November 30, 2008

Adopting the Immigrant Mindset

My parents brought us to America many moons ago,

I am an immigrant, and I hope that gives some credence to my theory that immigrants can teach us something about focus and being successful in business.

I wrote a little e-book that I will tell you about some other time, and I devoted an entire chapter to why first and second generation immigrants tend to be such go-getters (and conversely why it took me so long to embrace this).  Without further ado, here are some tips on how you too can be like Mikhail, Miguel, Mike or even me-:)

  1. Accept a certain level of risk Don’t just think that you can, know that you can do anything that you set out to do. Otherwise, why would someone leave behind a fairly successful life, family, the familiar?
  2. Be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your career or business won’t go boom overnight. It took my mother almost 4 years to gather the necessary paperwork, apply for and get a job, and finally receive government approval to come to the United States. It took an additional five years of struggle (yes that means working two, sometimes 3 jobs) to get her 5 kids, one brother and one niece out of a two-bedroom apartment and into a six-bedroom brownstone.
  3. Be willing to make sacrifices. Personal, emotional, and financial. You may have to sell your car or move back in with your parents, or deny your children that Nintendo Wii they’ve been wanting. There will be bigger better cars, a home of your own, and a gaming system for each child at the end of the day. On the average immigrants leave behind a major part of their family, all of their friends, and have sailed out of their comfort zone into a language and culture that is absolutely foreign to them. My mother and uncle were not there for their mother when she took sick; my uncle was on a student visa at the time and could not go home to bury his mother – and he was her baby boy, so imagine his pain and sacrifice.
  4. Make your business a family affair. Ever notice who is working the counter at your favorite Chinese restaurant, neighborhood grocery store, or cleaners? Involve your kids as your first employees, but make sure that they don’t neglect their school work.
  5. Don’t be afraid to fail at least once. Don’t prolong your failures, learn from your mistakes and move on to bigger and better things.
  6. Stay focused on your goals and on the reason that you have for achieving those goals. If you know where you want to go and why you want to get there, it will be that much easier to stay the course

These are just a few things that I learned from watching my family and the other immigrants in the neighborhood where I grew up. Of course I probably missed quite a bit, so do me a favor, leave me your thoughts on and I will do a second post.

Read My Ezine Articles About The Immigrant Mindset

  • What Do Immigrants Know That You Don’t?
    [Home-Based-Business:Network-Marketing] Why do immigrants flock to America in droves? Why are they willing to sacrifice so much just to be here? Why are they and their children so often entrepreneurial success stories? What the heck are we missing?
  • Adopting the Immigrant Mindset
    [Home-Based-Business:Network-Marketing] Okay so now you know a little bit about what creates and drives the immigrant entrepreneur. How can you bottle that and spray it all over yourself like perfume? Here are a few tips I picked up by doing some research.