This fascinating study by MIT University sheds light on the chances of different sections of the U.S. population establishing businesses and being involved in entrepreneurship. There is no doubt that it contains very interesting data, since common sense says the chance of establishing a venture among a population of born citizens has greater chances to happen. On the other hand, when it comes to immigrants, logic says that due to the many difficulties in absorption, language, expressing abilities, economic-social status, and other factors can be an obstacle in their way.
When reality is knocking on your door
If this is the state of things, how can it be that research has proven exactly the opposite?
The answer to this may be simpler than we thought. It's a term that sometimes sounds like a cliché to many people, and sometimes they tend to underestimate it and not take it seriously - it's called ambition.
Like it or not, ambition is one of the greatest drivers of success known to man since prehistoric times. We often hear about inspiring "success stories" and how that person "did it" against all odds. Well, if you look closely at how much ambition that person implanted in his venture, you'll probably find that it's a lot. Really a lot.
So, what the study found?
According to a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, immigrants in the United States are more likely to start businesses and create jobs than their native-born counterparts.
The study, which researchers conducted at MIT's Sloan School of Management by Prof. Pierre Azoulay, analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners of more than 1 million business firms of all kinds (Including Fortune 500 firms). The researchers found that immigrants are nearly twice as likely as native-born Americans to be self-employed and own businesses in the United States.
Why does it matter? And how does it relate to entrepreneurship?
Some people believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught to a person. Some see it as an innate trait, a necessity of reality, or a social or hereditary trait. According to them, those immigrants in the United States should have merged into the statistics of the entire local population. But this did not happen, the immigrant population surpassed the native-born citizens in the percentage of establishing independent businesses and companies, and we can learn from this that apparently, although the research does not state this clearly, the X factor in entrepreneurship is a combination of the desire to succeed, cross-border ambition, life circumstances that do not facilitate (Getting out of the comfort zone, remember?) and natural selection.
My conclusion
So, what we had here? MIT researchers found that immigrants are more likely to be self-employed, think out of the box, take risks, start businesses and create jobs in the United States than their native-born fellas. When I read this study, I mostly thought to myself - maybe this whole study is a lesson for everyone: people, entrepreneurs, citizens, and immigrants. Perhaps this research can teach us a lesson in modesty, understanding how to take advantage of opportunities, and understanding that evaluating a person's ability to succeed based on their socioeconomic class or legal status is not wise or fair. Maybe we should learn a lesson from those people about how an entrepreneur should create opportunities for himself and not rely on the element of luck.