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For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good.

To be an entrepreneur in Europe, there is a stigma attached to it. There's a reason why England is known as a nation of shopkeepers. Part of it is the idea that it's better to have a shop and keep it up and running than close the doors and try to do something much more significant.

Running a business anywhere isn't easy.

So yes, European decision making is not pretty. But it does work.

The European style of living is seductive: fewer hours worked, more hours at the cafe, less concern over self-betterment. But that style of living does not produce a purposeful life.

It's a very hard and competitive business in which you have to fight every day in order to impose yourself.

It's my impression that investment in Europe is done for the right reasons. Europe is a very good place to do business; it's a large market.

Business is always looking to avoid the toughest norms. But some do it in a civilized way, while others push it using uncivilized, brazen methods.

There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

When you run an entrepreneurial business, you have hurry sickness - you don't look back, you advance and consolidate. But it is such fun.