Unfortunately this applies to Spain, Greece and my home country Portugal. South european countries have the same base mentality when it come to entrepreneurship, you either get mocked/ignored/stigmatized for failing or you get jealousy/ignored when you succeeded.
Also, we don't have the mentality of "self-made man" and "go get it", most of our population expect everything from the government. They get a degree and expect to get a job the next day just because.
I have serious arguments with family members and friends regarding this, because I'm the totally opposite, I strive to succeeded and I'm happy and inspired when I see someone else succeeding. I don't want to be in a safe job for the rest of my life, I want to be in a limbo all the time, that will make me push forward and fight to a have a better life. And to be honest I'm doing a lot better than most of the people here, even if I don't have a "stable" job.
I'm currently working as freelancer for companies outside portugal, and I've just funded my company in the US. I expect to get away from here next year. I just can't stand this mentality
Portuguese here as well and I can vouch for just about everything phatbyte said as well. Anyone that has a little bit of success, in the eyes of 95% of the population did it either by a) corruption b) stealing c) abusing people/employees. People just don't believe hard work is a key to success. Heck, even when I change jobs for a better pay my own parents complain about it, they expect me to die in the same company I started working.
On another note, where care you in Portugal? If in the north/Porto, send me an email if you want to catch a beer. Always looking for same minded individuals for a chat.
You've reminded me the time when I decided to leave my job and become a freelance. My parents wouldn't stop telling me I was crazy for leaving a nice job for the uncertainty of being your own boss.
I'm not in PT right now, but GF lives in Porto and I get to spend quite a bit of time there. Drop me an email (it's in my profile) and we'll catch a beer some time.
> They get a degree and expect to get a job the next day just because.
Yes, and what is more, they expect to magically get a job even if they got a degree in Minoan pottery, or post-modern French feminist theory.
But to be fair this issue is not limited to this countries, even in the US there are plenty of people who believe that if they got a degree that somehow magically entitles them to a job.
The UK as well, we have "media" students from nth-tier "universities" like London Met strolling through the streets demanding their right to a job. The old attitude, call it Protestant or Anglo-Saxon or just plain English, is dying out, replaced by entitlement culture from the EU.
Sorry, my bad. As Alberto pointed in his comment, I was asking about how to incorporate a company in the USA when you are not a USA citizen (neither a legal resident)?
I'm Spanish and my GF is Portuguese. I can vouch for everything you said.
As an enterpreneur, I work really hard every day to meet my goals. 14 hours days are not unusual to me and working some 3-4 hours a day on weekends is the norm. When others know I work from home, they either assume that I just sit browsing Facebook all day and I'm really just collecting unemployment for the government or that I'm a lazy asshat whose parents pay for everything.
A year and a half ago, I was lucky enough to be featured by the most popular regional newspaper (~1M people live in this area) because of some work I did. A lot of the people who know me IRL congratulated me by it, but you should have seen some of the comments in the newspaper's website: they were incredibly vitriolic, calling me a lot of things like "lucky code butcher" or suggesting I was friends with someone in the newspaper because what I did was not newsworthy.
Combine that with the absurdly high unemployment rate, the incredibly high amount of people who prefer collecting 600€ of unemployment rather than working for 1000€ and the ridiculously high taxes we have to pay (an employee taking home ~1300€ a month would cost me around ~2700€) and you end up with the nightmare for startups we have here.
I can relate and sympathize. I’m from Spain although I have spent most of my professional life in the US and Canada.
Hats off to you if you are an entrepreneur in Spain. Some 20 years ago or so when I was in college and trying to be self-employed or create my own company I would go to the government offices in my hometown (with 40% or so unemployment rate) to know what to do and they would look at me like I was crazy.
In one office nobody knew anything and I had to come back later to talk to the guy who supposedly knew something but was out having coffee. In another office they pretty much kicked me out because my questions led them to believe I was trying to find some loophole in order to commit fraud or something. And these were the “Offices for Employment Creation” or whatever they called it back them.
Everybody in Spain just tells you to go work for the government (and there are 4 or 5 levels of government that exist in Spain), competing in the “oposiciones” or tests for a position, where the ratios are like one position for a thousand applicants. This is so because not only government employment is stable (they basically cannot ever fire you no matter what) and usually relaxed but they often make more money that their counterparts in the private sector.
Also, we don't have the mentality of "self-made man" and "go get it", most of our population expect everything from the government. They get a degree and expect to get a job the next day just because.
I have serious arguments with family members and friends regarding this, because I'm the totally opposite, I strive to succeeded and I'm happy and inspired when I see someone else succeeding. I don't want to be in a safe job for the rest of my life, I want to be in a limbo all the time, that will make me push forward and fight to a have a better life. And to be honest I'm doing a lot better than most of the people here, even if I don't have a "stable" job.
I'm currently working as freelancer for companies outside portugal, and I've just funded my company in the US. I expect to get away from here next year. I just can't stand this mentality