My Immigration Story #IamanImmigrant
In honor of Immigration Heritage Month, and as a proud member of the FWD.us SoCal Innovation Council for Immigration Reform, I decided to update what I originally wrote as a post on FWD.us in early 2014, and to have it reflect present day with the intention of spreading the word about the importance of Immigration Reform and the beauty of Hope; especially on a day like today where the Supreme Court’s deadlock has left millions in fear.
I came to America when I was two years old. My parents escaped from Iran a few years after the revolution of 1979; my father fled the front lines of war on horseback, while my mother made her getaway with a needy toddler and a fake passport. They left everything behind, and were armed with nothing other than hope for a better life. It took me a long time to appreciate the risks they took, but it ended up becoming the determining factor on my path of entrepreneurial success.
Growing up, I felt lost. Like I didn’t belong. I was relentlessly ridiculed for looking different, talking different, eating different food, and engaging in different customs from my peers. I let all this translate into resentment. Resentment towards my culture, my people, my parents, and even myself.
But in 2007 I visited Tehran for the first time, and something within me shifted. For the first time, I clearly saw what my life would have been like had my parents not taken that risk. Poverty was omnipresent. Opportunity was non-existent. Educated, hard working professionals were barely scraping by. Even the youth had nothing to look forward to. Their faces all shared the same expression — hopelessness. One would only see a small glimmer of hope along with a sense of “if only” in their eyes when they spoke of America, and how different their lives would be if they could live there.
That’s when it hit me.
My parents risked everything because of hope. Hope for opportunity. Hope in the American Dream. Hope for their children. The risk they took is unparalleled to any risk I’ll ever have to face as an Entrepreneur in America, and I felt so ashamed that I had allowed ignorant remarks shape my life and translate into resentment, especially towards them. The very thing that I viewed as a disadvantage growing up as a foreigner, which I let cripple me with fear and insecurity throughout my childhood and teenage years, was now my biggest blessing. My perception shifted, and it transformed into pride, a strong will, and an unrelenting ambition to succeed. My culture is unique and beautiful, and so am I, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to become anything I choose. My entrepreneurial instinct kicked into overdrive.
The first startup I co-founded was an absolute and utter failure, and it was very difficult to bounce back from. But resilience is key, and failure inevitable. I wasn’t going to give up. My parents didn’t give up when their Visas were initially rejected; they kept pushing. So I kept pushing.
In 2010, I co-founded Coloft, my second company, and the first shared workspace (Coworking space) and community for entrepreneurs and technology startups in Santa Monica, CA. It became a pillar in the community, and played an instrumental role in shaping the Los Angeles tech ecosystem — this is why I have been dubbed the Godmother of Silicon Beach. I’m grateful to have played a role in helping others achieve their American dream, and be a part of their journey.
Coloft was a beautiful chapter, and a huge success, with over 1400 alumni including Uber LA, Instacart, Lootcrate, and Fullscreen, among others, and it was built by immigrants.
Resilience.
Then I had to part with it. You can read about that one in more detail here. It was the most difficult time I have been through. But again, perception is key, and as we already distinguished failure inevitable. So here was another “failure” and another chance to grow. Another shot at creating. As my father has ingrained within me: no pain, no gain.
The only thing that stops you, is you.
As a proud, single mom to four-year-old twin boys, I want them to learn to be resilient, to understand that while we cannot control external circumstances, like my parents couldn’t control the fate of Iran in 1979, what we can control is ourselves and the choices we make. And those choices made in the face of adversity tend to be the ones that define us.
The most important lesson I have come to learn: the only thing that stops you, is you.
So take three. I recently launched my third company in partnership with globally renown Intuitive Coach, Jasmine Hannaby. By the way she’s French, and though she works globally, she resides in San Fransisco, so yes she is an immigrant as well. Together we created CoAccel, the first Human Accelerator. It spawned from my story, and our goal is to help guide others on this unknown path, while realizing how capable and powerful they are, and help them achieve their dreams. The ultimate vision is to bring the Human Element to business and to transform the economy into one that thrives on WE, not ME.
PEOPLE + PROFIT.
#IamanImmigrant
I am an Immigrant and I have an unrelenting passion to help other humans on their path to success and happiness. I am an immigrant, and I have worked with over 4ooo entrepreneurs and over 650 startups. I am an immigrant, and I am globally building entrepreneurial ecosystems that thrive on peace and innovation. I am an Immigrant, and I work as an Expert Speaker with the US State Department in a program proven to ward off extremism. I am an Immigrant and I spread hope and possibility to people in other countries, so they can live out their entrepreneurial dreams too.
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
Immigration reform will allow more people to have a chance at hope, and to deprive that chance is not only unfair, but un-American. And yet there is resistance. Hope is the fundamental essence of what this country was built upon. We have no right to deny humans hope. In fact, it is our duty as human beings to spread hope as much as we can.
Together we are always more powerful, together we are limitless. In honor of Immigration Heritage Month, and in support of your fellow humans, help spread the message far and wide, and soon enough we can make the change. http://iamanimmigrant.com
