What makes people shun the relative security of full-time employment and start up a business themselves? For the past five years, the European Union's head office has financed an annual poll of more than 21,000 people on both sides of the Atlantic.

    是什么原因讓人們放棄朝九晚五的生活，轉而自己創業呢？歐盟在過去5年里對大西洋兩岸的2.1萬人做了一個調查，試圖從中找到答案。

    The survey told a different story. Europeans essentially said they couldn't be bothered with the effort involved in starting a business: They wanted a regular, fixed income and a stable job.

    這項調查顯示了一個有差異的結果。歐洲人從根本上來說不喜歡自己創業，而更樂意找份有規律，有固定收入的穩定工作。

    The most recent of these studies, released this week, shows that despite efforts to make the Union more competitive, the majority of its citizens remain consistently less entrepreneurial and more risk-averse than their American counterparts.

    本周公布的最新調查結果顯示，盡管歐盟努力讓歐洲人更具競爭意識，但與美國人相比，大多數歐洲人不喜歡冒險，創業意識也比較淡薄。

    Only 5 percent of Europeans said fear of red tape or reluctance to battle bureaucracies was holding them back. A corollary to this is the fear of failure in Europe. Half of all European respondents agreed with the statement, "One should not start a business if there is a risk it might fail." Only one-third of Americans agreed.

    只有5％的歐洲人認為，官僚主義和繁瑣復雜的行政程序是阻礙他們創業的原因。阻礙歐洲人創業的真正原因是害怕失敗的心理。近一半的歐洲人同意這樣的觀點：“如果存在失敗的可能，那就最好別開公司”，而只有三分之一的美國人也這么想。

    If Europe can successfully diminish the stigma of failure, more people would be willing to start their own businesses. "There is a completely different attitude toward risk,"

    said Zourek of the European Commission, comparing Europe with the United States. In Europe, "once you try a venture and you don't succeed, you don't get a second chance, but you get a stigma," he said.

    歐盟官員茲歐里克認為，如果歐洲人能夠擯棄怕輸的心理，則會有更多人自己開公司。歐洲人對風險的態度與美國人顯然不一樣。在歐洲，冒險失敗一次，就不會再有第二次的機會，而且還會身敗名裂。

    The European Union, he said, should make bankruptcy procedures less burdensome and make getting credit easier for risk-takers, even those who have failed before.

    他認為，歐盟不應該將破產流程設計得像現在這樣繁瑣，應該讓人們更容易獲得貸款資助，即使對有過失敗經歷的人也應該這樣。

    There were an estimated 20.5 million people working in start-up companies in the United States in 2003, this is 23 times the number of those working at startups in France. The U.S. number was also 9 times the number of those in Britain and more than 7 times that of Germany.

    據統計，2003年，美國有將近2050萬人開創了自己的公司，是法國人的23倍、英國人的9倍，德國人的7倍。

    That's not necessarily true of all Europeans: the poll found that people from smaller countries like Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Latvia were much more enthusiastic about working for themselves.

    當然并不是所有歐洲人都如此，調查顯示，歐洲一些小國家的人，如葡萄牙人，希臘人，愛爾蘭人和拉脫維亞人等，則比較熱衷于自己創業。

    In this survey, 55 percent of Europeans aged 15 to 24 said that it would be "desirable" for them to become self-employed in the next five years. Among those 55 and older, only 18 percent said the same.

    這份調查顯示，15歲至24歲的年輕人中有55%的人期待在未來5年中自己當老板。但是對于55歲以上的人來說，只有18％的人愿意這么干。

    Young Europeans could be the motor of entrepreneurship. But with European countries having some of the lowest birth rates in the developed world, who will take their place?

    也許，年輕人是歐洲開啟創業精神的助推器。但是，看看現在歐洲出生的人口越來越少，還能指望誰呢？