Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of the $1.6tn fund, told the Financial Times it was “worrisome” that American companies were outpacing their European rivals on innovation and technology, leading to vast outperformance of US shares in the past decade.
“There’s a mindset issue in terms of acceptance of mistakes and risks. You go bust in America, you get another chance. In Europe, you’re dead,” he said, adding that there was also a difference in “the general level of ambition. We are not very ambitious. I should be careful about talking about work-life balance, but the Americans just work harder.”
He added that in recent discussions with US chief executives, they had complained about the difficulty of doing business in Europe because of tough regulations and red tape.
“I’m not saying it’s good but in America you have a lot of AI and no regulation, in Europe you have no AI and a lot of regulation. It’s interesting,” he added.
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Do you think the pursuit of ambition and success should come at the cost of personal time and work-life balance?
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Considering the strict regulations in Europe vs. the more lenient approach in the U.S., which do you think fosters a better environment for pioneering technology like AI?
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How important is work-life balance to you, and could it be said that sacrificing it is necessary for greater success and innovation?
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Is the idea of failing and trying again until success, as mentioned about the American approach, more beneficial than the European caution against failure?
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Do you believe working harder is always equivalent to working smarter, especially in the context of achieving innovation and technology advancements?