An inspiring wake-up call from one of our great entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, who shows us ways to rescue our troubled economy, reverse brain drain--and set Canada up to truly take on the world. The Canadian economy is headed for disaster: 42% of current jobs, both blue and white collar, will be automated out of existence in the next ten years. Our currency is weak. Our productivity levels are pitiful. Our GDP is shrinking. Despite decades of costly attempts to diversify, our economy is still tied to the export of raw commodities. And raw talent. Far too many of the people who could propel us into the knowledge economy have followed the lead of Elon Musk and Uber co-founder Garret Camp and headed elsewhere to build their businesses and create thousands of jobs. Why don't our best and brightest see Canada as a land of opportunity? Because it's hard to grow world-beating companies here. Our bankers, venture capitalists and government regulators view big ideas as unCanadian. Too ambitious. Too expensive. And too threatening to the comfy status quo. Anthony Lacavera, who started his first business right out of university, disagrees. Vehemently. He says that the trouble with Canada is not that we are too small to do great things, but that we think small. If the world doesn't take us seriously, the reason is us. Through the lens of his own experience founding Wind Mobile and other Canadian success stories, he shows us that we can be a nation of big dreamers and bigger doers. Building businesses and regulatory systems that actually amplify Canadian characteristics--tolerance, humility and a capacity for teamwork, along with a certain degree of our fabled caution and decency--and then marketing those characteristics aggressively, rather than apologizing for them, is the way to go. Instead of aping Silicon Valley (which we can't beat), we need to focus and then double down on the areas in which we can win. If we find the confidence to bet aggressively on ourselves, and our future, rather than clinging to our past, we will grow a new kind of economy where being Canadian is a badge of honour--and where we can win the race to the future without leaving home, selling our souls or making the world hate us.
