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Why Forbes Says Immigrants Make Better Entrepreneurs

An anonymous reader writes "Romanian emigre Christian Gheorghe is running a Silicon Valley software company now (Tidemark Systems) after getting started in the U.S. hauling plywood on a construction site. Forbes summarizes his path to the top and sees a wider story about immigrants' edge as entrepreneurs."

111 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. How is this a representative sample? by dorpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The story dwells on one person's story. There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

    1. Re:How is this a representative sample? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Informative

      who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      Yeah, this story shouldn't be used as representative of immigrants being better entrepreneurs. Had this guy come here and started the firm on his own, THAT would have been a good story.

      Here, he happened to come into contact with someone who needed someone to help them and took a chance. This guy then used the money he earned there to parlay it into a business he most likely would not have been able to start otherwise.

      It's a good story, not trying to knock this guy, but when hacks like Forbes try to show the spirit of entrepreneurship and capitalism is alive and well, they always seem to leave out the part where that person got a lucky break or windfall through no effort on their own.

      Facebook, for as much as I detest it, is a good example of entrepreneurship. Zuckerberg might have had the inkling from the twins, but it was he who saw it through to the bitter end and made the company what it is.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    2. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 2

      The story dwells on one person's story. There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      They may as well write a story about a million people who flipped a coin 20 times and the amazing success of the handful who got 20 heads in a row, then give us a guide on how we can live our lives like them. Oh wait, I just described how the entire supposedly merit-based investment banking industry is run.

      --
      "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
    3. Re:How is this a representative sample? by jeffmeden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The story dwells on one person's story. There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      The story is a story? OMG! Let me spell this out for you, in case you missed the first paragraph of TFS: immigrants represent twice their share of the entrepreneurial population, and the path of Christian Gheorghe is at least slightly representative of the background that immigrants have that might cause them to become entrepreneurs.

      The real "gotcha" here isn't that "oh well people in the US can do that too;" it's that unsuccessful would-be immigrants typically either never leave their home country (willingness to move internationally is a pretty obvious proxy for other ambitions) or they end up moving back to their native land if things don't go their way in the US. In other words, in order to make it as an immigrant you basically NEED to follow the entrepreneur's path.

      Ultimately what this means is that there is a creaming effect on immigrants, the "best and brightest" of other nations seek out the US to make a life and name for themselves and the process of doing so separates the wheat from the chaff. This is a process that really should be encouraged (along with home-grown entrepreneurship) because what it ultimately means is that innovation is still strong(est) in the US leading to many obvious benefits.

    4. Re:How is this a representative sample? by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, it nicely illustrates the dangers of self-selected samples. The article focuses on smart people with a specialized body of knowledge who decide that anything is better than their shithole, and are willing to start from scratch in a better place. That decision alone requires guts, determination and a willingness to fight. In other words, successful immigrant entrepreneurs have a special personality profile and skillset that is less common in the general population. Shocking. Next, Forbes will tell us that immigrants arriving in the US with no special skills, no special education and a habit to segregate themselves in their ethnic community will be more likely to be and stay poor than the average American.

      There's a reason Forbes isn't taken seriously in the business world, and it's articles like this.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    5. Re:How is this a representative sample? by mr1911 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...but opportunities never appear

      There is your answer.

      It is about making your own opportunity. The guy in the story could have taken the same job as his father had and waited for an opportunity to appear, but he wouldn't be where he is.

      There is nothing fundamental about immigrants making their own opportunity other than many of them took a giant leap of faith to gamble what they had to build their fortune in a new country, much like many entrepreneurs gamble what they have to build their business.

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    6. Re:How is this a representative sample? by dpilot · · Score: 2

      A "one in a million" story makes it the general model for success for anyone, right?

      How many immigrants are stuck in bottom-end jobs?
      How do the percentages compare with home-grown?

      They say "twice as likely to launch a high-tech startup", but that's also against the statistic I've heard that most business startups fail within 5 years. Maybe they really are successful at these startups, buy maybe their success rate is only half or less of home-grown. Maybe they did the launch because they didn't know the ropes well enough to see the failure looming. Sometimes it works to see the failure and word around/over, sometimes it doesn't.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    7. Re:How is this a representative sample? by kiwimate · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you nicely illustrate the poing of the post to which you're responding. Your post gives far more insight and interesting discussion about the reasons why immigrants make better entrepreneurs than does the Forbes article. The Forbes article says nothing of substance.

      There's another post just below here, which also has way more salient commentary than is contained within the Forbes article:

      People who are forced to learn a new language and culture are rewarded with a huge advantage in people skills. As most of us know, financial success is 90% people skills. (I recently saw a study reported by Forbes that concluded exactly that, even though I had assumed it for years.)

      Some career executives are smart, and some not so smart, but they all have one thing in common: top-notch, world-class people skills. It is people skills that gets you to the top.

    8. Re:How is this a representative sample? by ccguy · · Score: 1

      The story dwells on one person's story.

      I hear the next issue cover story is about why journalists are better than average statisticians...

    9. Re:How is this a representative sample? by jonadab · · Score: 2

      > The story dwells on one person's story.

      It has to, in order to be attractive to the reading audience.

      In any case, the underlying idea that immigrants are more likely to start businesses is true as far as it goes, but it's not specific to the US. It's true in general: most of the people in any given population are insufficiently motivated to do things like immigrate to a different country or start a business and work hard enough to make it a success. That's true worldwide.

      In other words, when you're looking for how many people are sufficiently driven to start a business and make it fly, looking among people who are already known to be motivated enough to immigrate to a foreign country is disingenuous. Basically, to quote xkcd, that's the mother of all sampling biases.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    10. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Stormthirst · · Score: 1

      Oh wait, I just described how the entire supposedly merit-based country is run.

      FTFY

    11. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think a little quote from the GP explains a lot:

      who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      You see, the thing about emigrants is that they are not satisfied by staying within the system they know, going for the steady plod up and hopeing that luck will land them with a big opportunity. The passive way never works unless you're born in the right family with the right connections.

      Immigrants go out there and make their own way: they seek or maketheir own opportunities. After all, this is the kind of people that is willing to leave their own country, their family, friends and all that they know to go to a far away place where even things like unwriten social norms are different - starting your own company is a far easier endeavour.

      The reason I know this is because I'm one of them and, not so long ago, after 3 countries and 7 years as a freelancer in IT I started my own Startup. I look around in the startup incubator where I'm based (Google Campus in London) and most people in there doing the same as me are foreigners too - in light of what it says in this NYTimes article, the abundance of foreigners now makes sense to me.

      (PS: the GP's posture kinda reminds me of a friend of my who is an actrice - a profession with high unemployment - whose acting career goes nowhere preciselly because she keeps waiting for acting gigs rather than being out there promoting herself and looking hard for new opportunities)

    12. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      But they said he (and other immigrants) have "pluck". So that's the difference. It's "pluck". If opportunities aren't appearing, it's simply because those people don't have enough pluck.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    13. Re:How is this a representative sample? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. If that was true those shysters would not abound. They would go out of business.

    14. Re:How is this a representative sample? by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Except at the CEO level....

    15. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      I think a little quote from the GP explains a lot:

      who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      You see, the thing about emigrants is that they are not satisfied by staying within the system they know, going for the steady plod up and hopeing that luck will land them with a big opportunity. The passive way never works unless you're born in the right family with the right connections.

      Immigrants go out there and make their own way: they seek or maketheir own opportunities.

      and perhaps you should check the number of immigrants who "make" it as entrepreneurs vs those that fail entirely? I'll bet both ends are higher percentages than the average. Why? Because when you try more risky endeavors, you tend to fail more. Also, a reason someone might try riskier things is because as an immigrant, say a doctor, PhD, dentist, etc back in your home country, you could practice, but upon arriving in the US, you cannot, because you need X/Y/Z certification and/or 4+ years from an accredited program, 100K in debt, etc. At that point, those are not options for them, and working at BurgerHut loses its appeal quickly. Starting your own business, however, doesn't require all those prerequisites. So you might look at the high number of immigrant entrepreneurs as people driven by desperation to do something other than the mediocre dream deadening tasks the native society deems they should be happy with.

      --
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    16. Re:How is this a representative sample? by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      *whoosh*

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    17. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You mention that he essentially added to the work which he was brought in to do. It's a fine example of right place at the right time.

      Zuckerberg, Gates, and so many other famous "successful" people were in the right place at the right time (and had a lot of deep pockets behind them). Of course, the bit there in brackets has helped to various extents - usually as much as the pockets are deep.

      You don't often hear about those who failed.
      Here's a change to that.

    18. Re:How is this a representative sample? by trevc · · Score: 2, Funny

      Emigration from Romania to the USA raises the average intelligence level of both nations.

    19. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      there's a Zucker born every minute (well every social networking generation anyway)

    20. Re:How is this a representative sample? by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Chance favors the prepared mind.

      I know people who have actually turned disciplinary actions against them into a career, because it gave them the opportunity to meet someone who they would not have otherwise.

      And I am not even just talking about My Cousin Vinny.

    21. Re:How is this a representative sample? by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      Wow. You talk about people getting lucky breaks but then forget to mention that Zuck was already going to a VERY prestigious school surrounded by opportunity, money and ideas. Facebook is not this great invention simply because a lot of people use it. A lot of people use it, thats the best you can really say about it. It doesnt reflect on Zuckerberg's character or ability to overcome adversity. It remains to be seen what kind of man he will be, his track record is not great so far.

      --
      Good-bye
    22. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Kurrel · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that movie gave me the courage to upgrade from a lowly window-peeper to the full-time, restraining-order-crossing stalker of Marissa Tomei I am today.

    23. Re:How is this a representative sample? by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      It's a good story, not trying to knock this guy, but when hacks like Forbes try to show the spirit of entrepreneurship and capitalism is alive and well, they always seem to leave out the part where that person got a lucky break or windfall through no effort on their own.

      I'd say that most of us...at varying levels of success...got there because of a lucky break, knows someone, or maybe simpler put...'being at the right place at the right time'.

      That's part of life.

      I'd venture to say, most everyone is presented with opportunities that you might want to call a 'break', 'luck' or 'right place at right time' situation...

      The difference in being successful or not, is to be able to recognize it and act on it, and not let the opportunity pass you buy due to fear of taking a chance, or laziness.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    24. Re:How is this a representative sample? by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      Your point agrees with my thinking entirely. The people in the land from which they immigrated are not innately more entrepreneurial. It is the individuals who put forth the effort to come here that have the right stuff to be entrepreneurs, and had they not come here would likely have started a business at home. I would hazard a guess that it is mostly those who come legally who are entrepreneurial as well. Not least of which because in some states you cannot actually be the founding member of an organization unless you are a citizen or naturalized.
      My fear is that the same thing that happened in the 1970s will happen now. In the 1970s, the best and the brightest came from foreign countries and amazed the PHBs. The PHBs then assumed that everyone from those countries was equally brilliant and started lobbying to bring them over in droves. Of course, each successive round of people we imported was less brilliant than the round before, but the PHBs looked past that because the new workers were willing to (illegally) work for less than prevailing wage.
      I worry that the same thing will happen and we will open the floodgates to all and sundry, fewer and fewer of which will be entrepreneurial or have good business ideas.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    25. Re:How is this a representative sample? by gutnor · · Score: 1
      London ? Most people you work with in London are foreigners: entrepreneurs and employees, winners and losers. Also, that is IT you are talking about, that segment of the market in London is literally flooded by foreigners. When you look at small investment firms and hedge funds, layers practices, ... the proportion of UK born entrepreneurs increase dramatically.

      (PS: you really sound like a jerk describing your "friend" as you do )

    26. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Aceticon · · Score: 1

      you really sound like a jerk describing your "friend" as you do

      Actually I think it's a shame. She's a sensitive person that ended up in a profession which, for all it's glamour, can be extremelly harsh and unforgiving.

      As for non-IT startups in London, I wouldn't at all be surprised that "small investment firms and hedge funds, layers practices" have far more UK entrepreneurs: these are much more local-centric domains, in industries much more tightly coupled by webs of personal aquaintance and where knowing the right people from the get go makes a huge difference, so things like having gone to the right UK University and maintaining the right contacts makes a huge difference. A foreigner coming here from outside has much more difficulty breaking into those industries even with years of industry experience abroad - I know this for sure because I've actually worked in investment banking (and essentially had to prove myself all over again) and it's a very closed industry (and quite mediocre in the IT area).

      BTW: Please notice that although I think imigrants are more likelly to startup new companies, I don't think that they are more likelly to success than non-imigrants. They are more likelly to try, IMHO, but that's it.

    27. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Aceticon · · Score: 1

      In practice there seem to be 2 kinds of immigrants:
      - The desperate poor that emmigrate because that's the only chance they have
      - The ones who could have a decent life in their own country but chose to emmigrate

      I suspect the former are no more likelly to start a company than anybody else.

      As for statistics, the article in the OP is the one quoting the statistic. Feel free to read it.

      I'm just providing what seems a likelly explanation in view of that and in view of my personal experience.

    28. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Aceticon · · Score: 1

      I can only talk about IT startups, not startups in areas which have artifical high barriers to entry thanks to local regulations.

      My experience as a serial emigrant and a Software Developer is that the set of skills for most things done in an IT company is the most portable there is. The barriers to entry to practice things like software development and graphics design are pretty much zero anywhere in the world and professional experience retains it's value across borders.

      In such a domain, the only barriers one has to start one's company are related to one's own risk tolerance and things like the amount of savings one has and family support.

    29. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Forever+Wondering · · Score: 1

      The story dwells on one person's story. There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      The story also has a link to a [105 page] PDF titled "Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs". But, it's from 1999 ... I skimmed it. Part history of immigration and some statistics and a few case studies. But, as far as I could tell, it offers no comparison to American entrepreneurs [hence the title, I guess].

      --
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    30. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Malc · · Score: 1

      I worked with Chris in the late nineties. Very smart guy. Very hard working. Some pretty good stories of his escape from Romanian and finding his feet in NYC. Not only is he technical, but he knows how to sell. He built up businesses, hiring talented people, and those business were acquired (I went through two acquisitions in under three years), before he started another company and I lost contact when I moved overseas. He's pretty much lived the American dream.

    31. Re:How is this a representative sample? by chrb · · Score: 1

      The story dwells on one person's story

      That is true. However, research with a much larger sample size also reports immigrants form a disproportionate number of successful entrepreneurs. The Implications Of Immigrant Entrepreneurship:

      A survey of 28,000 companies found that immigrants were key founders in more than a quarter of all the engineering and technology companies set up in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005.

      The new research--led by Vivek Wadhwa, an executive-in-residence at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering--is a follow-up of a study published earlier this year by Wadhwa and his team that had counted $52 billion in annual sales by these immigrant-founded companies. Total employment at those companies: roughly 450,000.

      ...

      According to the study, 96% of the immigrant founders held graduate or postgraduate degrees, with 47% holding master's degrees and 27% having Ph.D.s. About three-quarters had their highest degrees in the STEM fields. The largest concentrations outside of that were in business, accounting and finance.

      Wadhwa says the Duke project underscores the point that a significant portion of immigrants in the U.S. are highly educated, fueling a tech boom, leading innovation and creating jobs. The report cites U.S. Census data to say that immigrants from India, the U.K., China, Taiwan, Japan and Germany are better educated than native U.S. citizens.

      The results of the study are especially significant for Indian immigrants, according to Wadhwa. "Indians are among the best educated of all immigrant groups," he says, adding that Indians founded more engineering and technology companies in the U.S. in the decade up to 2005 than the next four groups combined--those from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan. They accounted for 26% of all start-ups, about 117,000 jobs and $14 billion in revenue in 2005.

    32. Re:How is this a representative sample? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The point is that to succeed, they need to always seek opportunities and use them (not just keep doing drone work). The consistent seeking and use of opportunities, even if low among immigrants, is higher than among the general population, because they're the type of people who've already done seeking and using opportunities successfully by becoming immigrants.

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    33. Re:How is this a representative sample? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Whether an immigrant that moves into his ethnic community succeeds depends in part on the nature of that community. If it's Korean, Chinese or Japanese, they value work, study, and good nutrition. Those people have good prospects.

      --
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    34. Re:How is this a representative sample? by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      To add, most people who DO get the opportunies and take them, fail misserably. Sometimes due to their own mistake, but often due to unlucky circumstances.
      A succesful entrepreneur is no more skilled than a succesful roulette player.
      A succesful entrepreneur is just the end-result of an evolutionary process; a bit of talent but mostly just lucky not to be crushed by a meteorite.

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    35. Re:How is this a representative sample? by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      You mean like this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Basics-Winning-Lotto-Lottery/dp/1580420710
      People actually gave it good reviews.

      --
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    36. Re:How is this a representative sample? by graphius · · Score: 1

      ^This^
      Most people walk through life with their eyes closed. Good on the guy, immigrant or not, for seizing opportunities that came his way...

    37. Re:How is this a representative sample? by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      I believe there is another aspect to why immigrants are entrepreneurs. Many organizations want perfect speaking citizens, without accents, but disregard their education, or skills. The immigrants choices are work for Walmart, or begin a business.

      Brains and luck help those to survive and grow.

      Yes, much of small entrepreneurs are immigrants and that is the reason. It is too bad that schools in the USA teach you to be a great programmer, who works for someone else.

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    38. Re:How is this a representative sample? by Phoghat · · Score: 1

      The story dwells on one person's story. There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

      Because they're not publicity seeking millionaires. Q.E.D.

      --
      Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
  2. Another misinterpretation of data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course, being an immigrant is, in itself, a filter. Leaving your native country for better opportunities is a strong sign of entrepreneurship. When will journalists learn?

    1. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by DanTheStone · · Score: 2

      Especially when you're coming legally to the US. That is a huge hurdle.

    2. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by The+Raven · · Score: 2

      > When will journalists learn?
      Not so. The journalist didn't say 'people outside the US are better', they said 'US immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs', and this is completely true specifically because of the filter (which is covered in the article). Immigrants are ambitious risk takers; ambitious risk takers are more likely to start their own business.

      We need more ambitious risk takers in the US.

      --
      "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
    3. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by HungWeiLo · · Score: 2

      You hear a lot of the single-issue types shouting about "get back in the immigration line and do it legally!!" not knowing how convoluted and expensive the whole process is.

      Just to illustrate how convoluted, difficult, and expensive the whole process is - there are countless Chinese families from China and Taiwan who pack up their entire families and move to Panama or Paraguay (or any other place with a more liberal immigration quota number for the US), live there for 5-10 years while their kids are going to school there learning English and Espanol, then packing up everything once again and moving to the US when the papers go through. Now that takes some effort and perseverance - and illustrates how difficult the "normal" channels are if people are jumping through hoops like this.

      The self-selecting aspect of it is definitely true. While these people are spending 5-10 years in some tinpot Latin American country, they usually end up doing pretty well. I spoke with a few Chinese immigrants in Buenos Aires when I was there and it wasn't unusual for some of those guys to end up owning 4-5 convenient stores by the time they pack up and go somewhere else. You have to be in the top of the food chain to survive in a business-unfriendly, anti-immigration environment where you have zero cultural relevancy.

      --
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    4. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by TheSync · · Score: 1

      You hear a lot of the single-issue types shouting about "get back in the immigration line and do it legally!!" not knowing how convoluted and expensive the whole process is.

      There is zero, absolutely no way that a poor worker from Mexico or Central American countries can legally enter the US on the path to citizenship if they have no direct family legally living in the US. There is no "immigration line" for them.

    5. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by chrb · · Score: 1

      It also helps to be well educated: "According to the study, 96% of the immigrant founders held graduate or postgraduate degrees, with 47% holding master's degrees and 27% having Ph.D.s. About three-quarters had their highest degrees in the STEM fields." - Forbes

    6. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Of course, being an immigrant is, in itself, a filter. Leaving your native country for better opportunities is a strong sign of entrepreneurship.

      And also, it can be a variable filter as well. On average, it takes a lot more effort/resources/skills/education to cross the iron curtain and then cross the ocean to get into the US, then to simply walk over from Canada/Mexico.

      When will journalists learn?

      Probably never. It would contradict too much the simple narratives they're trying to tell.

    7. Re:Another misinterpretation of data by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

      As we've seen with past colonization efforts, laws are not exactly "laws". Atleast with the mexicans they aren't coming here to 'take our land' or 'kill/displace the existing populace'. They're just looking to escape poverty and build a better life for themselves. Its only the most natural evolution-driven thing to want to do that.

  3. Mystery solved by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Immigrints are less spoiled than westerners.

    1. Re:Mystery solved by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's a right winger's definition of "spoiled": an unwillingness to participate in a rigged game.

    2. Re:Mystery solved by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      That's a left winger's response.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    3. Re:Mystery solved by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Mind naming the company? You're an AC and you don't work there anymore, so no real reason to protect them.

  4. I bet you'd find drug dealers and others... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... make excellent entrepeneurs as well. You know what they all have in common? They're willing to pursue their goals and prefer to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission. That's the #1 thing that all the current crop of silicon valley companies have in common. Not all of them following this formula still exist, but that's what they all have in common, questionable legal standing that they didn't allow to get in the way of making profits hand over fist, and low infrastructure costs to get in the way of rapid expansion.

    And if I know this, why am I not rich? Something to do with not doing the crime if you're not willing to do the time. Also I'm lousy with people :)

    1. Re:I bet you'd find drug dealers and others... by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      I bet you'd find drug dealers and others ... make excellent entrepeneurs as well.

      You'd think so, right? Apparently, that enterprise is run like any other. The Wire did a decent job of portraying its day-to-day.

  5. duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is self selection. Immigrants are not risk adverse and are self motivated pretty much by definition. Both skills lend them selves to starting a business.

  6. They have it backwards by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Immigrants are a self-selecting group. It's quite obvious that an entrepreneurial individual would be more likely to do something risky and ambitious like immigrating to another country.

  7. Mod parent up. by khasim · · Score: 2

    There are any number of people (both Americans and immigrants) who take any available job and try to work their way up, but opportunities never appear.

    But researching that is too much like work.

    And no one wants to read the story of a nice immigrant who gets an okay job working for someone else and raises an okay family and sends his okay kids to an okay college after which they get okay jobs working for someone else.

    Instead, let's focus on the few who DO become successful entrepreneurs (at this moment) and extrapolate trends from those.

    1. Re:Mod parent up. by colinrichardday · · Score: 1

      And no one wants to read the story of a nice immigrant who gets an okay job working for someone else and raises an okay family and sends his okay kids to an okay college after which they get okay jobs working for someone else.

      So publication bias isn't just in medical journals?

  8. Re:They took urr jerbs? by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

    They took urr jerbs!

    Put slightly more specifically, according to the article:

    "They made ahh jerb, and den dey took it! Dey took dere jerbs!"

  9. Moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Stop complaining and get a job you dirty hippies

    Immigrants like Gheorghe don’t dawdle in their pursuit of better opportunities. They start at any available entry point in the job market, and then rapidly advance toward very ambitious personal goals. They keep pushing ahead, even if it means hauling plywood on a construction site or making small talk with whatever big shots they might be driving around in a borrowed limo.

  10. Notion of the American Dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know if it's relevant, but I can see the point.

    Imagine you're an Immigrant. New country, new opportunities. The place you come from is a real hole and at every turn you see econmic prosperity. I'd be excited if I got to get my hands on things I never had access too before. If had a good vision, and I knew that nothing but hard work was between myself and success? Damn right I'd be sucessful. That is the problem with being an Entrepreneur. Having an idea is about 2% of your key to success. The other 150% is hard work. Really really really hard 100 hours a week endless work.

    The problem with being here, in the land of opportunity is that we're saturated in it. We lose perspective.We don't know what's really important and we lack the motivation to find out.

  11. The example of a selection bias by KingofSpades · · Score: 1

    As written above, the result is not so surprising since emigrating is an enterprise in its own right.

    Another question is whether foreigners make better entrepreneurs. Doing such a study would need to include those who haven't migrated in order of avoiding a selection bias.

  12. Story summarized by kiwimate · · Score: 2

    Introductory paragraph that states immigrants are twice as likely to launch a high-tech startup as their native born peers, and introduces us to Christian Gheorghe.

    Eight paragraphs on Gheorghe's story (which is interesting, to be fair, talking about his first job in the U.S. in 1989 which was carrying plywood for $100 a week and a free bologna sandwich at lunchtime).

    Last two paragraphs are a comment on the number of immigrants earning engineering Ph.D.s in recent years and finally some boring generic drivel about "they keep pushing ahead".

    Gheorghe's story is interesting and he's obviously worked really hard. But this is a useless and silly story. There's no insight or discussion or, well, anything of any substance.

    P.S. - pedant mode on. The /. headline is badly written. "Why Forbes Says Immigrants Make Better Entrepreneurs" - because it gets page views, just like Slashdot. What you actually mean is "Forbes Discusses Why Immigrants Make Better Entrepreneurs". Which the Forbes article doesn't do; it just gives eight paragraphs of a case study surrounded by meaningless drivel. Pedant mode off.

    1. Re:Story summarized by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      But blathering about case studies is easy and social science has numbers in it!

  13. Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by readin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I lived in Taiwan for a while. I was told, and it fits with what I've seen, that while children in America are raised on the dream of getting a secure high paying job, children in Taiwan are raised on the dream of owning their own business. I suspect that dream doesn't go away just because they move to America.

    Americans are used to the options of 1. always being able to find a job (McDonald's is always hiring) and nearly always a decent job (English is the ticket) and 2. having welfare as an option if they're too lazy or "too good" to take the jobs that are available. Immigrants are often raised in places where those options don't exist and starting your own business is the only way to survive. Starting a business is risky and takes a lot of work. Why do it if you have other options for a secure prosperous future?

    An immigrant is likely to see opportunities an American would miss because growing up in another culture they know there is another way to do things. For example, if I were more entrepreneurial, artistic and less risk-averse, I would start a business taking wedding photos like I saw in Taiwan and marketing this service to American women. There is more than one way to do wedding photos but living only in America you might not see it.

    --
    I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    1. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by HungWeiLo · · Score: 1

      I know of the wedding photos that you speak of. Good luck getting American men to effeminize themselves with heavy makeup and being photoshopped hopping around on clouds and air bubbles while chasing his bride around in a forest or lake setting.

      My friend tried to start up something like this and he lost his shirt doing it. Unless you're in a community with a very large Asian diaspora, it's a business doomed to fail based on cultural incompatibility.

      --
      There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
    2. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by HungWeiLo · · Score: 1

      Uh. That's essentially what I said - one country's business ventures may or may not translate successfully in another country.

      FYI - I'm half Taiwanese and have lived in Taipei for years, so I can't really be "racist and narrow-minded" (whatever that means) when I comment about my own culture.

      --
      There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
    3. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by readin · · Score: 1

      You're right that having a large community of Asian immigrants around would be necessary to keep the business afloat while you try to build up the native American market. Also the Americans will be more willing to try the idea if they have Asian friends who have done it.

      As for getting the American men to "effeminize" there are two answers. The first is: don't. Have them wear light make-up or none at all, but still do the studio shots and outdoor shots. And you can skip the air bubbles and clouds and stick to themes Americans are more ready to accept (maybe ad some new ones like cowboy-cowgirl pictures). The second answer is: the guy has agreed to marry the girl and put up with the whole wedding thing already (and to wear a TUX!) - what's the big deal with a few bubbles and clouds for the girl he loves?

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    4. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by readin · · Score: 1

      Nice way to be racist and narrowminded of the Taiwanese culture.

      I'm not sure what race has to do with it. American culture and Taiwanese culture are very different. One thing that can differ greatly between cultures is tolerance for behavior that may make a man appear feminine.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    5. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by readin · · Score: 1

      I think there are a lot of Americans who don't quite understand what real cultural differences are. They think a significant cultural difference is using chopsticks instead of forks. Because they don't understand that cultural differences are real they may think you're being "racist" when you talk about such differences. Those who have experienced real cultural differences and who understand that correlation does not imply causation are able to understand that commenting about culture is not the same as commenting about race - and that criticizing an aspect of a culture (not that you did) is not always the result of bigotry.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    6. Re:Goals, Options, Observations and Ethics by OutputLogic · · Score: 1

      Well, what children are told depends on the country. I was raised in Soviet Union in 80s, and we were told exactly the opposite. The goal was to get the best education and get a steady job. In America the goal was to start a business and make lots of money. I guess the reality is somewhere in between.

  14. Micro vs Macroeconomics by Baldrson · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The presumption that immigrants make "better" entrepreneurs has a lot of microeconomic evidence but the macroeconomic evidence against it is overwhelming.

    Since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 set in motion the process of electing a new people, there has been a collapse in the middle class. Since the ramp-up of "skilled" immigration, there has been a collapse of the economy itself.

    This supports the theory that the older cultures that have been taking up positions of trust and authority in government, academia and business are, unsurprisingly, more sophisticated in playing the rent-seeking and zero-sum games required to gain access to resources necessary to "succeed". However, due to the kinds of games that must be played to acquire these resources, the effect on the overall human ecology has been to deprive the traditional American people -- the folks who invented the airplane, computer, transistor, planar integrated circuit, etc., -- of the resources to express their historic ingenuity. As a consequence, fundamental technological innovation hasn't occurred for decades.

    1. Re:Micro vs Macroeconomics by mdragan · · Score: 1

      The planar process was developed by Jean Hoerni, born in Geneva, Switzerland (moved to the USA in 1952).
      The invention of the computer (as a general purpose programmable machine) goes to Charles Babbage in 1837 (supposed to be mechanical), a Brit, in UK. The first built programmable electro-mechanical computer was created by Konrad Zuse in Germany in 1941. The first programmable electronic computer was the Colossus, built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers a British guy, in the UK.
      The design of the first modern DIGITAL computer is indeed American.
      And since you are talking about "scientists" and technological inventions, it could be interesting to see how much of the technology invented in the USA was made possible by immigrant scientists and engineers. I'm sure we can create a bigger list than the one you mention.

    2. Re:Micro vs Macroeconomics by LastGunslinger · · Score: 2

      Traditional American people? I didn't realize those inventions you mentioned were developed on reservations. The rest of us aren't usually more than a few generations removed from immigrants. This was especially true half a century or more ago when those technologies you listed were developed. Can you please cite the evidence where the overall economy, real wages, or standard-of-living of Americans has "collapsed" since 1965? Or where "fundamental technological innovation" has ceased? Increased economic prosperity for nations outside of the US and Western Europe may be a scary prospect to racists and xenophobes, but it's not necessarily the death knell for America.

    3. Re:Micro vs Macroeconomics by Baldrson · · Score: 1

      The WASPs didn't invent human nature. One may argue quite convincingly that the reason the Mayflower settlers were forced out of Europe was their relative lack of political savvy. Human nature, on the other hand, is a constant regardless of what sort of artifices, such as the US Constitution, may be put up as a safeguard against recurrences of history's nightmares.

  15. Which is why... by Glasswire · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Canada, the most similar economy to that of the US, does so well economically in part because it's had a huge tradition of immigrant entrepreneurship for decades.
    Whereas the immigrant xenophobia in the US leads to incidents like a senior manager at a foreign car plant getting arrested for not having the right paperwork. If you treat foreign investors (who could put plants elsewhere) like that, what does it say to someone thinking of moving to the US to start a business?

    1. Re:Which is why... by FrigBot · · Score: 1

      Look, we in Canada here have our own version of xenophobia. Basically to immigrate here you have to be some sort of professional or a skilled person somehow. Then, the gatekeepers of our professions often keep those people out of the same professsions, for several different reasons. Unless the immigrant knows of a loophole, he can be stuck in limbo, with a Ph.d from where he's from, being relegated to some menial position. I have four examples of such people whom I know personally - but I don't want to cite them here for privacy reasons. Not to mention the "welcome services" for newcomers, who I have seen several times give very bad advice for preparing a resume and finding work.

      Anyway, often immigrants here get tied to the purse-strings of a company willing to take them on, and are stuck there at their mercy for some length of time which is difficult to pin down. Usually stuck at a very low wage.

      And, stop praising Canada for doing so well economically. Very little new technology is generated here, at least in Alberta. Most of our economy here is digging up resources and squandering the money on sports arenas, or down East, in manufacturing plants for the Big 3 US automakers plus Honda et al.

      In conclusion, it's difficult for most immigrants to get started here, unless you're a refugee selected to come settle in a ghetto in one of our cities, continuing the tradition of barbarity, murdering amongst themselves and with poor driving skills.

    2. Re:Which is why... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I'm not Canadian, but I've visited several times. From my perspective, it seems like Canada is a large country with very different cultures and industries in different areas. You say you're in Alberta; that province to me seems to resemble the American midwest a lot; rather hickish, and industry mainly concentrated on resource extraction. Not a lot of high tech there. Not too far away is British Columbia with a totally different climate and culture; there's tons of Asians there, a lot of money, and a lot of technology work as well as film production. It's kinda similar to California and Oregon/Washington. Then there's Ontario and the Toronto area, which probably resembles the American northeast (like NY and the NE corridor) in many ways, but also the industrial areas of MI and OH. There's the Nova Scotia area (plus NB, NL, etc.) which are pretty rural and resemble Maine a lot, with a lot of maritime activity. Finally, there's Quebec which doesn't even speak the same language as the rest of Canada, and probably resembles France more than anything in North America.

      So your complaints about the Canadian economy may be very true for Alberta, but not necessarily the rest of the country, just like my (many) complaints about where I live here in Arizona don't really apply to places like Boston, NYC, or Washington state. Personally, I'd much rather live in Vancouver (BC) than Phoenix AZ where I now live, but I have no desire to move to Alberta.

  16. Lazy people stay home... by jd.schmidt · · Score: 1

    Duh, how much more obvious does it get. They are self-selecting for determination.

  17. Self selection by plopez · · Score: 1

    Seriously, this is not scientific at all. This person selected himself from a pool that, in the aggregate, probably looks no different than than the US population in terms of intelligence, motivation, etc. He is probably in the top 10% or so in his native country. So obviously he would make a better entrepreneur.

    To make a sweeping statement based on one anecdote is typical info-tainment.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    1. Re:Self selection by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      How funny you should pick the 10% figure.

  18. Consider the source by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 1

    A magazine which reports on "finance, industry, investing, and marketing" reporting about how great it is to replace your CEO with an H1B visa carrier? I think this takes the cake.

    --
    Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
    1. Re:Consider the source by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      so they not only take our jobs, but now they take our cake too??

  19. Immigrants are smarter and more motivated by Skapare · · Score: 2

    That's how they were able to get out from where they came.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  20. Leaving one's homeland to be more entrepreneurial? by k6mfw · · Score: 1

    Recently I was talking with someone from Ukraine, has a startup of applying software methods in building design (not a CAD system but buildings that can be modified like software or something like that, I didn't fully understand his concepts). He made a comment of people that leave their homelands are the ones that strive for innovation, creativity, trying new stuff, or whatever you want to call it. He said look at regions of the world, those with lots of immigrants and those without, the ones with lots of immigrants are the places with highest developments and latest innovations. Those countries where people tend to stay generation after generation are places with poorest economic conditions. I asked what was it like growing up in Ukraine which he said, "I didn't feel like I fit in, I don't like drinking."

    Meanwhile another immigrant, from India working as a physicist at CalTech, mentioned how bad the H1-1B laws are which conversation went on to some people in California establishing a barge to house startups. These barges will be parked off the coast so startups can bring in immigrants and not deal with H1-1B and other work visa bureaucracies. He also mentioned companies are considering hospital ships so doctors can practice treatments that are highly politicized (i.e. stem cell). Wham, month later this became a slashdot article: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05/08/1327222/nearly-150-companies-show-interest-in-the-tech-love-boat

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
  21. Less to lose for immigrants? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Immigrants have less to lose if the business fails. They can nearly always return home and start over with a blank slate. If you are a native and your business fails, where can you go to start over without your failure haunting you for life? Credit reporting agency reports accomplish the same thing as balls and chains.

    I think non-immigrants are also more in fear of the red tape that they are very aware exists. Sometimes, people who are new to this country aren't aware of all the rules and regulations that can stumble small business owners.

  22. VAX VMS at Ticketmaster by TheSync · · Score: 1

    Ticketmaster is still VAX VMS.

    Here is a VAX still on the HP web site, and of course OpenVMS.

  23. Breathing dusty air into the American dream by Atrox666 · · Score: 1

    Sure if I wanted to sleep 10 to a room and have a physically injurious work life balance, I can eventually eek out a small chance at a marginally profitable business. All the while large portions of my money are given away to other private businesses like banks and the Fed that will use it to pay lobbyists to work against me with what I earned. It's only called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it. -Carlin

    Where are the 20 stories of people who lost their homes and families going bankrupt because of the same bankers they are working to make rich?

      Some of these immigrants come from abject poverty and practical slavery. It's no small wonder that they flourish under a merely oppressive regime. It does not mean that it should be idealized into a model of how we should be living our lives. You get one life, if it's spent in misery then you wasted it.

  24. Where's the "Why?" by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1

    TFA that I read simply says they do make better entrepreneurs, and gives examples of someone making more effort than I do. But it does not say why. (Why I suck, or why they don't, whatever: I'll take either answer.)

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  25. pfft RIIIIGHT by doston · · Score: 1
    The end of the artivle says it all.

    "Immigrants like Gheorghe don’t dawdle in their pursuit of better opportunities. They start at any available entry point in the job market, and then rapidly advance toward very ambitious personal goals. They keep pushing ahead, even if it means hauling plywood on a construction site or making small talk with whatever big shots they might be driving around in a borrowed limo."

    Yeah, in other words, come to the US and work in wage slavery for a while first, you big enterpreneur, you. Forbes is just business press and wants cheap labor. Trying to put a positive spin on immigration fot ifs corporate readers who *adore* cheap labor. There's a huge lack of real statistics in the article. It's basically an immigrant pyramid scheme, if you think about it. Come here and work for peanuts as a janitor, but keep those big dreams. NO "DAWDLING", now!

    1. Re:pfft RIIIIGHT by doston · · Score: 1

      Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870-1940, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. An excerpt (pp. 56-59): [The United Fruit] company claimed in its propaganda that its role was to instill consumer values among its workers. . . . In 1929, Crowther, another United Fruit biographer, explicitly explained the importance of the spread of a consumer mentality as he waxed eloquent on the virtues of capitalism and bemoaned the immoral effects of a subsistence economy: "The mozos or working people [in Central America] have laboured only when forced to and that was not often, for the land would give them what little they needed." But this could be changed, he explained, by infusing these laborers with the desire for upward mobility. "The desire for goods, it may be remarked, is something that has to be cultivated. In the United States this desire has been cultivated. . . . American movies, radio, and especially magazines were everywhere, and "our advertising is slowly having the same effect as in the United States -- and it is reaching the mozos. For when a periodical is discarded, it is grabbed up, and its advertising pages turn up as wall paper in the thatched huts. I have seen the insides of huts completely covered with American magazine pages. . . . All of this is having its effect in awakening desires."

  26. "planar" wasn't the fundamental invention by Baldrson · · Score: 1

    The "planar" process was based on the original patent for the integrated circuit itself. That fundamental innovation was patented by Robert Noyce of Grinnell, Iowa. Hoerni was one of Noyce's "Congregation". My mistake was in conflating the refinement with the fundamental innovation.

  27. The first actual electronic computation in Ames IA by Baldrson · · Score: 1

    According to patent priority, the first computer to do actual electronic computation was in the agricultural school at Ames, IA. Moreover, that project was terminated and resourced diverted to WW II efforts like Colossus which utilized less advanced technology to achieve obvious elaborations such as stored programs. You're correct that various forms of computers had been conceived but reduction to practice had to await the kind of culture present in the US land grant colleges, much as actual controlled flight had to await some middle class tinkerers in Ohio.

  28. Oh god by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2

    Because all do the same thing for the same reason. Leaving your country to seek a fortune elsewhere is also the sign of a quitter, a person looking for an easy way out, or someone who did something so terrible back home, he has to run. Cue bleeding hearts sheltering war criminals because they can't see that someone fleeing prosecution might actually being prosecuted for the right reasons.

    That is not even counting the ones who were trafficked with promises of a job and end up a sex-worker, those people make good entrepreneurs as well you think?

    The idea that a very wide label as immigrant means every person labeled by it is the same is insane. It is the core of racism, doesn't matter if it is so called positive or negative racism.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  29. Who said "scientists" by Baldrson · · Score: 1
    You quote the word "scientists" as though I had used the term.

    I most deliberately did not.

    There is, however, something to be said for maintaining a strong middle class of economically independent yeoman as that does appear to be the source of scientific revolutions as well as technical revolutions.

  30. It all depends on the individual's drive... not by jerryjnormandin · · Score: 1

    Around the year 1989 I was working as an Engineering Tech building and testing devices based on the 8051 embedded controller. Mostly access control systems. The company fell on financial hard times around 1990, I found myself dealing with unemployment. I was renting an apartment from my inlaws at the time, had two sons and one on the way. I hit the ground running looking for work, at that time the US was still designing and manufacturing products locally but the economic slowdown put the brakes on hiring anyone, no matter how good you were. So what did I do? I taught myself Solaris, CAD, hooked myself up as an Autodesk developer. Back in the 90s companies used to submit RFQs in the newspaper. I found one requesting a high speed large printer solution. I partnered with a company that provided such hardware, an high speed plotter. When I presented my company I had to come up with a name on the fly since I couldn't just be a DBA. I came up with Innovative Technology because the idea was that I'm gonna Innovate. The CTO of the company said "nice presentation, tell you what. Our current E size drawings take over 45 minutes to plot. We just won a contract to wire a major building in NYC. We need to cut the time down, can you help?" I replied that I could conduct a demo and plot out an E size drawing in less than 3 minutes. The CTO replied that If I could do that then they will offer me the contract. Well I called JDL, they hooked me up with another company, I wrote my code to integrate the plotter into their network, I bought a Sun Sparc 5 from a liquidator, ran my code on there. I installed PCNFS on the test workstation, connected to my printer driver, tested at the vendors site. I got the sample drawing done in 2.5 minutes. I was ready for the demo. I conducted the demo the following week, won the contract and the profit I earned bankrolled my business for a year. I grew the business, I added other vertical markets such as Point of Sale System, I even tought myself how to work on HP AS400 systems and landed a contract to provide system administration on a visiting nurse company's system. I ran my onw consulting gig for 6 years. The only reason why I sold it and gave it up was I had a young wife and family that I wanted to spend more time with. I put in over 140hrs /week into my business. With the experience I picked up I was able to get my resume out and get a new job in the IT Industry in one week. I used the money I saved to put down on my first house. Yes I miss running my own business, but when I ran my own business I missed my family. All in all it's been a great ride. I'm not an immigrant. I'm the great grandson of an immigrant if that counts. The way I look at it was I needed to leverage my skills to provide for me and my family. The motivation wasn't to earn megabucks. I would hustle, save some money, if I had a surplus for the month I'd take a short vacation with the wife and kids The short 3 day vacations wasn't enough though. Trust me, working 40hrs/week I see my family a lot more. I think anyone here on Slashdot, if they had to, they could run their own consulting business. Who knows, I may have to do it again someday.

  31. Oh, for God's sake... by kosty · · Score: 2

    Gee, THANX, Forbes for clearing that up for me. This one is straight from the "DUH!?! Institute:" Ready? Here it comes. Wait for it...

    How about the "fact" that the lazy or disabled or unskilled or just plain f$ckin' stupid ones STAYED THE F$CK HOME?!? They were unable to or just plain couldn't be bothered to move thousands of miles with no means to go through the extensive rectal examination that is "emmigration ---> immigration???" Can't believe I have to explain this so often...

    --
    "Democracy." It's just a slogan.
  32. Immigrants vs Settlers by Baldrson · · Score: 1
    There is an enormous difference between immigrants and settlers.

    The US is a nation of settlers. The immigrants who came once the land was settled were qualitatively different in character.

    If you can't understand the difference between a settler's relationship with natural laws and an immigrant's relationship with artificial laws as fundamentally differing skill sets, you don't understand anything about US history.

  33. success is contextual by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My own experience is that "lucky breaks" come to those who seek them out and are willing to take risks, and under the right conditions, can capitalize on them.

    Colonel, if you feel you haven't gotten your share of "lucky breaks", maybe you ought to try harder. It's amazing what can be accomplished if you try.

    TFTY. Not to knock your argument, I agree with it. But I think in the form you presented, it is incomplete. You need an innate talent, and a drive to seek the opportunity. And the lucky break (which in great part is a factor of society and government), and then being at the right economic period (up or down depending on the nature of the lucky break), to capitalize it.

    Coming from a dirt-poor country that was plagued for much of its existence by warlords, generalissimos, nepotism and a lack of the rule of law, you can work your ass off and be the next Sergey Brin/Einstein and still never get anywhere (if you are lucky, or robbed/killed at worst.)

    Being in a developed country where the combination of government, the rule of law, society with developed institutions and a robust economy (even when in a recession), that gives you a fair, fighting chance AND the ability to mingle with like-minded people, AAAAAAAAND the opportunity to reap benefits proportional or greater than the effort put behind the plow.

    The combination of all that is what makes success (and recovery from failures) a possibility.

  34. Hmmmm, not necessarily true. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 3, Informative

    Financial success is not 90% people skills. It's education or industry experience.

    Not true. Purely anecdotal experience. When my family and I came from Nicaragua to the US in 1989, we paired with lady, also from Nicaragua to work from home making paper wraps for florists. This lady was the one with the contacts, and my family and I were the muscle. My family and I are/were decently educated and had a working knowledge of English (we couldn't speak it well yet, but we could read it.)

    This other lady on the other hand, barely spoke any English, she could barely read in Spanish, and she needed a calculator to do simple math. She couldn't multiply without it. But you know what, she was the one getting the jobs, she had her own business. My family was one of the several local "offshore" employees she had in the Miami area. She would come and pick the finished product, pay us and bring more raw material, all while driving a dirt-poor car.

    Penny earned, penny saved. She was already making an absurd amount of money. Some of her clients would berate her because of her lack of English language skills. It was painful to hurt to hear how she was treated, but she would simply shrug her shoulders. She would go on making sure everything was done and delivered on time, making contacts by simply knocking on flower shops' doors.

    I don't know where she is now. Last time we saw her was in 1993. But she was already well off, this without significant reading ability in her native language, no English language skills, and almost zero-arithmetic skills. Zero education, and zero contacts.

    Wherever she is, I hope she is still doing well.

    1. Re:Hmmmm, not necessarily true. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      I bet the decent education your family received in Nicaragua enabled your family upward mobility in American society.

      It actually did. We are all glad we immigrated to the land of a fair fighting chance. When you emigrate, you take your education (especially if it's technical) with you and use it in the new country. I don't think you're still making paper wraps for florists.

      The lady with the people skills and contact... Sure she made a killing at that time and place. However, she could only go so far with that.

      And that's all that one needs. Success (at least in my opinion) is not about getting as higher up in the ladder as possible. It is about ensuring a sustainable, decent living for ourselves and families. That is all. Everything and anything beyond that is simply icing in the cake.

      She's set up from selling paper wraps, but could she continue selling different paper products to other customers?

      I wouldn't see why not. She was able to set herself up, against all odds, to sell something to somebody. Beyond that, everything is speculation. Could she expand her business with her limited English even though her people skills more than made up for her shortcomings? I doubt it.

      But why would you doubt it? People would have doubt she could make a killing the way she did to begin with, against all the odds she had, in that narrow niche. The doubt that you have now is the same doubt other people had about her before, which is purely of a speculative nature. There is nothing intrinsic in her success that makes it impossible to do something else. Difficult? Yes, but so was her initial success.

  35. How Asian immigrants get preferential treatment by Baldrson · · Score: 1

    http://cofcc.org/2012/04/how-asian-immigrants-get-preferential-treatment-when-starting-a-business/

    How Asian immigrants get preferential treatment when starting a business
    Partaking or Taking Over
    by Stephanie Galonska

    I’ve known about the Asian ownership of our gas stations, hotels and dunkin’ donuts for quite some time but I had no idea just how prevalent the ‘Asian ownership’ was until I drove from Des Moines, Iowa to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania some few years ago.

    The Mississippi River had flooded again so I had to take a long detour around I-80 and it was there where I saw it. Imagine my surprise when I walked into an Antique store to ask for directions and saw, to my great dismay, an Indian from India. Now these weren’t Antiques from India, they were American and European Antiques. Needless to say, I didn’t ask for any directions. The next Town I stopped in only had one gas station and guess what? It was owned by a Chinese person.

    Throughout my trip, a pattern was emerging. Everywhere I stopped, no matter how small the Town, an Asian could be found owning something. How did this come to be?

    Well, we all know it came slow and long ago but as far as I’m concerned, it came mostly in 1990 when our “Leaders” enacted IMMACT which gives us this: “under the new provisions; increases in the proportion of immigrants coming from Asia, with a corresponding decrease in the numbers from northern and western Europe” [1] All one needs to do is look around to see that that’s true.

    Add that to all the Government and Business Sponsored Minority Privilege and what do ya get? According to BUSINESS.COM, you get “over 50 percent of all U.S. minority-owned businesses with sales exceeding $1 million are owned by Asian-Americans.” [2]

    How did that fifty percent Asian ownership happen in what seems to be, so quickly? Once again, according to BUSINESS.COM, Bank of America and its special program called the “Minority and Women Prequalification Program” [2] helps them but they’re far from the only ones.

    BUSINESS.COM goes on to mention how Asians can “meet prospective customers in person at one of the regional procurement events sponsored by The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC).” [2]

    Now who supports USPAACC? According to them, just about everybody. One Government Department they mention is The Social Security Administration [3] and I wonder, do they mean this: “Greta is the admissions coordinator in a federally-subsidized senior citizens housing facility in the San Francisco Bay area. She remarks that, when one of her tenants, an immigrant from Taiwan whom we will call Wen, told her that he had just passed his citizenship test, “I was

    congratulating and welcoming him, but he laughed and said, ‘Now they can’t take my [welfare] money away.’” [4]

    I find it worthy to remind us all that in that quote are two significant points of interest and they are “federally-subsidized” and “[welfare]“. Immigrants were supposed to support their own elderly immigrant family members when they brought them here but no, once again, our “leaders” changed that Law for them too.

    Back to the USPAACC. Who pays for them? We all do. Aside from the numerous government agencies they name, they have plenty of corporate sponsors too. Lockheed Martin, Frito Lays, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Verizon, it just goes on and on. It’s one thing for Businesses to give to the Community but it’s discrimination to set aside business opportunities and/or funding for minorities because they’re “minorities”. Minorities have done nothing for America except be non-white and/or female and that’s just not a contribution worthy of any “recognition” or the

  36. Plan and save. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Having family and a good number of friends as immigrants I've noticed two significant patterns:

    1) Arrive in the US and take fairly menial work due to lack of education or language abilities. They're extremely frugal and manage to save a good deal of money. They work hard, but smartly moving up to the point that they start a small business which leads to further success. Many get involved in real estate investment further increasing income. By the time they're middle-aged they're living comfortably. They tend to pool resources with family members to increase odds of success.

    2) Arrive in the US and take menial work for the same reasons. Never become motivated enough to move beyond low-paying employment. They manage to get by, some even to the point that they eventually buy their own home, but never really thrive.

    This group tends to branch off into two subsets. There are those who are extremely frugal and manage to accumulate a little bit of money by the time they hit retirement. Then there's the other group that is less careful with money and becomes overly reliant on family members or social security in retirement. But a consistent theme with this group in general is that although they might live within communities comprised of the same ethnic group they tend to be more isolated and less likely to pool resources.

    I've noticed another essential dynamic is how immigrant raise their kids. In both cases, but especially the first group, they stress education as essential. They don't tolerate anything less than excellence. This tends to lead to their children going good schools. And because their parents have instilled more pragmatic tendencies in them they tend to favor careers that lead to better employment and higher incomes. Nowadays that means finance, but when I was younger engineering, computer science and medicine tended to be popular. Those who don't end up in top schools still tend to have that work ethic instill in them and generally thrive, enjoying a higher standard of living than their parents.

    Amongst the parents who didn't get involved in their children's education, who didn't instill that work ethic, their kids tend to struggle later in life not being any better off than the parents were. More often than not, they end up screwing themselves but not having clear long-term plans and goals.

    The interesting thing is that I've generally found foreigners to be far more optimistic about opportunities in America than Americans themselves. They're a lot more willing to sacrifice than Americans are. I've been surprised many a time by friends and family who've manage to save so much money with such relatively low incomes.

    1. Re:Plan and save. by OutputLogic · · Score: 1

      Being an immigrant myself and working in the industry for over a decade I observe two other patterns: (3) Arrive in the US with strong math and science background, and plenty of motivation. Quickly advance from a rank-and-file engineer to a management or technical leadership position within a company. (4) The same as (3) + become disillusioned with the opportunities and return to their home country.

  37. Controlled flight by Baldrson · · Score: 1

    Controlled flight was the fundamental invention, not the mode of takeoff.

  38. They work harder.... by realsilly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The entitlement thought of many of the US's population prevents us from our own success. Being your own boss and then employing others to work for you takes discipline and hard work. A business owners who starts from virtually nothing but an idea and makes the dream a reality has a stronger grasp on the value of a company and the people who work within its doors. This isn't to say that people in the US have no drive, but when the world flip flops, many just throw up their hands and quit.

    Just look at the number of people who just quit paying their loans because they were under water, so many that it's destroying our economy. A home is more than an investment, it is something that needs love and care and needs constant attention, and just quitting when times are tough is not the right way to do it. Too many feel entitled to walk away from a house and loan and don't expect to receive the ass end of the consequences. Building a business takes the same work and pride, and those that really understand struggle make some of best business owners.

    --
    Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
  39. No surprise here by operagost · · Score: 1

    I went to the comments expecting lots of sour grapes and skepticism, and I was not disappointed. Or rather I was, because the naysayers who point out that being a successful entrepreneur is not guaranteed, and would rather have a nice, safe job guaranteed by their government, are dragging the rest of us down. They criticize hedge fund managers and bankers, but when Buffett comes along and says, "Hey! The 1% pay too few taxes, so here's my plan to fix it!" they don't suspect that guy. People like Buffett who already "made it" don't want any competition; any roadblocks they put in the way of the "rich" are really to keep the middle and lower classes from joining their club. You don't think Buffett already knows how to dodge higher taxes? If he wants to be "charitable", he could just send an extra fat check right to the IRS and exhort his peers to do the same. The Federal Reserve and the IRS were created to keep the millionaires club exclusive.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  40. Selection bias by alexmin · · Score: 1

    Immigrating to another country is risky and tough. Lazy, complacent, timid, and dependent are more likely to stay put. Therefore immigrant population is likely to be biased towards selt-starters, risk-takers, ambitious people. They are enterpreneural material.

  41. Lazy and incompetent people stay home. by billstewart · · Score: 1

    That doesn't mean that everybody who stays home is lazy or incompetent, it just means that the people who are lazy do stay home, even if their mom doesn't have a basement, and the incompetent people might want to emigrate but can't do it successfully. Of course, the rich trustafarians also often hit the road, but you're going to find them hanging out in the bars and coffee shops in the cool cities, and maybe they'll turn into successful art gallery owners or software designers or artists, or start interesting restaurants if they're from places where that works.

    Also there's the immigrant family connection thing. Back when I was in college, there was a local restaurant owned by Greek guy (as were most restaurants in upstate New York.) Johnnie said he wasn't really a good cook, he was really a good welder, but when he moved over to the US, every Greek had an uncle or cousin who worked in a restaurant, and you didn't need much English, so that's the job you got to start with, and if you were ok at it you stayed in the business. WIth a lot of the Mexicans in California, many of them came up here with connections from somebody else in their village, whether it was restaurants or farming, and there used to be towns in the Central Valley where the second language was Spanish (English was third; the main language might be some Oaxacan or Mayan dialect), just as there are now areas where there are a lot of Hmong or Sikhs or whoever farming.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  42. Ex-Communist Countries are a Special Case by billstewart · · Score: 1

    One special case I've seen for immigrants to the US is people from former Communist countries in Europe and the Asian parts of the former Soviet Union. People often had a strong technical education, but many of them couldn't have a decent life in their own country because their own country was a mess. Before the Fall, it was a mess they couldn't leave, and afterwards it was a mess they could leave.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  43. It's really pretty simple by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Many Americans, take for GRANTED the freedom they (still) have in this country. Many on the outside looking in, especially those from former soviet socialist countries have come here to "make it big". In other words, many Americans don't have the work ethic because we are fat dumb & lazy, expect everything given to us, and complain about everything.

    1. Re:It's really pretty simple by codepunk · · Score: 1

      No, some are fat dumb & lazy I am on a 16th hour today and no I am not complaining.

      --


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