Why Every Entrepreneur Should Adopt the Immigrant Mindset

Some of the best entrepreneurs I have worked with had something in common long before they built successful companies: They were immigrants, or the children of immigrants. In fact, Carnegie notes that immigrants have founded or co-founded more than half of America’s billion-dollar startups.

I think I understand why so many first- and second-generation Americans flourish in entrepreneurship. My family immigrated from Cyprus when I was eight years old. I didn’t speak English. We arrived on a Friday night, and by Monday morning, I was sitting in an American classroom trying to make sense of words I couldn’t understand.

At first, communication meant listening carefully, watching other people and relying on gestures. Then I learned a few words. Those words became sentences. Sentences became conversations. I fell in love with learning and developed a curiosity that has never left me.

My father brought my mother and six children to America because he believed this country offered a better life. But there was never an expectation that opportunity would simply be handed to us. If we wanted a better future, we had to build it ourselves.

Years later, after leading Fortune 500 companies and investing in startups, I’ve realized that entrepreneurship requires many of the same habits I learned as an eight-year-old immigrant. The encouraging part is that you don’t have to immigrate to develop those habits. They are choices every entrepreneur can make.

Become a student before you become an expert

Before you can succeed in a new country, you have to study. Before I could make friends, participate in school or understand the world around me, I had to learn the language. Once I learned to read, I discovered a love of books, and this passion for learning has been a foundational piece of my career.

Business works the same way. Experience matters, but it has a shelf life. Markets evolve, customers change, and technology reshapes industries faster than ever. The leaders who continue learning long after they’ve become successful are usually the ones who stay successful because they never stop asking questions.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Immigrants don’t have the luxury of waiting until everything feels familiar. They solve problems while living inside uncertainty. Entrepreneurs face a remarkably similar challenge. There is rarely enough information, enough capital or enough certainty to eliminate risk.

The leaders who succeed aren’t necessarily the ones with the perfect plan. They’re the ones who make thoughtful decisions, learn quickly and adjust without losing momentum. If you wait until every variable is known, you’ll spend more time watching opportunities than pursuing them.

Make resourcefulness your competitive advantage

Through startup investing, I’ve learned that the founders with the biggest budgets aren’t always the ones who build the best businesses. The strongest entrepreneurs consistently find ways to move forward with the resources they have instead of waiting for the resources they wish they had.

Many immigrant families develop that habit out of necessity. They learn to stretch every dollar, solve problems creatively and maximize every opportunity because nothing feels guaranteed. Every business leader can adopt that same mindset by asking a simple question: “What can we accomplish with what we already have?” That shift in thinking often unlocks more innovation than a larger budget ever could.

Balance high standards with empathy

Hard work has always been one of the defining characteristics of entrepreneurial success, but I don’t believe it’s enough by itself. Growing up, my parents also taught us to care about other people, to give them the benefit of the doubt and to understand that everyone is carrying challenges you may not be able to see.

I’ve tried to bring that lesson into every leadership role I’ve held. The best leaders don’t lower expectations because they care about people. They raise expectations while creating an environment where people feel respected, supported and trusted. Accountability and empathy are not competing ideas. They reinforce one another.

Replace “I can’t” with “I’ll figure it out”

One lesson from childhood has stayed with me throughout my career. As an eight-year-old who couldn’t speak English, every day presented a new obstacle. Someone would ask me a question, and I couldn’t answer. So I listened carefully. I repeated words and sentences, growing my confidence with each conversation.

That experience permanently changed how I think about difficult problems. When people tell me they can’t do something, my instinct is almost always to believe they can. Maybe they don’t know how yet. Maybe it will take more work than they expected. But with focus, intentionality and persistence, there are very few challenges people can’t learn to overcome.

The lesson isn’t really about immigration

Immigrants have helped build some of America’s most successful businesses because entrepreneurship rewards resilience, adaptability, optimism and hard work. Those qualities are common among immigrants because their experiences often demand them.

The important lesson, however, is that this mindset isn’t exclusive to immigrants. Every entrepreneur can cultivate it. Stay curious enough to keep learning. Be resourceful instead of waiting for perfect conditions. Treat uncertainty as part of the process instead of a reason to hesitate. Hold yourself and your team to high standards while leading with empathy.

I still think about that eight-year-old boy who arrived from Cyprus. Looking back, I realize that experience taught me something I still believe today: Most people are capable of far more than they think. The question isn’t whether you’ll encounter obstacles. The question is whether you’ll decide to keep learning, keep adapting and keep moving forward. In business, as in life, that mindset often makes all the difference.

Some of the best entrepreneurs I have worked with had something in common long before they built successful companies: They were immigrants, or the children of immigrants. In fact, Carnegie notes that immigrants have founded or co-founded more than half of America’s billion-dollar startups.

I think I understand why so many first- and second-generation Americans flourish in entrepreneurship. My family immigrated from Cyprus when I was eight years old. I didn’t speak English. We arrived on a Friday night, and by Monday morning, I was sitting in an American classroom trying to make sense of words I couldn’t understand.

At first, communication meant listening carefully, watching other people and relying on gestures. Then I learned a few words. Those words became sentences. Sentences became conversations. I fell in love with learning and developed a curiosity that has never left me.