Some of you already know I love working with immigrants. Fresh off the boat, first generation in the States, I’ll take it all.

New visa holders have the drive to make something of the opportunity, the golden ticket of ‘America’.

Well, drive is one way to say it. Another is ‘cat coming out of a mailbox’.
And the other way is ‘lashing yourself to the mast of your terror and plunging forward into the raging sea at storm.’

Unvarnished capitalism is not for the weak at heart.

When you’re newly arrived and the culture is foreign and your homeland and family have just been left behind, it adds a layer to you, an underlying thrum of ‘loss’. But it’s okay right? Because when you’re newly arrived, you’re busy –with work. And then you’re tired (after work).

Maybe also tired of not being seen as a complicated human who is glorious, flawed, ordinary, intuitive or any of the other identities that get subsumed in the transition. Distilled into immigrant status.

The first generation knows about fear from watching it get suppressed and molded into ambition.

When you’re newly arrived and work until you drop, there isn’t always time for board games on the carpet or words of affection. So the first generation knows about tenderness, from the times it went missing.

But the first generation born here has some breathing space. Familiarity with the culture allows for some swagger.

The first generation likes art! The first generation likes a spliff and a clipper vacation on the San Juan Islands before you take your place in the beautiful, inexorable, forward march of your family story.

My grandfather arrived here on a boat from Romania at age 7. My grandmother was born here to people fresh off the boat from Russia. My grandfather never forgot the feeling of seeing Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty coming into view. I never forgot what it was to watch him in action.

My clients who come from immigrated backgrounds are insightful, able to partner with me in elevating performance sessions to identify and inquire after the fear that is keeping your current achievement plateau locked into place.

You know that class is mutable and have this delicious global vantage point that makes you a total catch to the right company. Or client.

Of course there’s as much pressure to achieve and succeed for the first generation as there is for the newly arrived, after so much sacrifice how could you not press forward?

I’m 100% on your team for the vertical company transition. For the booming sales pipeline. But with breath. With care for your dignity and joy.