Ayn Rand Center of Armenia Online Discussion on Post-Soviet Entrepreneurship

This online discussion took place April 7, 2023 with students of the Ayn Rand Center of Armenia (https://www.facebook.com/ARCArmenia/). It focuses on the content of Gregory V. Diehl's (https://www.gregorydiehl.net/) book, Everyone Is an Entrepreneur: Selling Economic Self-Determination in a Post-Soviet World, which was recently translated into Armenian under the title Ամեն Ոք Ձեռներեց Է: Տնտեսական Ազատության Իրացումը Հետխորհրդային Երկրում.

Participants ask many questions related to the anti-entrepreneurial mentality of Armenia and other post-Soviet countries, including superstitious beliefs about money, self-confidence, and acting on your beliefs in spite of what's normal around you. Gregory also looks at all this through the lens of Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy and what Armenians could do to improve the entrepreneurial culture of their country for everyone's benefit. Gregory explains how he moved to a village in the Gegarkhunik province of Armenia called Kalavan in 2019 after many years of world travel and the lessons he's learned about the Armenian mentality since being there.