Interesting. And on the flip side, you have the law of Jante. Or is it OK to proclaim one's self as super happy? Maybe Jante is more about material success?
Starting a business and attempting to make millions, however, is not.
A colleague of mine has a childhood friend who owns a grocery store. Sensing that business was good, he opened a second grocery store in a neighboring town. It went great until the rest of the town knew he owned two stores -- then they started boycotting the second store, which was quickly forced to close its doors.
Janteloven, the climate and the institutionalized introversion are the worst aspects of Scandinavian life. Other than that, things are all in all very good.
I think you misunderstand Janteloven. Scandinavian countries are capitalist societies (even if Americans believe the health care and high tax makes us socialist) and prosperity and success based on hard work or talent is generally appreciated - as long as you "keep both feet on the ground" which means don't act if you are "better than other people" and pay your tax.
I suspect something else was going on with your friends second store, since successful stores growing into chains is a pretty common. Did people officially boycott the store or is it just his interpretation of events?
People in town were literally talking to each other saying it's not right that one guy owns two stores and makes so much money, encouraging each other to shop elsewhere. This was in Ørsta in Sunnmøre.
Obviously there is some geographic and socio-cultural variation; you wouldn't see the same degree of skepticism among most people in the biggest cities, but I am pretty confident I haven't misunderstood what Janteloven says. It's not a positive thing, and not conductive to an environment of high performance.
Granted, things might be better now than when I went to public school 15 years ago, but back then this attitude was practically institutionalized. I eventually went to private school after 3 years of being forced to sit through science classes of stuff I already knew, that were regardless torpedoed by uncontrollable classroom clowns. In private school, we had "choose your level" classes, and things improved. Many friends in university had similar experiences.
It was quite a surprise to hear of high schools in the US that actually cultivated students who wanted to learn more than the minimum.
The Law of Jante is not about success as such, and not really about criticizing success either. It is a law that says you should not pretend you are better than your peers. If success makes you act as if you are actually better than other people (bragging, acting arrogant, or just publicly suggesting that you actually deserve the success) you are met with disapproval. But the disapproval is not towards the success itself, but towards acting differently because of it.
It might be too long since I read Aksel Sandemose's "En flyktning krysser sit spor", which is where the Law of Jante originates, but if you read the 10 commandments of Jante, I think you are a bit on the soft side in your interpretation. :)
The book is extremely harsh, but I don't really think the law as expressed in the book is applicable to Scandinavian culture in general.
Also, the Law of Jante made him kill a sailor at a deserted bay in Newfoundland. So we should be careful when understanding the book as some universal sociological study.
In the book he states the law is a way for the lower classes to keep each other down, and he explicit states the law of Jante exists among the proletariat everywhere and is stronger in Brooklyn than in Jante (the fictional Scandinavian town in the book). He was a socialist, of course.
I do think a "soft form" of the law can be used to understand Scandinavian culture to some extent.