And the study shows that right away: 46,5 percent of the 18 to 64-year-olds surveyed would give up the step into self-employment altogether - that's it Anxiety, it could go wrong.

Only the very young to 24 are a bit braver. But apart from those, the differences to countries like England, the Netherlands, Australia or above all the USA, where 79 percent could not be stopped by fears of reasons, are huge.

Setting up abroad - Estonia or Switzerland?

The question therefore arises as to whether, as a German, you should not set up a business abroad straight away. Recently, Estonia has been making a name for itself as a start-up paradise, whereby the tax advantages as an eResident only pay off if you do not live in Germany.

Another exciting country for start-ups, which is also a little closer to us linguistically, is Switzerland. She has in terms of Companies and investments but hardly anyone has on their radar. The agency for company formation in Switzerland would like to change this with a comprehensive range of information.