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American attitude??? Andy Grove: Hungarian Nikola Tesla: Serbian Sergey Brin: Russian Patrick and John Collison: Irish Mathilde Collin: French Jerry Yang:

American attitude??? Andy Grove: Hungarian Nikola Tesla: Serbian Sergey Brin: Russian Patrick and John Collison: Irish Mathilde Collin: French Jerry Yang: Taiwanese

donatj 7y ago
And arguably they came to America where their attitude could flourish. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist elsewhere but it’s not encouraged elsewhere.
jinushaun 7y ago
America attracts innovators. They do it in America because they can’t do it at home. Whether it’s true or not, for immigrants, there’s a sense that upward mobility is possible in America. There was an old episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was driving around an exotic car in America. He noted that Americans were super excited about the car, giving him complements, posing for pictures, saying that one day they’ll own one and generally being positive and optimistic. In contrast, he reflected that if he did the same thing in the UK, he’d either get insulted for “showing off” or people would be generally negative/pessimistic because they could never afford one.
- brianpgordon 7y ago
  That's incredibly depressing to me. If he really talked to a representative cross-section of America, almost all of those optimistic people will never be wealthy enough to afford the car. At least the Brits know where they stand. We're never going to be able to effectively address wealth inequality if every person on the street believes that they're going to be a multimillionaire some day.
  - wh-uws 7y ago
    You're missing the point. Americans believe we can and that belief allows the mental and emotional energy to try No one is guaranteed success. But if you never believe you even could you would be much less inclined to even try.
    - brianpgordon 7y ago
      I'm sorry, but I would call that false hope.
return1 7y ago
And yet none of them returned to their ‘country’
DeonPenny 7y ago
Thats very American. Americans don't differentiate between immigrates that move to the US and people born here. An ambitious immigrant is more "American" than an unambitious natural born "American"
gremlinsinc 7y ago
Can you follow up with how many of those people spent 90% or more of their successful business days in their country of origin vs How many emigrated to America? Because foreign nationals needing America as a catalyst still makes it a U.S. built business.

American attitude??? Andy Grove: Hungarian Nikola Tesla: Serbian Sergey Brin: Russian Patrick and John Collison: Irish Mathilde Collin: French Jerry Yang: Taiwanese

donatj 7y ago

And arguably they came to America where their attitude could flourish. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist elsewhere but it’s not encouraged elsewhere.

jinushaun 7y ago

America attracts innovators. They do it in America because they can’t do it at home. Whether it’s true or not, for immigrants, there’s a sense that upward mobility is possible in America. There was an old episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was driving around an exotic car in America. He noted that Americans were super excited about the car, giving him complements, posing for pictures, saying that one day they’ll own one and generally being positive and optimistic. In contrast, he reflected that if he did the same thing in the UK, he’d either get insulted for “showing off” or people would be generally negative/pessimistic because they could never afford one.

brianpgordon 7y ago
That's incredibly depressing to me. If he really talked to a representative cross-section of America, almost all of those optimistic people will never be wealthy enough to afford the car. At least the Brits know where they stand. We're never going to be able to effectively address wealth inequality if every person on the street believes that they're going to be a multimillionaire some day.
- wh-uws 7y ago
  You're missing the point. Americans believe we can and that belief allows the mental and emotional energy to try No one is guaranteed success. But if you never believe you even could you would be much less inclined to even try.
  - brianpgordon 7y ago
    I'm sorry, but I would call that false hope.

return1 7y ago

And yet none of them returned to their ‘country’

DeonPenny 7y ago

Thats very American. Americans don't differentiate between immigrates that move to the US and people born here. An ambitious immigrant is more "American" than an unambitious natural born "American"

gremlinsinc 7y ago

Can you follow up with how many of those people spent 90% or more of their successful business days in their country of origin vs How many emigrated to America? Because foreign nationals needing America as a catalyst still makes it a U.S. built business.