Vavani Sarmah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], ASA ASA
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
AANA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Vavani Sarmah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:29:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Assam Society] Six lessons gleaned from the lives of three immigrant
entrepreneurs:
Here are six lessons gleaned from the lives of three immigrant
entrepreneurs: Stay focus be positive.
Lesson 1: Reinvent yourself
Kamal Dergham, 47, arrived in the U.S. in 1979 to study mechanical engineering
and eventually trained to trouble-shoot commercial air-conditioning systems.
Through seven years of study he worked long hours for low wages at a Lebanese
fast-food restaurant. He held every job, from cook to dishwasher to cashier,
learning the business inside and out.
In 1989, after many difficulties, his big break came, not in his field but when
a relative abandoned a failing restaurant, turning over the keys to Dergham at
no cost.
For six months, Dergham made no money, only friends. Standing outside the
restaurant, he chatted with merchants, strangers and passing children, a few of
whom eventually ventured inside to try "American food with a Lebanese
humbleness."
Today his Pita Delite restaurant chain, based in Greensboro, N.C., has six
locations, three of them franchises.
Dergham's refusal to be defined by training or tradition is typical of
successful immigrant entrepreneurs, says Carolyn Ockels, a partner in Bay Area
market research company Emergent Research. "Don't define yourself narrowly,"
advises Ockels, pointing to her manicurist, a lawyer in Vietnam who launched a
successful chain of nail salons when thwarted by a lack of credentials and
language skills.
Lesson 2: Take a chance
Immigrants are risk-takers by definition. Like Dergham, "people who immigrate
generally are more achievement-oriented," says Abdul Rasheed, professor of
strategic management and international business at the University of Texas at
Arlington. "That's why they are here in the first place."
Without money for restaurant food supplies, Dergham, his wife, mother, father
and younger brother cooked each day's menu from supplies on hand, using the
day's meager receipts to buy for the next day. They shared a two-bedroom
apartment, crowded by American standards but roomy to Dergham, in whose
childhood home in Lebanon six children had slept "head to tail" in three beds.
He worked 13-hour days and six-day weeks: "Pita Delite was my boss. I did not
feel like I owned the business. I feel like I'm working for it," he says.
Summoning strength for sacrifices typifies self-made millionaires, says Alan
Lavine. He and Gail Liberman wrote "Rags to Riches: Motivating Stories of How
Ordinary People Achieved Extraordinary Wealth!" He tells of Lisa Renshaw, who
founded her multimillion-dollar Penn Parking at age 21 by buying a parking
garage and living in it for three years while growing the business.
"In developing economies, you try things because you don't have a choice," says
Ockels. "The failure rate might be higher in those economies, but there is more
small-business generation."
Lesson 3: Work, work, work
Sheela Murthy heads a 60-person law firm near Baltimore and grosses millions of
dollars a year, enabling her to indulge her greatest pleasure, charitable
giving. She arrived from India in 1985, dead broke and 24. She had, however, a
secret weapon: her willingness to work long hours.
"I can work 18 hours a day and really turn it out," she says. "I am very
ambitious."
In the U.S., hard work produces "immediate results," unlike back home in her
day where, she says, no one - least of all a woman - could get established
without connections. (Intuit's study finds immigrant women start businesses at
a rate almost twice that of native-born American women.)
Murthy came from a middle-class family, but there was no money for indulgences.
She worked full time while attending a free government university and law
school. Stellar performance in an international competition propelled her into
a Harvard Law School graduate program. She worked full time as a campus
security guard while studying and saving.
Lesson 4: Fill a void
Murthy's rise exemplifies the tendency of immigrants to spot and fill unmet
needs, particularly in their own communities. Murthy's Harvard degree
immediately gained her a $70,000 job as a corporate lawyer, but she hated the
atmosphere. She needed to know she was helping people. Searching for a
specialty, she recalled the poor job her own immigration lawyer had done. Other
newcomers, she realized, needed trustworthy help with complex American
immigration laws.
Nine years after arriving, she went solo. The pool of clients in Baltimore was
limited, but her volunteer column on immigration law for a nonprofit newsletter
generated a huge response, telling her that the Internet might reach new
clients everywhere.
Today Murthy, 45, serves corporations, nonprofits, small businesses and
individuals all over the world and continues volunteering advice through her
popular Web site, newsletter and online chats.
Lesson 5: Network with others like yourself
Anatoly was 21 in 1995 when he left Russia for business school in America. It
was a big leap: He had no money, and his student visa's terms forbade him from
taking a job. But, in the post-perestroika turmoil, Russians were desperate for
Western cars and tools. Before he left he distributed his eMail address and
cell-phone number far and wide, telling people, "Make sure you guys call me
first if you need anything, if you need nice SUVs - anything."
He financed two MBAs - in international business and information technology -
by filling orders from friends, acquaintances and strangers, marking up cars
$1,500 or $2,000. (Lest his exports get him into immigration trouble, he agreed
to be interviewed using only his first name.) Like Murthy and Dergham, he
spotted a void and filled it.
Immigrants without access to local language, capital or cultural acumen turn to
networks of their countrymen for training, financing, advice and customers.
Surprising trust develops. Anatoly once received a phone call from a Russian
businessman living in Turkey whose friend in Russia had purchased a car from
Anatoly. The stranger ordered a white Chrysler Town & Country minivan and
immediately wired $32,000 in cash to Anatoly's bank account.
Lesson 6: Despise debt, scrimp and save
People who have witnessed economic catastrophe firsthand tend to squirrel away
money. "When the rainy day comes, which happens more often overseas than here,
you have only yourself to rely on," says Anatoly. Like Dergham and Murthy, he
is a fanatical saver.
Now 32, Anatoly has finished school, gotten a green card and married a Russian
engineer. Recently, they became parents. He works at a nonprofit, designing
complex accounting and administration systems. He makes $51,000 a year, yet he
estimates he saves at least 40% before taxes. His wife can't yet work - she's
waiting impatiently for a green card. Still, they bought a house last year,
just five years after he began his job, using a down payment earned partly from
reselling garage-sale finds on eBay.
"I am fortunate to have a wife who is very disciplined," he says. "She . . . is
even more than me into being debt-free." Their new goal: a duplex rental
property.
Dergham says he has capable American friends whose success is undermined by
spending habits: "They make half of what I make but live 10 times better than I
do."
Starting from scratch is tough anywhere, yet it can be done. "You must be your
own boss to make money," Dergham says, "and this country gives a great
opportunity. There is no country in the world like that."
Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal, son of Indian immigrants, wins 53 percent of
vote
Jindal, the Republican 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, had 53 percent
with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than
enough to win Saturday's election outright and avoid a November 17 runoff.
"My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And
guess what happened. They found the American Dream to be alive and well right
here in Louisiana," he said to cheers and applause at his victory party.
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Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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