The Innovation of Immigrants | Simon Tam | TEDxFrontRange

So we Americans love a great story, especially when it involves a hero that has to undergo some kind of journey or transformation in order to be successful. It's a framework that's in countless books, movies, and songs, and I think we like it so much because we can relate to it. There's a connection in the struggle, but you don't have to look far to find a story of a hero who can provide inspiration in your life. Sometimes they're in your own household or in your own community. I would suggest to you today that the heroic story that you should seek could be found in the innovation of immigrants. Now, growing up, I was responsible for bringing in the mail to the house. I would look through it for the whole family. One day, my father's union newsletter came in, and I remember browsing through stories of strangers, reading about possible changes and benefits, and a whole lot of other extremely boring stuff, at least to my 12-year-old self. But, you know, let's be honest, it's probably really boring to my 34-year-old self, too. As I was closing it up, though, I saw a picture of my dad standing with several employees from a restaurant that we had owned. It turned out it was a whole story about him, and while the article was mainly about how he balanced owning a restaurant in addition to working at the produce section at Albertson's, it also gave a small glimpse into his incredible story of how he journeyed to the United States alone as a teenager. It was a story, at that point, that I had never heard before, and then I realized that some of my dad's co-workers knew him in a way that I didn't, even though I grew up with him and he was around my entire life. Whenever I started asking him questions about his childhood or immigrating to America, he would simply respond with, I, uh, I'll tell you later. Turns out later would be almost another 20 years before I would hear the rest of his story. Now, as a kid, I thought my dad was famous. He was featured on the front cover of a culinary magazine, and everywhere we went, it seemed like people seemed to know him. They saw him as this great chef, as a leader, as an innovator. The ironic thing is that even though he started two successful restaurants and countless businesses, I never really thought of him as an entrepreneur. He was simply my dad, the guy who would bring down the house at karaoke parties. Now, I didn't have a typical childhood. I spent most of my time outside of school in my parents' restaurant, either doing homework, bussing tables, or doing kitchen prep work. At the age of 13, I started my first company, a music production and promotions company called SBG Records. At 19, I started a vintage clothing store in historic Old Town Temecula with my best friend. During that exact time period, though, I also started a photography business. I was a vice president of a non-profit that was doing outreach in multiple countries. I was a full-time college student, and I had a part-time job at a camera shop, mainly so I could get discounts on film and camera equipment for my photo business. Whenever I was asked how or even why I did all these things, I almost always told the same story, that I was given this book called Developing the Leader Within You, that it completely changed my life in terms of thinking about leadership and self-development. I told this story over and over again in media profiles and in job interviews, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized maybe my dad's journey, maybe his heroic story, changed me more than I thought. After all, even though I went to business school, my sister didn't, and she certainly didn't read this book, but she started several successful enterprises herself. So what's the common thread? Well, like the children of most immigrants, that's in our parents. My dad didn't have the typical childhood either. At 13, I may have been working on records in San Diego, but at that age, he was working on wontons in the streets of Hong Kong. So how did that happen? Well, several decades before he was born, his grandfather, or my great-grandpa, came to the United States to start a business, and eventually he was allowed to become a citizen and go back to China in order to bring his wife back after a nearly 42-year separation. Their plan was to bring my father back with them, who actually hadn't even met his grandpa yet. But the only way to do this was to lie to the Chinese government, to say that he was 11 years old instead of 13, and to make what officials at the time called a donation to the government. So with papers finally in hand, they made that grueling trip from Huiping to Hong Kong, a trip that consisted a lot of walking, boats, and trains. When they finally got there, at the U.S. embassy, they were told that the U.S. had passed a small quota allowing the number of Chinese immigrants into the United States, so grandchildren were not counted as members of the family. Therefore, he wouldn't be allowed to go with them. But because of how he left China, he couldn't go back to his parents either. Left with no choice, his grandparents continued on to the States to try and find a solution, while my dad, at 13, was left in Hong Kong. He got himself enrolled in school, he found a job making wontons and dumplings in restaurants, which he absolutely loved, and then he also got a second job working overnight, every night, making plastic flowers in a factory so that he could send money home to his parents so that they could buy food. Six and a half years of this went by, but the U.S. embassy finally contacted him, gave him a note, said, pack your bags, it's time to go. His grandfather finally came through by befriending a senator who was able to get my dad in as a political refugee. However, when my dad got here, things weren't much easier. He still, they made him go back to high school, and in addition to that, he still had to work two jobs at a Chinese restaurant and at a grocery store, and he still sent every cent he could back home to the family, who had suffered immensely during the aftermath of the communist revolution. But because the United States had many anti-Chinese policies in place still, the only way to do this was to go across the border with his grandparents into Mexico and wire the money across from there. Eventually, he raised enough money to bring over both of his parents as well as all of his siblings, and he took those connections and experiences from the restaurants and grocery store to start his first business, the legendary North China Restaurant in San Diego. My dad had achieved the American dream, the dream that just a few years before had said, no Chinese allowed. And today, there are many more aspiring Americans like my father once was, and there's no doubt that they contribute immensely to our country, but the problem is very few people recognize it or even talk about it. In my undergraduate as well as my MBA program, we spent a lot of time talking about what drives innovation. I mean, we would read dozens and dozens of articles which would talk about things like, oh, have a big vision, incentivize creativity, or get rid of your cubicles. You know, they would profile companies like Google and 3M who spend up to 20 percent of their employees time just for exploring new projects or ideas, but almost none of them talked about the innovation of immigrants. So, I want to talk about some of that today. A 2003 national survey of college graduates found that immigrants patent at double the rate of U.S.-born Americans, and in fact, that innovation seems to be contagious because for every one percentage point increase in immigrant college graduates, there's a corresponding 15 percent increase in the total number of patents per capita. On top of that, if you just look at the Forbes, the Fortune 500 list, you'll see that over 40 percent of those companies were started by immigrants or children of immigrants. Economists have long believed that immigrants don't actually depress wages, but on the whole keep the United States afloat due to an ever-declining birth rate. All this, of course, is in the face of extreme racism and bias against immigrants, especially those of non-European descent. So, what drives the innovation of immigrants? What makes them so much more successful in their enterprises when they don't have established networks or venture capitalist money or all these other things that business schools say are essential for success? For my father and for others like him, it was love. It was the kind of love that would drive somebody to perfect every fold in a dumpling as it's made tens of thousands of times to ensure the perfect balance of taste and texture. It was the kind of love that would know no boundaries or borders to ensure that their family could eat. I mean, yes, it was about survival, but more than anything else, it was love. Now, here's the thing. People who are driven by their values will overcome hurdles and difficulties and obstacles in ways that people driven only by profit never will be able to. Twenty years after I found that newsletter, my parents visited my sister and I in Portland, Oregon, saw we were both doing well. We both owned our own houses. We both started businesses based on our passions. But I think more importantly, we demonstrated a commitment to the family. We demonstrated those values. So after a long meal and several glasses of wine, my father finally told his story, the one I shared with you today, but probably with a lot more rambling and a little bit more slurring. It was only then that I finally started seeing all those connections, all those pieces coming together, the late nights at the restaurant, the strict parenting, the encouragement to go through school. All those things were about love. I learned more in those few hours than I did in six years of business school when it comes to innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Inspiration can come from the most surprising of places. Sometimes we're too close to see it. Other times we're too busy holding on to prejudices and assumptions about a community to realize what they're actually providing to us. The heroic story of immigrants and their innovation is around you all over throughout your community. All you have to do is ask and prove that you're ready to listen. Of course, a couple glasses of wine doesn't hurt either. Thank you.