How Being The Son Of Immigrants Made Me A Better Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur is hard. You want to succeed, but it seems like everyone in the world is against you at times, and there’s no easy path forward.

getty

I am a first-generation American. My parents and sisters immigrated from Poland in the 1980s, leaving behind a country ruled by communists for a new life just outside of Chicago, Illinois.

Today, many years later, life is a lot different from what it could have been. I’m an entrepreneur running my third successful venture, and if it wasn’t for my parents’ decision to relocate our growing family several thousand miles away, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do. Frankly, the entire experience of being the son of immigrants has made me a better businessperson, and the why of it all is a story you may not have heard before.

Building a Strong Work Ethic

Moving to the States meant my father couldn’t do the kind of work he had done before. So, instead, he worked any odd job that came up, including a stint as a metal fabricator. He would read a set of blueprints (he taught himself to do that, too), cut out all of the required pieces of metal, and then tack-weld it all up himself.

This wasn’t something that he was taught to do; my father was his own teacher, and adapted to whatever was presented to him in the moment out of necessity. After all, he needed to work to put food on the table, and he didn’t have a college degree or formal training to fall back on. Just his razor-sharp intellect and the motivation to work hard. That was enough because it had to be.

My first memories of my father usually involve some kind of tool either in his hand or by his side. In fact, I’ve been told that as a toddler, I once helped him put new siding on the house, hammering away. When I cut my finger, I calmly walked inside, asked for a bandage, and went back out to finish the job. That was the kind of influence my father’s work ethic impressed upon me.

Moving Forward Requires Hard Work

As I got older I found myself working on larger projects with my dad, tackling all sorts of types of tasks. He’d often impart nuggets of wisdom on me as most fathers are wont to do, including one that I’ve never forgotten: “You’re not going to get anywhere without laboring for it.”

He was right, of course. I would find this out myself as I moved into a job as a golf caddy when I was 12, a role that, through lots of hard work, would get me a college scholarship. Would I have gotten that position without spending my formative years working with my hands? Could my folks have paid for my college tuition, or would I have had to find my own way like my father? We’ll never know, but if it wasn’t for my dad and his dedication to showing me a path forward, I wouldn’t be the entrepreneur that I am today.

Community is Everything

Like many immigrants, when they moved to America, my folks wanted to live somewhere they could find people who were like themselves. In our case, that meant Cicero, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, where four out of five residents were Polish immigrants. It wasn’t perfect, and there was a fair amount of crime, but the community came together to help each other out.

If a house needed a repair, everyone would come to their aid. During holiday celebrations, we were all together having one mammoth party. It meant that not only were we with other people who understood us, but we weren’t alone. We were with friends, and that little community was invaluable to our development as a family. Without them, would we have survived? Would others have made it without our help? Who knows, but in the end, I learned that community is very important.

It’s How I Came to Be

Being an entrepreneur is hard. You want to succeed but it seems like everyone in the world is against you at times, and there’s no easy path forward. You have to be willing to put in the extra hours, plus the blood, sweat, and tears necessary to work harder and better than anyone else. But most people aren’t willing to go that far. They just don’t have the drive.

I only do it because of my family’s history. Without my parents making the decision they did over forty years ago, who knows where I might be. Thankfully, they brought me to a country where I can work hard and become a better person as a result. I couldn’t be more grateful.