One of the limiting aspects of the French education system is the obligation to choose a path before you’re truly ready. If I had to choose at the beginning of high school what I wanted to do with my life, I’d be history teacher who likely would have never left the States. My husband knew at the end of middle school that he’d follow the science route which would lead him to engineering school.
It’s wonderful that the system worked for him – he loves what he does and will likely remain in the same field his entire career – but he isn’t the norm. It’s a system which is hardly conducive to free-spirited, location independent dreamers and entrepreneurs, which may be why there are so many of them in the U.S. But French entrepreneurs? Given the expensive hoops one has to jump through to launch a business in France and inaccessibility to unemployment if the venture fails, it seems rarer to find individuals who are willing to risk job stability, a company-offered mutuelle and sacred tickets restaurants. {For a really interesting read on the French perspective on entrepreneurism – in French – check out this…
