Cultivate an immigrant mindset by embracing continuous learning, resourcefulness, uncertainty, empathy and the determination to keep moving through obstacles.

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

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

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

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

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

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