“It’s leadership that rejects complacency, breaks through bureaucracy, challenges corruption. Doing what’s right, not what’s easy. It’s the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world. Changing the way the world tackles poverty and building a world based on dignity.”

Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder of Acumen in Slush Silver Stage on November 2015

Entrepreneurship is a great way to make an impactful revolution. China is now building a massive startup push and reaching out to Europe. The best startups follow the path on impactful entrepreneurship and take example on Monk Xuanzang and Jacqueline Novogratz.

Why? Because the people are like they’ve always been, but the world has changed.

Key points:

1) Entrepreneurship is a way to make a positive revolution, in Finland, China and the world. A lot of stuff going on in Finland, China and the world. Entrepreneurship offers a way to rebel by doing things, in all these places. Entrepreneurship can be revolutionary and change the world without needing to build barricades on the streets.

2) China is ongoing a massive startup campaign, and rebuilding the “Silk Road” in Eurasia. China is going through a country-wide startup campaign, which brings 4000 new startups every day. It is also rebuilding the Silk Road 2.0 of the 21st century. Both of those are reasons why e.g. Slush is supported in China.

3) Startups (incl. Slush China): Follow Xuanzang and Monkey King (and Jacqueline Novogratz). Startups who succeed big time, are able to push towards higher goals than personal success or money-making. It needs social values and perseverance. That change can happen also in China.

 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND POSITIVE REVOLUTION

Everyone knows, there were 4 different demonstrations last weekend in Finland, from agricultural tractors to viable students. In China you have thousands every year. Those in Finland are highlighted lively in the media. Those in China, are not.

In any way, the ground is shaking and trumbling both in Finland and China – and in pretty many other countries in the world. Look at what’s going on in Europe…

These challenges leave us with three options: join the shaking demonstrations and try to take down the King, defy them and attack the ones that are expressing their opinion, or do nothing.

I’ve often told that the best way to rebel is to do something. This video strike me very powerfully in the late 2014:

Then the following Slush 2014, the energy, faith, belief, attitude and the speeches by godfathers Ilkka and Peter thanking the voluntaries after the event were the things that convinced me fully.

Yes, I want to join the revolution.

Joined the movement and have got pretty far in it now. Seen a lot of its ups and downs.

The revolution has been happening in Finland, in Europe, in Asia, Japan, China… + over a dozen countries more.

In each places on its own way.

 

MESSAGE OF LOVE

On Slush in China, I’d like to point out that all these persons, who have been or who are in our team are super awesome and are at the bottom really good people. Make no mistake. If anyone have thought, that I think otherwise, please correct your ideas – all people in the team on the ground are good people. They shouldn’t be criticized as human beings, nor as the children of our God. This same goes to anyone who may feel that has been criticized by me. You are good people, and no one should think otherwise, let’s make that clear.

However the problem here is not the individual people. It’s not about who did what to whom, who is what kind of a person etc. Focusing on that misses the point. The same goes also to the countries: “It’s because China is like that.” Or: “You know, Finland has always been…” This thing is not about individual people, neither about countries, it’s about culture and structure, the way how things are done. Good people go doing strange things. Good nations go into strange directions. And people feel it. That’s why there were students and tractors on the roads last weekend in Finland. That’s why there’s challenges in China in our operating ground.

Why ?

Ok, let’s get it clear and my analysis is as follows: Slush is a beautiful movement of amazing people, who want to do good and want to make the world a better place. They often are also considering that entrepreneurship is the way to do that, in your own country and globally.

That’s why Slush is in China. We have been continuing that tradition. That’s I guess why awesome things are happening in Japan too at the moment.

 

We are operating in an environment that needs to renew itself. We are asked, invited to come here by the top of the Chinese government to the grassroots to help China become better, help to become more transparent, more creative, more modern, more cool. The ones that have visited Slush in Finland have sensed something special, something fresh, something new. And that’s exactly the optimism and pureness that the Chinese youth are bringing up and building more and more. They feel inspired by the example – and their leaders want to find best possible waves to support the Great Revival of Chinese people.

 

CHINA’S STARTUP CAMPAIGN, CHINA DREAM AND THE SILK ROAD 2.0.

Slush has been welcome to China because of many reasons.

Government has two main campaigns going on: Startup campaign (大众创业，万众创新) and Silk Road strategy (一带一路). Slush is super interesting from both angles. As a result of the first, China got 4 000 000 new startups last year (4000 a day) and doubled the size of its startups.

Slush is also appealing to those youth people born after 1990s, who seek new fresher ways and models to make an impact. They also often talk about doing something else than “only thinking about money all the time”. The post-Mao years since the late 1970s was the time of an economic revival, lead by Deng Xiaoping and his appointed predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The mantra of “8% economic annual growth” has changed into the talk of Chinese Dreams. For the first time China starts to be ready to look beyond the economic recovery. Even though China is still largely a developing country, the first big steps have already been taken. People can focus on higher goals. The hierarchy of needs is filled at the lower layers, now it’s time to pursue towards more meaningful life, towards dreams, building up a more meaningful society.

China has been said to have a strong spiritual vacuum. There is not much on that side. After the long material communist era, and the aftershock of cultural revolution the focus has been on keeping the spiritual expressions down.

Now things have though started to change into positive. You can see it, you can feel it. There is of course still a lot of corruption, but things are going into positive direction. One of course shouldn’t be part of that corruption. We all, should still keep on pushing forward, trying to reach to the Chinese youth directly and following the Slush example, encourage them forward on an entrepreneurially revolutionary way.

The question on last year Slush opening ceremony was: “What will we leave behind?”

That’s something we also should carefully think here in China after our last year’s opening of the gate. Now we are here and people are attached to us and listen and follow our example. It’s pretty interesting to have potentially 1,3 billion people looking at you. The government is supporting, the community, the science parks, the foreign ministry, the universities, the startups, the investors, the media, the youth communities…

How do we live with that? What is the message and example we want to share with them?

That’s a super crucial question.

Slush reaching allover the world is changing also Slush, it’s in the constant move. What happens in China, influence also Finland. That’s good to keep in mind, as we’ve seen.

 

REMEMBER XUANZANG, THE MONKEY KING (and Jacqueline Novogratz)

I’ll follow closely Slush as part of the broader changes in Finland, China and the world. I of course hope all the best for Slush and Slush in China and I have been super happy to have had the chance to be onboard in bringing such a meaningful and impactful movement to one of the most challenging and most important markets and cultures of the world. Even though climbing the Great Wall is not always easy.

“No looking back, look into the future”, say many. I want to address that all the folks in our team and in the broader community are super awesome and are doing super important job from their hearts. Let no one think anything else. They are working under super big pressure and needs our understanding in their actions, even if they were not always correct in their actions. We need to be merciful for each other, even if some stuff they break for ourselves. The road of forgiveness is the path one should follow. That’s where people win the most.

In the end of the fight, the Monkey King and his companions follow the Monk Xuanzang, who shows an action of a nobleman, resists on violence, sticks to his prayer and wins over the hard fighting talents on his side to follow him to the challenging paths of a journey to the far West.

The fight in China is a fight about spirits, it has been for a long time, for decades, and it will continue to be. How well Slush follows the virtue and example of Monk Xuanzang decides how well Slush will be able to show leadership and reach the big entrepreneurial dreams it is pursuing for. Slush in China wants to be a movement that dreams, dares, and does things. And leads China and the world to better tomorrow through entrepreneurship. It’s a generation of energized people sharing the same values than Slush does.

According the revisited goals of Slush in China,

Slush dreams to change China into social impact driven society, from the money driven society.

Slush dreams of connecting China and the world by building up a global startup community.

Slush creates world class entrepreneurship education and learning for future, with training, coaching and online courses.

These big dreams are all possible to achieve. And the example needs to be shown first from the inside, from yourself, with the people close to you.

 

 

 

 

China’s culture knows the tradition of a power-thirsty emperor, and the good prime minister. In the West we have our Lord of The Rings, our Bibles, our Les Miserables. We have Gandalf and Saruman. We have Frodo and the ring. We have Jesus and his contemporaries. We have Jean Valjean, Javert and Thenardier. It’s all in our hands. All in our heads and our hearts. It’s up to us what kind of decisions we make, what we follow, what we do. The environment calls people to different directions. We are free in our thinking. We are free in our choices.

That’s the positive part of being a human being,

we are free to choose.

 

Bringing it back closer to our startup environment.

The little experience me and many of our friends have of being super excited about startups for the past years, learnt and grown inside Slush, and our startup ecosystem, have thought that most of the super successful startups and entrepreneurs even though have had a lot of challenges in their careers, they’ve often had higher goals on social impact that reach beyond the goal of becoming rich or having individual success in their careers. The right attitude and willingness to do good, to pay forward for the society, people and environment often pays back. It gives a thrive and deeper motivation to keep pressing forward against even impossible odds. It gives a feeling that nothing is impossible, everything is possible and even the mountains may give away and waters turn aside, if you keep on believing what you do. In this state of mind the universe starts more and more to take care of giving good sailing winds and keeping the impossible storms out. The boat goes forward and reaches unseen lands. Such as we did last year.

There’s a lot of inspiring success stories from startups who have gone all that way.

It’s so much about belief, values, heart and what is the right thing to do.

Go asking the multiple Nordic unicorns, if you think otherwise.

Or ask some of the startups from our last year event who are changing the world, let it be on supporting how people sleep, rest and are more healthy, or choosing and becoming more aware of the ethical side of the cosmetics you use, helping people to analyze their emotions better and improve their well-being, saving the world hunger through insects or improving the ways we do e-commerce.

Finally I’d like to share a few words on Jacqueline Novogratz, the CEO & Founder of Acumen, who invest and support startups with broader social impact, especially in developing countries. They’ve made a manifesto about these things, goes as follows

It starts by standing with the poor, listening to voices unheard, and recognizing potential where others see despair.

 

It demands investing as a means, not an end, daring to go where markets have failed and aid has fallen short. It makes capital work for us, not control us.

 

It thrives on moral imagination: the humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. It’s having the ambition to learn at the edge, the wisdom to admit failure, and the courage to start again.

 

It requires patience and kindness, resilience and grit: a hard-edged hope. It’s leadership that rejects complacency, breaks through bureaucracy, challenges corruption. Doing what’s right, not what’s easy.

 

It’s the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world. Changing the way the world tackles poverty and building a world based on dignity.

Something rarely bounces as much as this. Great stuff Jacqueline. Amen. An example to follow allover, in Finland, China, Africa and elsewhere in Asia and the World.

Check here also Jacqueline’s speech from last year Slush main Silver Stage:

To finish with, China is on the road to an amazing era of the great renaissance of its people and culture. It’s building new roads and bridges to allover Eurasia and the world. Finland and the Slush movement can be a crucial part of it, if wishes to. And can support the 21st century Great Silk Road 2.0. to be as humane, cool, creative and caring as possible. It’s the small steps that define the greater steps that will be followed.

In this year of Monkey, do remember why Monkey King follow Xuanzang and the contribution he does for him, it’s also captured beautifully in the words by the Acumen Founder Mrs. Novogratz on last year’s Slush stage,

 

Godspeed and a lot of love,

Sincerely,

 

Lauri