
Sweden gives employees unpaid time off to be entrepreneurs (2019) - saadalem
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/sweden-gives-all-employees-time-off-to-be-entrepreneurs/
======
soygul
I've used this 3 years ago. I took 6 months off to conduct my own business. I
also published a "choose your own adventure" game during that time:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soygul.cro...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soygul.crowner)

Amazingly productive days. I must add that you don't get paid for the time
off. It's just that you don't lose your employment status.

~~~
riffraff
oh, so it's not paid.

Then I am surprised to say, there is the same thing in Italy ("aspettativa per
avvio attività"), but oddly enough, only for public sector employees, up to 12
months.

I am not sure many people make use of it, I would guess very, very few.

~~~
TLightful
I would definitely use it. Save up a bit of money and then go and do whatever
you like. What's not to like?

~~~
riffraff
so would I, but I think the demographics of people who go into (most) public
sector jobs and those who want to become entrepreneurs do not have a major
overlap.

------
jamesblonde
I am CEO of a swedish VC-backed startup, and i am currently off 2 days a week
for parental leave for 6 months. Yes, i am a man. And when we hire somebody in
their 30s (man or woman), we can expect that for 6-12 months they will be gone
on parental leave at some stage. (We have 4 people now out of 16 who will be
on parental leave during 2020 - 3 of them men).

~~~
easytiger
Let me guess, business is part of the AI/Cloud hypetrain.

~~~
jamesblonde
Did you guess that without even looking at my post history?

------
gerdesj
That's how me and my mates started off in the UK.

We three were working for a firm in the UK in various capacities in 1999. The
firm decided to FM their IT function to Synstar which became part of HP(E). We
formed a company and resold ourselves back through Synstar (they took 17%, we
were still cheap and still made a living)

Nowadays, 20 years later, we are still going. We will never set the world on
fire and that is the way I like it. We turn over £1.5M at the moment and have
20 employees, we grow gradually as needed. I sleep very well at night.

I'll quite happily stick two fingers up at any fantastically wealthy fuckwit
who managed to make themselves wealthy beyond compare who might describe my
little company as an underachiever (and have done so.)

I'm not advocating that our approach is the best. It works for us. It wont put
you on the cover of a magazine. Be absolutely certain that you are the dog's
nadgers when you think you are the dog's nadgers. If you are not the dog's
then be prepared for disappointment and worse.

------
jedberg
Since the leave is unpaid, does it basically just mean your old company has to
hire you back in six months if you decide to come back?

~~~
commandlinefan
> has to hire you back

As the guy who thought he could do better and has to come crawling back,
admitting failure... that sounds awfully uncomfortable.

~~~
blululu
Maybe this is a Silicon Valley bias but I have never heard of anyone scoffing
at the founders of failed enterprises. New enterprises are hard even the best
prepared ones will require some luck. A successful start up ecosystem should
ensure that people are not punished for trying.

------
tpmx
Being Swedish, I attempted to use that back in 2002 when I was fed up with
with my current, quite stagnant employer. Being young and naive I allowed my
then direct manager and CEO to bully myself into giving up on that idea.

They weren't even aware of this possibility. I showed them the actual law.
They implied they would lawyer up if I fighted them.

I ended up simply resigning instead. In retrospect that was a fantastic idea!
In retrospect I saw people getting stuck there, while my career took off like
a rocket (well, comparatively speaking)...

If I had been a similar age today, wanting to attempt this, I'd probably be
able to find free help online. It's such a different world now, compared to 18
years ago.

------
badrabbit
I heard finding housing in stockholm is very hard. How do policies like this
play in practice? Is it like how some US states pay you to move there except
it's really nowhere near enough to be considered a livable income?

~~~
strictfp
Swede here. We have a largely regulated rental market throughout the country,
stupid as it is. In my view, this is an old remain from bygone times, but for
some reason it is romanticised by many.

With this system you have to stand in line for at least 20 years to get a
decent rental apartment in inner-city Stockholm. As you can probably guess,
this system doesn't exactly encourage free movement. And it's created a huge
black market, plus that it's pushing everyone into buying.

~~~
SiempreViernes
Bah, stick to the truth: 20 years is for the decent but super cheap
apartments, if you pay “market rates” you can get something from the private
owners within months.

~~~
strictfp
I don't think that's true. The private renters also have to abide to the
regulated market prices, so you cannot buy your way to a rental apartment. Not
unless the renter is breaking the law, that is.

I admit that I pulled the 20 years stats out of a hat. I quickly looked for
some stats, and this page suggests around 10 years average for the private
market, and 13 years for the communal:
[https://www.stockholmdirekt.se/nyheter/sa-lange-maste-du-
koa...](https://www.stockholmdirekt.se/nyheter/sa-lange-maste-du-koa-for-en-
hyresratt/repskg!Gbnn2xb11JLq5yqxxTbTw/)

~~~
timc3
It is totally true. Source - I live in Stockholm, its hard but you can get
somewhere in weeks not years

------
ronyfadel
France has something similar: congé création d’entreprise, up to 1 year
(renewable once adding an additional year).

Also, if you’ve worked in the private sector for 6 cumulative years, you’re
entitled to an unpaid sabbatical of up to 11 months, and you get to keep your
job when you go back.

------
caconym_
Cool idea.

Here in the US we go the opposite way: even if you do find some way to take
enough time off to accomplish something significant, there's a good chance
your employer (legally) owns it.

~~~
hombre_fatal
And when you go without a job to try your hand at starting a business, it's
usually accompanied with the gamble that you won't need any medical service
that will wipe our your savings.

~~~
caconym_
Yup! Oh, and don't forget that being unemployed for some period of time is
seen as a "negative signal" by many employers.

~~~
briandear
Not if you actually did something with that time.

~~~
caconym_
a) [citation needed]

b) Define "something". If I take a year off to e.g. write a novel, do you
really think that gap in my resume isn't going to affect me negatively if/when
I start looking for jobs again?

~~~
foogazi
Depends on the job right?

------
acd
I think we should also start with 6 hours work days or 4 days 8 hours. It will
free up time to try new ideas and spend more time with family and loved ones.
6-7 weeks of vacation would also be something to try. Ie optimizing for life
quality.

~~~
xg15
I remember reading a discussion about this in a german online newspaper a
while ago. (In light of an initiative of the Finnish cabinet exploring 6 hour
workdays, I believe).

When reading the comments, I expected people to dismiss the idea as
unrealistic or naive but to agree with the spirit and to share the general
goal of reducing worktime.

I was not expecting panic and outrage.

It was a minority (and certainly skewed by the groups of people who post
online in the first place), but a notable number of commenters were violently
opposed the idea, not out of economical concerns, but because they believed
the end goal of _having more free time_ itself was highly problematic - that
it would encourage an unhealthy lifestyle, erode morals, would pose a danger
to social order, etc etc.

It was a sobering read and a reminder that status-quo bias is still very much
a thing.

~~~
BurningFrog
If I'm not allowed to spend my time working, it is not free time!

In a free society, work hours is an agreement between consenting adults. If
you want to work part time, that option is widely available. But why force
your preferences on the rest of us?

~~~
djrobstep
People don't freely choose to work in a vacuum - they are coerced into it
(through property law). I work to avoid homelessness and starvation, and so do
most people.

If I stop working, eventually somebody will turn up at my door and throw me
out onto the street.

~~~
BurningFrog
> _I work to avoid homelessness and starvation, and so do most people._

Of course. But the fact that we have biological needs is not coercion.

~~~
Matumio
No, but good luck trying to burn some piece of forest to get your piece of
earth for your farm. You cannot justify the existing order with basic human
needs. In some places you even have to pay for access to water.

~~~
conanbatt
The georgist argument strikes again!

~~~
djrobstep
Not really Georgist - just an acknowledgment of the basic authoritarian nature
of capitalism

------
BelleOfTheBall
This sounds like a wonderful idea but I'd love to hear some stats on how this
specific time-off fares for would-be startupers. The article mentions a few
successful start-ups but it's unclear whether these came about as a result of
the time-off or if they resulted from someone just pursuing them full time.
Not knocking the idea either way, just would love to see data on how many new
companies it's helped create.

~~~
lawik
From my experience people are more likely to use this for studying, trying a
business idea (not the HN meaning of startup) or extended travel. Startup I
imagine is an outlier in what its used for.

It lines up well with the very advantageous student loans (for living costs,
university is free) for studying and lets people try their hand at going
through higher education wothout throwing their job away.

------
mk89
I think also France allows that, not just for entrepreneurs, but for anything.
A colleague of mine just took a sabbatical and next year he'll be back.

~~~
ronyfadel
Same here, a colleague is living his best life for 11 months traveling around
the world before going back to his job.

------
codelord
I think Sweden is very romanticized in American media and amongst the elites.
Having lived there for 6 years before moving to US, I think it's an ok country
but nowhere near the paradise that is promised by the American media. They say
the best thing in Sweden is its health care. In the entire time I was there I
attempted to see a specialist for a condition that I had maybe two or three
times, I ended up giving up every single time after I was told the wait time
is between 3-4 months. I keep my American employer sponsored private insurance
and employer determined time off policy, thank you very much.

~~~
alexanderchr
Of course if you are in the top 5-10% of earners (which I suppose many/most on
this forum are), a privately funded system will almost always be better simply
because you can afford to pay for the best.

For myself I’d much, much rather live in a society where a cancer diagnosis
doesn’t financially ruin you and your family for you life, and where everyone
no matter their income receives quality care when it’s needed. Even if that
means that I have to wait weeks/months to get something non-critical seen.

~~~
rayiner
> Of course if you are in the top 5-10% of earners

Do you go to a special doctors office for the top 5-10%? The one I go to is
full of ordinary middle class people. 80% of Americans polled rate their
healthcare as excellent or good:
[https://news.gallup.com/poll/245195/americans-rate-
healthcar...](https://news.gallup.com/poll/245195/americans-rate-healthcare-
quite-positively.aspx).

The American healthcare system isn’t hard to fix because it only works for
5-10% of people. It’s hard to fix because it works for 80% of people.
Americans don’t irrationally cling to a system that’s bad for 90% of them.
(Even among Democrats, a large fraction oppose getting rid of current health
insurance: [https://slate.com/business/2019/10/medicare-for-all-is-
getti...](https://slate.com/business/2019/10/medicare-for-all-is-getting-less-
popular.html))

Americans stick to the current system, because it works for most people. Most
middle class people _don’t_ go bankrupt when they get sick. And the middle
class pays the lowest taxes in the developed world, because they don’t pay
20-30% payroll taxes like in European countries to support healthcare for the
bottom quarter of earners. That’s the bargain people have voted for. That is
obvious, because candidates who campaign for Swedish style healthcare don’t
propose Swedish style taxes to go with it. Elizabeth Warren isn’t running on a
top tax bracket that kicks in at $75,000 — she’s running on a wealth tax
Sweden abandoned and corporate taxes higher than Sweden. Because Americans
won’t vote for the bargain between healthcare coverage and middle class taxes
that Swedes have adopted.

It’s not the system I’d prefer, I’d rather pay more taxes and make sure the
bottom 25% have adequate healthcare. But the notion that everyone is actually
irrational and the current system only benefits a small minority is self
deception.

~~~
cheez
So _why_ if it works for 80% of polled people does it keep being touted as it
resulting in bankruptcy consistently?

~~~
dahfizz
The same reason that guns result in 1% of deaths but you hear about them
constantly. It makes for a good news program.

~~~
allover
You're _honestly_ saying that fears over school shootings in the US are
overblown because it makes for good news?

~~~
dahfizz
School shootings average 4 deaths per year. They are very tragic and very sad,
but you should fear them about as much as you fear cows. In fact, cows kill a
lot more people than school shootings do.

All this fearmongering over such a rare occurrence is actively causing harm:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/lockdown-...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/lockdown-
drills-an-american-quirk-out-control/?arc404=true)

~~~
allover
Deaths of children. At school.

For literally nothing.

They are _avoidable_, that's why they are not overstated.

~~~
dahfizz
Every death is a tragedy. Many are avoidable. If we want to actually reduce
tragedy and suffering, your time and energy is best spent on big problems.

A school age child is nearly 200x more likely to die by suicide than from a
school shooting. That's a tragedy. And that's _avoidable_. Which do you hear
about more?

The attention and resources of society are limited. We would be better off
allocating resources to bigger problems, but we don't. _That 's_ a tragedy.

~~~
allover
Um, why not both.

The rest of the world doesn't have the school shooter problem.

It's fixable, and the fix is bleedingly obvious. There's no excuse.

------
wesammikhail
<rant>

As a Swedish entrepreneur with 2 exits under my belt and a startup in
progress, nothing boils my blood more than bullshit like this. You want to
encourage entrepreneurs? stop making up bullshit laws and initiatives that
does nothing but fuck us over every single day.

Initiatives like this have the exact opposite effect of how they´re advertised
as I´ve personally experienced first hand. Yet somehow all you read about is
the outgoing PR of how great this place is, when in fact it is a god awful
place to conduct business in. Heck just living here is becoming a nightmare as
of late.

It´s time to move on from this shit hole to somewhere more welcoming. Too bad
the US immigration system is a clusterfuck regardless of how much money you´re
willing to throw at it.

</rant>

As requested here is an example: Lets take the "Right to Leave to Conduct a
Business Operation Act" or "maternity leave". In both of cases if you work at
an early stage startup and exercise your right to take a leave (paid or
otherwise), I as an employer have to hold on to that position for the duration
of the entire leave of absence. In the case of maternity leave (~1.5 year of
paid leave) for instance, I have to hold that position open for you as an
employee. The last startup I was involved in had a female employee that was
there for about 6 months and then left work for ages before returning, and
then "somehow" in an "unplanned manner" managed to quit a few weeks after.
Zero work experience, have to hold the spot open for her, have to hire
expensive replacement consultants for the duration of the leave which could be
extended at any point and I am also obligated to provide benefits to the
workers that come in as temporary replacement at a higher cost???? All of that
without having the right to fire or suspend said person.

Imagine being 1 out of 6 employees and you just vanish, leaving behind
everything for the company to pick up by having to hire a secondary person as
a consultant for far more money, giving them those same benefits while keeping
your position open. Startups cannot afford these costs period. Not every
startup enjoys the millions of SV dollars. Our bootstrapped startup almost
went under because of employee benefit payments for people who were not even
showing up to work and we cannot fire by law.

This is beyond sinister and it isnt done to protect employees, it is merely
done to extract the maximum amount of value from companies at all stages so
that the state can afford to deliver on its never-ending promises of "FREE
EVERYTHING".

One of my best friends have had a full salary for the last 5 years and have
not worked a single day. Who pays for that do you reckon? and in what world is
that fair to the rest of us?

~~~
thenewnewguy
So, just to be clear, these are your complaints:

\- You couldn't fire somebody who went on maternity leave

\- You had to provide benefits to your employees, even temporary ones

Seems like the laws are working to protect employees as intended to me.

~~~
sansnomme
It is really rich that those on HN who are paid 6 to 7 figures would seat on
their high horse and disparage OP for complaining about labour law arbitrage
from the perspective of an Nordic entrepreneur and yet would be the first to
throw a fit if their jobs get shipped or outsourced to Mexico or some other
emerging economy.

~~~
wesammikhail
Funny enough, I just outsourced a bunch to Vietnam and am in the process of
moving the rest to eastern Europe. The only part that will remain here is the
sales division because that needs to be here.

So yea, looks like the laws are working as intended... amirite?

~~~
petre
Where in Eastern Europe are you moving?

I wonder if Estonia is okay for startups?

In my city the IT sector unemployment is around zero point something figures,
meaning it's quite difficult to find new qualified workers. I've even heard
about cases of French and Belgian citizens moving to Eastern Europe to work in
IT. It sounds crazy.

~~~
aliswe
May I guess poland or bulgaria.

------
amelius
> Sweden gives employees unpaid time off to be entrepreneurs

Shouldn't it be the choice of the employees what they do with their unpaid
time off?

~~~
JoachimS
No. Unless you don't compete with your employer, poach customers, or do
something illegal - what you do on your unpaid time off is none of their
business.

------
just_a_fella
> "...Stockholm, has become Europe’s start-up capital, second only to
> California’s Silicon Valley for the number of unicorns (billion-dollar tech
> companies) that it produces per capita."

I can't find any evidence for this. According to wiki[1]: "Unicorns are
concentrated in a few countries/regions: China (125), United States (121),
India (27), South Korea (11), UK (10), Israel (7), Sweden (5), Indonesia (5),
France, Hong Kong (3), Portugal (3), Switzerland (3), Australia (2),Estonia
(2), Belgium (2), Canada (2), Germany (2), Singapore (4), Ukraine (2), and
thirteen other countries (1 each)."

Smells like propaganda to help the stagnating innovation in europe.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unicorn_startup_compan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unicorn_startup_companies)

~~~
JoachimS
Skype, Minecraft, Bambora, Spotify, DICE, Fingerint Cards, Zenuity, Recorded
Future, Spotfire, SoundCloud, KRY, Voi. Just to name a few.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
Skype ist Estonian, no?

~~~
varjag
Estonia is where the work was outsourced to initially.

------
esotericn
What is the difference between this and me (UK) just telling my boss I'll be
back in N months?

The boss being forced to take me back?

The usefulness of this seems predicated on employment shortages (otherwise
people don't need permission to leave).

------
divbzero
In practice, if you left a job in the US for an entrepreneurial venture that
fails, your former employer or a competitor would gladly welcome you back as
an employee.

~~~
cookingrobot
That seems true for tech workers, but also seems likely you’d forfeit any
unvested compensation (stock/option/retention bonus/etc)

------
agentbellnorm
I enjoy and support the systems mentioned in the article, but the right to
unpaid leave was used by Daniel Ek, Markus Persson or Niklas Zennström as far
as I know.

------
gdsdfe
A side question : I keep hearing good things about Sweden, I'm wondering how
welcoming is it to immigrants?

~~~
willvarfar
Very.

You are asking on HN, so you are bound to be the kind of person who can go to
Sweden, find work or continue to work remotely for your present employer or
whatever, and settle into things and be welcomed.

The office language is often English, everyone speaks excellent English and
everyone is happy to speak it. I know many immigrants in the IT sector who
have picked up only the most basic Swedish despite years of living there; you
can get by by just talking to absolutely everyone in English.

At least half of the programmers at offices I’ve seen are immigrants. They
have a variety of reasons for going to Sweden, which usually seem to start
with uni eg from the classic “met my wife-to-be when she was an exchange
student” to “studied here, never went home” etc.

Now there’s an entirely different experience for the unskilled and refugees,
but although there is an veiled racist vocal right wing, the real people, even
those who live near flyktingboende, seem compassionate.

~~~
seppin
There's a difference between tolerance and acceptance. People are very nice
and tolerant of foreigners, but they will always be the "other" in society.

This is btw the case for immigrants in most places in the world, especially
Asia. But because Sweden especially gets such a high reputation for being
welcoming, I feel the need to contextualize.

~~~
lawn
It may or may not be true, but this hasn't matched my expectation as a Swede.
But it may also depend on where in Sweden you are.

~~~
seppin
Are you an immigrant to Sweden? If not, this is your impression of how it is,
not how it might actually be.

~~~
lawn
Sure, I base this on my immigrant friends who I work with.

~~~
seppin
Right so second hand. Also please note your friends have motivation to smooth
over the rough patches of their new lives the same way you have when
discussing Swedish immigration in general.

Ha det gott.

------
enz
There is something like this in France, called "Congé pour création
d'entreprie" (en: time off to build a company).

Basically, you can leave your job (unpaid) but your contract still holds, so
you can get back to your job if things don't go as planned.

------
ourcat
How does this work when it comes to any intellectual property you create,
while still bound by an employment contract which can often stipulate a
company's ownership of ALL of your creations while working for them.

(Maybe not being paid is a factor?)

~~~
herbstein
> which can often stipulate a company's ownership of ALL of your creations
> while working for them

Such laws are generally not lawful in Europe. It certainly isn't here in
Denmark, and I imagine it's the same in Sweden

~~~
ourcat
Interesting.

I've had to insist on that clause being removed at a couple of places I've
worked. As long as anything I build in my spare time (which I like to do a
lot) isn't competitive.

~~~
strictfp
I'm from Sweden and I've consulted a lawyer regarding a similar clause in my
employment contract.

That firm suggested that it was enforcable, and more so the closer your
"invention" is to the business of your employee.

This, however, does not hold if your invention is patentable, since patentable
inventions have special protection in Swedish law.

This is ironically not applicable to software, since we don't have software
patents.

------
neximo64
So basically how it is with the US/UK but with formalities? I've never heard
of an employer refusing to take an entrepreneur-failed attempt back, if
anything its a demotion to have the same rank/job after

------
jolts
this is mostly bullshit... if you are unemployed you can use 6 months of your
unemployment money as a lump sum to start a business. most of the time noone
gets unemployment money. as many have said sweden is romanticized.

------
aliswe
> Stockholm, has become Europe’s start-up capital

I dunno, but this just feels very strange. Sure the unicorns, but to call it
the #1 startup capital in Europe? Something HAS to be better at this, Berlin
perhaps?...

------
cavallone
I wonder if Sweden accept immigrants from China. This kind of system sounds
really appealing.

------
m0zg
So they basically let you not get paid for a while? What incredible
generosity!

------
notlukesky
Love the Greta-like how-dare-they-leave-us quote:

“Employers can only turn the request down if the employee is vital to the
business’s operations. Also, your new idea can’t compete with your existing
employer, nor cause them any significant inconvenience.“

~~~
iron0013
Totally awkward way to wedge a dig at Greta in there. I guess when all you’ve
got is an axe, everything looks like a grinder.

------
29athrowaway
Sweden also gives you subsidies to maintain your property.

------
tengbretson
What sort of unfulfilling work are these people doing where they can just
leave and not need to be replaced?

------
brendanfalk
This is simply amazing

------
seppin
Any Sweden does _____ is immediately BS. The five hour work day was BS, this
is too.

~~~
StartupTree
Swedish resident here. Absolutely correct. 99% of "Sweden does" stories are
absolute and total nonsense. Publishers publish what their audience want to
read.

No-one* uses this 6 month sabbatical for startup purposes.

~~~
jolts
100% Correct.

Also you are still unpaid, all you get is job security. This is something im
sure other companies would be cool with it if you are essential enough...

------
RantyDave
Isn't unpaid time off called "quitting"?

~~~
aliswe
You're guaranteed the position when you get back, I think.

------
go13
Why can't people they just quit their job for the duration needed, do the
startup in their spare time using their own money rather than taking advantage
of someone else who is already successful?

They want to be called entrepreneurs - why would they not grow balls, take
risk like proper entrepreneurs do and not hide behind socialist populist
state?

Looks like a lot of people on HN have left-leaning views despite the name
"HACKERnews"

~~~
herbstein
> Why can't people they just quit their job for the duration needed, do the
> startup in their spare time using their own money rather than taking
> advantage of someone else who is already successful?

The idea is basically that the idea of being forced to look for work,
something that can be very draining, is keeping people from taking the chance.
This law allows swedes to give their idea a shot without having the lack of
job loom over their head.

> Looks like a lot of people on HN have left-leaning views despite the name
> "HACKERnews"

I'm not really sure what you mean with this. Can you not be a
hacker/entrepreneur/developer and have left-leaning views and ideas? If that's
the case I have a few friends that need to change their views or sell their
companies.

And these friends are left-leaning Danes. So in essence, if you're American,
you can generally compare their views to a slightly more "extreme" version of
Bernie Sanders.

~~~
go13
1\. i wonder, what makes people and politicians think that an employee who is
not certain to find a new job within 6 months and who doesn't have 6 months of
savings is capable of creating a sustainable business or a startup? And why
creating business is less "draining" than looking for a job in already
familiar area for that person?

Looks infantile to me.

2\. I would imagine entrepreneurs and even more business owners statistically
should be right-leaning. Especially, when they start feeling how socialist
government "loves" them ;)

3\. yes, i was wrong. didn't think it through. hackers can be left leaning.
probable today's hackers are naturally left-leaning from what i can see from
the comments :)

"The problem with socialism is that it runs out of other peoples' money"

------
foogazi
> Anyone who’s been in full-time employment for at least six months is
> entitled to apply for the unpaid sabbatical, or tjänstledighet, as it’s
> called in Sweden.

I just don’t see the magic in this or the extended parental leave

Why can’t any healthy functioning adult do the exact same thing on their own ?

is 6 months living expenses really holding back your entrepreneurial dreams?

~~~
toyg
_> Why can’t any healthy functioning adult do the exact same thing on their
own ?_

Because they know it would be very hard to be re-hired if things don't work
out.

 _> is 6 months living expenses really holding back your entrepreneurial
dreams? _

No, for most people it's the thought of renouncing a guaranteed job. With this
sort of thing, you know that there is a safety net if the business doesn't
take off in 6 months.

~~~
foogazi
> Because they know it would be very hard to be re-hired if things don't work
> out.

Do people never change jobs in Sweden?

Unemployment rate is 6.6% in Sweden - is it that hard to find a job?

