Compare the two articles below:
chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national … loyees.htm
boston.com/Boston/businessup … index.html
It seems like most people in Taiwan want to be their own boss. But from the US newspaper article most Americans do not want to. It seems like people here do not understand what is totally involved in being the boss. They do not count the cost so to speak. What is your opinion?
Apples to oranges…being and entrepreneur and being a middle manager are 2 different things. I would be curious to the Boston Globe survey performed in Taiwan. I find, generally speaking of course, that TW people want a bigger desk and a higher office and a fancy title on their namecard but not the responsibility and accountability that comes with it.
People want to be their own boss here because they know what a nightmare it is to work for their countrymen. You could be the brightest hardest working employee in the place but if the owner has a 2nd cousin who can barely dress himself in the morning you’ll never even get on the ladder.
Conversely, the boss here is king, and who doesn’t want to be the king?
Tempo Gain: I’m not sure I’d want to be the king here though. On the one hand, I don’t think I’d want to be a complete prick. On the other hand, looking around at many of the knuckle heads who pass for employees, I think I’d have to be a prick. Of course, I could ask my employees to exercise some initiative, take pride in their work, etc. and I know you’d all be :roflmao: at the mere concept of my fictitious employees being able to do such things successfully. Hence, I would have to be a ruthless prick to my employees just like most of the other bosses here.
That’s so often the case. I have only been in charge of a team of Taiwanese once at a local publishing house. After two months I had to fire everyone in my team as they were pure time servers though they could have been so much more (well educated and talented with lots of experience and ideas). That said, I did rehire an excellent bunch of workers who really thrived in the atmosphere I created. Unfortunately the company went bankrupt two years later. And no not from anything I did.
Anyway, I’ve often said one of the reasons I am happy here is that I don’t have to deal with Taiwanese companies and bosses.
Given the relatively low wages and benefits people receive here and the lack of rights for workers it’s not a surprise almost 80% would want to break out on their own. The remainder must work for the government.
I can agree that wages here are not as good as the US and people do seem to get treated unfairly with longer hours and all. On the other had it seems like people start out with some kind of business like a coffee shop and before you know it they are closed up. It just seems like people are not counting the cost and wasting a lot of resources. As a result they go back working for someone else.
You also have to factor in that in Taiwan you CAN be your own boss. Starting a business here is easy. Just go out and do it. You don’t even need all that much capital. Just an idea and a street stand and go from there. Nobody’s gonna stop you.
Try starting your own business of your own in North America. Go ahead… I dare you.
[quote=“Ecaps”]You also have to factor in that in Taiwan you CAN be your own boss. Starting a business here is easy. Just go out and do it. You don’t even need all that much capital. Just an idea and a street stand and go from there. Nobody’s gonna stop you.
Try starting your own business of your own in North America. Go ahead… I dare you.[/quote]
Yep. My father runs his own small business, and it’s an absolute nightmare dealing with the government regulations. The latest is that they want all businesses to have two separate water meters. Why? Who knows. The only logical explanation anyone’s suggested is that the water department is getting kickbacks from the water meter manufacturer.
He’s caught employees stealing from him, and deliberately breaking equipment. One fired employee sent in a fake complaint to the EPA that cost him almost $500,000 in legal expenses and environmental testing costs. Result: no violations found, but they’ve continued to “monitor” him for almost ten years now, and periodically come up with new requirements for more testing to drive up the costs.
MM: For sure. I know that if I didn’t have to work for or with people here, or occasionally do business with them, I’d like them so much more. The inanities and poor driving here I can actually tolerate fairly well these days, but it’s the working that does my head in.
navillus: People get treated badly here because they refuse to stand up for themselves. Of course, no one ever wants to be the first one to stick his neck out, but because of that, nothing ever changes.
Impaler: It’s the same in Australia. My father ran his own business for more than twenty years and the bullshit of dealing with the government used to do his head in. People in his industry actually used to call one government organisation (that they all had to deal with) “The Enemy”. 
The remodeling industry is in high demand in Taiwan … every new store owner wants to remodel because there is bad fengshui present in the old store, that’s why they failed … :ohreally:
[quote=“Impaler”][quote=“Ecaps”]You also have to factor in that in Taiwan you CAN be your own boss. Starting a business here is easy. Just go out and do it. You don’t even need all that much capital. Just an idea and a street stand and go from there. Nobody’s gonna stop you.
Try starting your own business of your own in North America. Go ahead… I dare you.[/quote]
Yep. My father runs his own small business, and it’s an absolute nightmare dealing with the government regulations. The latest is that they want all businesses to have two separate water meters. Why? Who knows. The only logical explanation anyone’s suggested is that the water department is getting kickbacks from the water meter manufacturer.
He’s caught employees stealing from him, and deliberately breaking equipment. One fired employee sent in a fake complaint to the EPA that cost him almost $500,000 in legal expenses and environmental testing costs. Result: no violations found, but they’ve continued to “monitor” him for almost ten years now, and periodically come up with new requirements for more testing to drive up the costs.[/quote]
You’re dad should be gratefull that society tolerates him running his business. If he had any sense, he would have the integrity to realize that the government knows best how his business should be run for the maximum benfit to society and that such benfit should be is top, if not his only concern. In fact, he should hire a liason to communicate every detail about the daily running of his business to the government so that he can in turn get advice on how to best achieve those goals.
The remodeling industry is in high demand in Taiwan … every new store owner wants to remodel because there is bad fengshui present in the old store, that’s why they failed … :ohreally:[/quote]
Well it’s good for the carpentry business, those guys should know how to bang something together in a few days. People want to open their own little shops because it’s so miserable and such a low income to work for many companies here.
Then if it is so great to work for yourself why do so many people close after a year or two. The street we live in has probably ten to fifteen shops and restaraunts come and go since we have lived there.
People here don’t seem to give much thought to these things. The people at the temple probably told them they would be successful so away they went. I don’t blame people for searching for a little more security, most places in Taiwan are probably not offering pensions or other benefits. And with the low wages, forget about putting anything away to retire on. I have two Taiwanese friends, one in Koahsiung and one in Taizhong, who have been down this path. They just didn’t think about anything past getting the shop opened, and just assumed people would flock there.
It’s good to be the king.
[quote]You also have to factor in that in Taiwan you CAN be your own boss. Starting a business here is easy. Just go out and do it. You don’t even need all that much capital. Just an idea and a street stand and go from there. Nobody’s gonna stop you.
Try starting your own business of your own in North America. Go ahead… I dare you.[/quote]
Amen to that! In this regard I hope Taiwan NEVER tries to copycat “western” countries and their BS.
its not often like it is in say North America where going out of business implies bankruptcy. Here people change names, locations all the time and thing little of it. Where we live and have a school a lot of our students’ parents own their own business, probabyl around 70% of them. wanted or not, we get a lot of info on the inner workings. many move shop to somewhere better, Taiwanese are always trying to get better anything.
With the exception of drugs or crime we have only known 1 family who has truly failed at opening businesses (we keep loaning them money to this day), other than that they tend to just change up for the newer better thing.
the small business culture is one of my most favorite things about Taiwan. Its just so casual and real, but in a semi serious way. that is rare today.