In America today, many feel that the country is losing its unity and falling into discord. Over the past 18 months, I have undertaken a podcast and project called The Immigrant Entrepreneur, that explores how immigrants create 27% of new businesses, despite accounting for only 13% of the population. That includes a lot of dry cleaners, but also firms like Intel, PayPal, SpaceX, eBay, Google, Nordstrom, DuPont and WeWork. After interviewing over 50 immigrant entrepreneurs from 38 countries, I’ve come to believe that, in these divided times, immigrants remind us of what is grand about this country and the people … More
Looking at America Through Immigrants’ Eyes
Five Lessons for Entrepreneurs – from Irving Berlin
1. Take Responsibility
America’s greatest songwriter’ Irving Berlin, celebrated as ‘America’s greatest songwriter’, wrote 1600 songs, including the including many of the standbys for Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Astaire. But his beginnings did not guarantee any type of success.
Born Israel Beilin in Belarus (country between Poland and Russia), he saw the Cossacks burn down his village, back in his home country. They lived in a little windowless basement in New York, until his father died at the age of 13, when he left home, because he felt that he was too much of a … More
Did Immigrants Write: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, God Bless America, West Side Story?
Who wrote: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, God Bless America, West Side Story, and
most of our Christmas songs? The Scots? Brits from London? Germans from Bavaria? Those would have been my first three guesses.
After singing in the shower one day, I began to research the composers of individual songs.
And discovered that the most of them were written by Russian Jewish immigrants escaping persecution in their homeland. From the songs in the Wizard of Oz, to God Bless America, to Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire, to Annie Get Your Gun; many of the … More
Sponsoring writing contest for Philippine youth
The Immigrant Entrepreneur is sponsoring a writing contest for youth in the Philippines, in conjunctions with Kendii.
Carmen Feliciano, the founder of Kendii, grew up in a small town, on a small southern island of the Philippines.
You can hear Carmen tell her story here; she tells how books helped her bring her mind far beyond her circumstances.
How she was able to attend university in Manila, join a tech start-up, and then come to America to attend the #1 rated Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
And how she began Kendii, while at Wharton, … More
Immigrants and Individualism – Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831, to research why America’s prison system worked better than the French system, in terms of rehabilitating prisoners. French theorists believed that education actually made it harder to reform criminals.
Tocqueville visited penitentiaries from Sing-Sing to Michigan to New Orleans; and in the course of this research made, observed the individualism, equality, responsibility, women, and community governance, throughout America.
His book, Democracy in America, became a best seller throughout Europe, and until today is considered a premier
treatise on America, with predictions that proved true 150 years later.
But, Tocqueville wrote most … More
Be Different – Be Strong – Be Committed
I asked Forbes Columnist, George Bradt of Prime Genesis, to write an exclusive article on consulting, which I published in our Autumn 2012 issue of the Wharton Club of New York Magazine. It exemplifies traits of successful immigrant entrepreneurs.
Be Different – Be Strong – Be Committed
The Three Requirements for Consulting Success
To be successful as a consultant, you must be different; you must be strong; and you must be committed. The consulting field is growing faster than ever, driven by the information revolution, baby boomers moving out of corporate roles and the struggling economy. Some consultants will … More
When the Spirit Flits Away
If you recall your college biology class, information from one neuron flows, virtually flies, to another neuron across a synapse. The synapse is the gap separating neurons. Probably because I wasn’t paying complete attention to my professor’s exciting voice, I’ve maintained the impression that the synaptic gap was a bit of a chasm. It was a very good day when all those messages made it through, like a Pony Express rider leaping his horse across rough-hewn gullies. During my advanced statistics tests, I may have even blamed those synapses for not catching those answers, which were desperately trying to get … More
When Did the Word “Immigrant” Come About?
Language Word Pronunciation
Afrikaans immigrant
Bulgarian Имигрант imigrant
Bosnian imigranata
Cebuano immigrant
Chinese 移民 Yímín
Dutch immigrant
Filipino imigrante
French immigrant
German Einwanderer
Italian immigrato
Japanese 移民 Imin
Korean 이민 imin
Russian иммигрант immigrant
Spanish inmigrante
Sudanese imigran
Why do all of these languages in Asia, Europe and Africa use a word similar to “immigrant”? Like other modern words, such as “computer” and “Internet,” the very concept and contexts of “immigrant” were born in America.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word became accepted usage in 1792 in America:
According to Google dictionary, mentions of the word … More
What Do They Got That I Ain’t Got? Courage!
Turkish tile shops in New Jersey, a Romanian coffee shop in North Bend, Washington, Vietnamese nail salons in Los Angeles, high tech patenting in Silicon Valley, Korean dry cleaners everywhere, start Fortune 500 companies and grocery stores in poor neighborhoods.
In the words of the Lion, played by Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz: What do they got that I ain’t got?
To hear a profile in courage, listen to Due Quach (pronounced zway kwak) in my first podcast.… More
Benjamin Franklin: How He Created His Own Resources!
How did Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) achieve so much with so little? How could he form the country’s first hospital and first lending library, lead the formation of the 13 Colonies, and found the University of Pennsylvania?
He did it by creating the resources that he lacked. At 24, around 1830, with only a few books of his own, he formed a private lending library among five friends, and then expanded the concept to the general public of Philadelphia. He looked at his problem, recognized that others shared the problem, and went about creating a solution, which benefited eventually the whole … More