Reinventing France II
Two other thoughts about the last blog. Listening to these very clever people going round and round in circles with their fixed a priori, I understood completely why a Russian, who wanted to reinvent not France but just dance in the early years of the last century, listening to a young Frenchman who was doubtlessly going on and on in exactly the same way as his compatriots 100 years later, cut him short and simply said “Etonne-moi.” Turned and went away. Short, sharp, practical. Get on with it. The voluble young man was so shocked he left the room shaking. But wisely he thought about the advice, and followed it.
Second supplementary reflection: one speaker launching the afternoon debate, a young man called Philippe Hayat, brought a breath of fresh air to the seminar. 18 months ago he decided that young people at school needed to understand (and therefore lose their fear and hatred for) the word and concept “entrepreneur”. He didn’t wait for some civil servant to process his request to visit schools, he simply started visiting them, giving talks. It is a success, and surprise surprise government departments are queueing up to give his association money, to expand, to have branches throughout France. His association is called 100,000 entrepreneurs. There was a guy who 1) identified the problem (get rid of the taboo on enterprise) 2) did something about to correct it. Did it himself, without waiting. Not only that, but M. Hayat spoke clearly, a well-thought-out, concise piece. Both it and he were ignored for the rest of the afternoon. No one addressed any questions to him, no one took up any of his points, but carried on with their previous spats about ideology. After an hour, perhaps realising no one was interested, M. Hayat left.