I took a look at car registration statistics from last year. One fact struck me: Of all new Porsches sold in Finland, 60 % had a diesel engine.
I don’t have numbers from other countries (and it seems that Porsche itself does not report the diesel share), but I assume that something similar may be happening elsewhere, too.
This reminded me of discussions I recently had with a couple of local entrepreneurs.
The connection? Rational thinking diluting a dream.
The entrepreneurs first explained to me that they have great plans of growth and dream of becoming number one in their domain. It then turns out that after some strategy analysis they had decided on slow and sure organic growth and the vision was to be the biggest in the region.
Don’t get me wrong here. These guys run a profitable business and have managed to give a job to a few people along the way. That is not bad at all. I just felt a little sad because realism had taken over and their plan had lost its enthusiasm.
Imagine now a person who has always dreamed of owning a Porsche, saving money, looking at specs, drooling on pictures. And then, when the time finally comes, decides in the last minute to buy the diesel version, because it is less extravagant and easier to explain. The dream car becomes a polar bear killer that is not fun to drive.
Sign of the times? Big emotions and bold statements are clearly not fashionable.
Small local companies without growth plans are nice, but if it becomes the new company norm, we won’t be solving the society’s problems with entrepreneurship. The effect on unemployment will also be low.
Now this of course comes from a person who does not run a fast-growth business and owns no Porsche, but I dream of something bigger.
And what comes to the dream of owning a Porsche, I can only say that if I ever buy one, it won’t be an oil burner.
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