"If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on!"
This is one of my favorite quotes by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's influential and respected COO. It is one I invoke in speeches abroad when I share the benefits of the U.S. model of entrepreneurship, urging young people and especially women to put aside fear and intimidation, and to shape their professional destinies with their own two hands.
Coming of age in America, we are pelted with inspiring calls to action -- "Go for it!," "Take the plunge!" "Dare to DREAM," "Just do it!" These phrases are part of our uber-competitive national vernacular.
As a former competitive ice skater, I know it takes 100 hard falls and many bruises before you land the perfect jump. When I practiced my jumps, I used padded shorts and a harness.
Where is America's harness?
America is the land of opportunity: Our nation boasts the highest levels of startups, and path-breaking innovation. America draws like a magnet the world's most creative people to fulfill the storied dream. The biggest tech giants in the world reside in our land. To date, there is no European equivalent of Google nor Asian equivalent of Apple.
My own parents immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe to realize their dreams of economic opportunity. There was no safety net to capture their failures. So they worked to survive and thrive. To me, a never-ending desire for achievement was buttressed by deep anxieties of ending up on the street. And until recently, I was convinced that intense competitiveness fueled by a dose of anxiety were the ingredients to being the best. And being the best is the only way to be.
But four years ago, I moved to a distant, small sub-Arctic nation in Northern Europe that is home to a higher number of successful startups per capita than most countries in the world, billion-dollar tech companies, futuristic music scenes and forward-looking business models. And it does so without boasting about it at all. Because one thing Swedes don't do is boast.
Stockholm, Sweden has been attracting record numbers of venture capital for years, outshining larger and more cosmopolitan cities like London and Berlin. In fintech, Klarna and Izettle are revolutionizing commerce and obliterating the traditional notion of banks. In gaming, King, Mojang (Minecraft), Dice and Toca Boca flavored by the Swedish YouTube sensation Pewdie Pie, are capturing the imagination of gamers world-wide to the point where nearly half of the top 10 games on iTunes have a Swedish connection.
In music, they say that behind every famous American pop star is a Swedish producer or songwriter. Sweden is one of the most prolific exporters of top pop chart songs. From ABBA to Avicci, Swedish has sound charmed our psyches for decades without many of us even knowing it. Perhaps the giant in this realm is Spotify, the company that has democratized music and transformed the way we consume it, and connect to it.
Culturally, Sweden is the land of "Lagom" and "Jante," which respectively means "balance" and a social law urging its denizens not to stand out. Work-life balance, consensus, equality and anti-hierarchical work structures define the office and the family. It's a social welfare state with some of the most generous parental leave policies (parents share 480 days of paid leave per child), free health care and free education. Hence, you don't end up living in your car or in bankruptcy court if you fail at your startup. So many more people try.
In America, we both suffer and benefit from a model of higher rewards for risk and higher penalties for failure. For decades this model seemed indisputable. But today we are seeing an explosion of innovation throughout the entire Nordic region, begging the question: Is a sense of security equally as motivational than a sense of competition?
Could a collective mindset be more attuned to the modern world than one based in raw individualism?
Today, my generation of Millennials in America is calling loudly for a different way forward. They value consensus, decentralization and flexibility in the workplace, and a stronger safety net for a generation that works differently and works in a much more globally competitive and tough environment.
Young Americans have been avid supporters of the visionary policies of President Barack Obama with the Affordable Care Act, and measures supporting subsidized education, maternity and paternity leave and early education for children.
The Scandinavian nations have been living the concept of egalitarianism -- at work and at home -- and a sensible mix of safety and social security for decades. In the workplace, creativity is allowed to come from everywhere -- from the CEO to the programmers and interns-- with all ideas being honored with dignity and engagement. Less top-down ego makes stronger internal cultures and stronger products. Entrepreneurs generally think long-term, they think global and they think in ways that create sustainable, inclusive and egalitarian business cultures.
Also important: Innovation is a team sport. A hero-culture has been created in America around the individual entrepreneur, but in reality innovation takes great collaboration over time and across sectors. Great minds interface with each other, as well as with universities, business, the government, and across borders.
This is where a true strength of the Swedes lies. Collective action and collective responsibility is a central core of what it means to be Swedish. This is a great asset for a future business culture that will be more dependent on skills like cross-cultural team-building and dynamic communications.
It's important to note that Sweden is a small nation of 9 million, with a capitol that has never been occupied by a foreign power, a country that has not been at war for over 200 years and which has been relatively ethnically homogenous for centuries.
It's not an accurate direct comparison with the United States, but it is a fair depiction of what a nation that takes care of its old, it's young (free education), and which has the highest numbers of women working full-time in the world could look like. Stockholm is one of the greenest cities in the world with the cleanest air and water supply. Sweden has high taxes yet also high productivity and entrepreneurial rates.
From this lessons can be drawn that are not just unique to Sweden but universal and transferable elsewhere. When you live in Stockholm, in some ways you are living in the future.
In my personal time in Sweden, I studied the Swedish tech scene and it's interconnectedness with entrepreneurship and women's empowerment. Very quickly I began to sense that this is a very special moment between America and Sweden. The symbiosis is a near perfect match. And we can learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses in substantive and pioneering ways.
If we could "consummate" this love affair, I'm confident we would all be following Ms. Sandberg's advice and flying off together into the cosmos in a legion of carbon-neutral rocket ships.
Seatbelts firmly in tact, of course.