6 secrets of successful immigrants

By Marilyn Lewis

Ever wonder how some immigrants who arrive in this country with nothing can work their way into the middle class in one generation?

Immigrant entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing segment of small-business owners today, says a report on the future of small business by Intuit and the Palo Alto, Calif., Institute for the Future. That's partly because immigrants have few options: U.S. jobs usually go to those fluent in the English language and American culture.

Yet immigrants also have gifts that prime them for success:

• They see this country with fresh eyes, spotting chances others miss. Many find that though the U.S. playing field is not entirely level, it still is possible to start from scratch and wind up owning a home and sending children to college.
• Many possess excellent free university educations from countries where they could not put their training to use because of high unemployment, corruption or class or ethnic barriers.
• They rely on family and on huge amounts of hard work, are averse to debt and use informal networks of relatives and acquaintances over banks and lawyers to help them exploit opportunities.
• Some credit poverty with training them in frugality and freeing them from aspirations for an expensive home, car and lifestyle.

Every month in 2005, about 350 of every 100,000 immigrants started businesses -- compared with 280 native-born Americans, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. Many fail, but others hang on or try again, eventually launching a better life.

Here are six lessons gleaned from the lives of three immigrant entrepreneurs:

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."

Continued: Lots of hard work

 1 | 2 | next >