Modern Mind-Set Pays In Out-of-Date Market

With a business degree and family contacts, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, has built a fast-growing e-business. (Molly Moore - Molly Moore -- The Washington Post)

When his employment payments run out at the end of April, he will qualify once again for welfare because he won't be working or collecting unemployment.

Dhelft, who lives with his parents and volunteers as a handball coach for children, said of the government payment, "I don't feel bad taking it." He paused to reconsider, and conceded that perhaps he felt "a little bit" of guilt, but added, "I would feel more guilty if my parents had to pay everything for me." His mother is a homemaker and his father is an engineer for Peugeot, the French automaker.

Having his parents and the government payments as a financial crutch is "a double-edged sword," Dhelft said. "You are protected, but you tend to be too protected to do something."

"I disagree with those who say French young people are lazy and don't want to work," Dhelft said. "They want to work, but they want to work the French way -- with a 35-hour week and a steady job. People want to be able to plan for the future and think ahead."

He's watched the successes of some of his friends a bit wistfully.

"Some, like Pierre, had a very straight path with no problems and are very successful," he said. But that route wouldn't work for him, Dhelft said. "I don't like business in general."

Even so, a friend has told him about an opening at a bank. Three years ago, Dhelft would not have considered it. "I'm ready to lower my expectations," he said. "I don't have dreams anymore. I have to put aside my pride and dreams and make a living.

"My goal is to work at least a few years."

When Kosciusko-Morizet was growing up in the western Paris suburb of Sevres, he dreamed of flying his own plane. He assumed it would be far too expensive and difficult.

But as chief executive officer of PriceMinister.com, he discovered "you don't have to be a millionaire to fly a plane," you just need $6,000 for the lessons. Today he flies.

Kosciusko-Morizet uses that discovery in his crusade to persuade French college graduates to shed their fear of missing out on a lifelong job and plunge into entrepreneurship.

"They just don't think about it as something they can do," said Kosciusko-Morizet, his face sandwiched between brilliant copper hair and a thick reddish beard. "They think you have to be born rich, you have to have connections. They think it's too hard.