Immigration is a Form of Entrepreneurship

How the two pursuits are alike and both require these five qualities. As an immigrant, you bootstrap your own life as opposed to a business idea.

Photo by Andrei Mike on Unsplash

Imagine an expat. What do you see? 

I see a short-haired girl in her 20s, moving to Bali for three months to live her dream of learning yoga and sipping on coconut water. I see a woman on the rise in her professional career, taking up a challenge in San Francisco. I see a college student on an exchange trip or a gap year in Florence, Italy. 

Now imagine an entrepreneur. 

I see a driven person with an idea they believe in. They are willing to sacrifice other areas of their life for a few years (or so they tell themselves), to work long hours to bring the idea to life. I see them dreaming of becoming millionaires and making the Top 40 under 40 list. 

The two life choices above are very different. They seem to be fit for people with radically different strengths and desired lifestyles. But actually, people in both categories require similar traits to succeed in their respective endeavors. 

The lives of migrants and entrepreneurs seem radically different, but are they?

An entrepreneur sets up a business and takes financial risks in the hope of profit. 

An expat sets up a new life project and takes personal and financial risks in the hope of a better (different, more exciting, calmer, richer, simpler, etc.) life. 

Bootstrapping your own start-up to bring an idea to economic fruition is brave. But bootstrapping your own life requires just as much courage and resilience. 

And there are more qualities that both entrepreneurs and migrants share. Here are the five of them:

Appetite (and tolerance) for risks 

When I bought a one-way plane ticket to move to the US at 23 years old, I was stepping into the unknown, taking major risks that would shape the next 20 years of my life. But, at the time, the risks were covered in the shiny wrapping paper of adventure and travel. On the other hand, when I gave up my financial balance to start my own freelance project in my 30s, I perceived the risks more acutely than ever. Spending my savings to build my freelance business all by myself, required a high tolerance for economic risk. 

Discipline 

From packing or unpacking a life to move across borders, to sticking with a process to build a project, discipline is the most un-sexy but critical tool in this toolbox. 

When I created a business plan and sent tons of sales emails every day, the dullness was at its highest levels, albeit essential. As migrants, we also need discipline and good planning to create a community or a new routine; to start hobbies that work in the new setting. Having discipline might be dreary, but if we keep our eyes on the real goal: working on the building blocks of a new project or a new life, this learned skill makes all the difference. 

Confidence 

Of the five qualities mentioned, confidence is the one that will get challenged the fastest. It’s usually at a high when we embark on new adventures. But with every setback, every lost pitch or lonely bus ride into nowhere, sustaining confidence takes real inner work. 

When I didn’t win my first freelance project, I didn’t sleep the entire night. I kept asking myself if I was worth anything if another business owner didn’t think my pitch was worth his money.

Confidence — or losing it — is a constant companion to entrepreneurs. We associate our worth with winning business. Confidence either soars or crashes in the process.

As a migrant, confidence is essential to keep walking, to read the map well, and to take the right turns — both directly and metaphorically. I am most aware of the necessity of confidence when I travel solo. When all on my own, I have to bring my most acutely aware and present self, wrapped in a layer of self-trust, to have a successful trip.

Flexibility  

As water molds itself according to the container it sits in, the same is required of an expat who learns the ropes of their new environment. A different culture might require new ways of behaving, new skills of creating connections.

For an entrepreneur, adapting to sudden changes can make or break the entire business they try to build. I had to use a lot of flexibility during my freelance years, from the niche I specialized in, to the markets where I sold my services. But the biggest moment of employing flexibility was when I decided to close down the project, after coming to the conclusion that the entrepreneur life was not for me.

Curiosity 

When I moved to Frankfurt, I was so sad I had to leave Miami that I wasn’t curious at all about the new city I had landed in. I walked its streets unimpressed, always comparing them with my former home close to the Caribbean. I held on so tight to my former lifestyle, that I didn’t give Frankfurt any chance. I wasn’t curious about what the new culture had to offer, which made my migrant experience in Germany harder.

Curiosity means keeping an open mind. Curiosity means leaving prejudice aside, or the arrogance that you know better. It’s about allowing yourself to learn and be changed by the experience - whether wandering the world or building a business.

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Leaving one’s home country and migrating to foreign lands is a form of (personal) entrepreneurship.

Migrants are life entrepreneurs, their project is all about creating a new experience of personal growth. They bootstrap their own life, instead of a business idea, displaying the same qualities an entrepreneur does.  

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