ART and Science of Immigrant Success- Moving to Canada & USA

For an immigrant, the situation starts to move in the wrong direction within a few days after landing.

What happens and Why?

Learning to spot this is critical to success.

My career was in shambles, and I was working long hours with hardly any takeaway.

It seemed that I was spinning wheels. This thing worked!

Newcomers to Canada and the USA face a lot of Intimidation. I am not talking about discrimination here. The intimidation may be due to the difference in culture, accent, language- the words you use, new place, or just bad joke timing. Take a look, beware, and get prepared.

The new immigrant is like a sponge soaking in the entire information thrown at him, inadvertently slips into the word of negativity, and gets stuck into a vicious circle of failure, with no escape route.

The first few days and months for two (immigrants) characters of my book Sukhbir and Abdul were difficult. They suffered and went into a negative spiral due to this discouragement fraternity. Check out their story and how they overcome. Download the book. It is included in the course.

So what are ANTs?

In his book, Change Your Brain Change Your Life Dr. Daniel G Amen identifies 9 types of negative thoughts that infiltrate our mind if we allow them to. They are labeled as ANTs which stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts.

Identify your ANTs, When you notice it entering your mind, recognize it... take action as per video.

Here is a glimpse of the stuff that I was stuck within the initial part of my immigrant lifecycle when I acted like a Tree and was wrong.

All I was doing was spinning my wheels and not progressing at all even after insane hard work.

What has a bowl of grapes to do with my success? Learn and implement

If our thoughts make us sick is true, then all of us immigrants are in for a lot of trouble. We have taken a big risk and leap of faith in moving to a new country. I have seen endless stories and met lots of people who face high levels of stress before they big as an immigrant.

Check our how Confidence impacts your chances of success.

When I landed interviews for all the 4 jobs I applied, I was ecstatic. All the 4 interviews for 4 different jobs in one incredible week. I thought that after 5 years of Landing in Canada I finally started getting some traction as an immigrant. Check out for lessons learned.

Many people I have talked to look for quick tips. They think that they can transform their lives with a single page cheat sheet consisting of a few bullet points.

Unfortunately, it does not work like that.

As immigrants, we start a new life, almost from scratch. Sometimes it feels like we are learning to walk again.

While walking on this path, you will find some resistance as you begin to uncloak the extremely powerful held self-beliefs and self-concepts that have on your subconscious but be persistent as it has the key to open the doors of success for you.

I cried many nights, even though in many ways our situation had improved. The air was clean, the water was clean, there was no noise pollution, and I felt good knowing that I’d paved the way for a new and better life for my daughter.

Everything started to change when I stumbled across a very powerful book...

I was surprised to read that If the scientists were watching the electrons, they appeared in the form of particles (matter). However, if they were not being observed they reverted back to waves.

What if the new concept is true?

How does this affect an immigrant's probability of success?

What is the difference between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind?

Today I will share a great talk from John Kehoe who has explained this well.

“The future creates the present against the backdrop of the past.”

—Lee Polus

The above quote is pasted on my bathroom mirror so I can see it every day.

Many immigrants I have met or observed are resigned to their own destiny and usually, talk about their destiny as if they just need to get through this life with what they were born with.

Here is a foundational concept to remember and work upon.

Using positive affirmations and commands we can heal your body. How amazing it is that. We can recreate our bodies on a cellular level by positive thought reinforced by positive affirmations. From Lee Pulos.

Think of it, if you can heal yourself and change the body at the cellular level then as an immigrant what other powerful things can you do?

Our self-image, or what Maxwell Maltz refers to as our “mental blueprint or pictures of ourselves” is the reason behind why some people succeed and others fail.

I bring to you one of the foundational laws of success - The Burning Desire

Dream stealers are the people who make you believe that you'll never reach your dreams.

They can be anywhere Family members, friends, or even in your spiritual and religious group. I think the biggest fear these stealers have is that you will become successful.

Based on my observation and chat with various successful people, two main themes came up that helped these people achieve success. According to them the key to open the doors of success requires understanding and implementation of a combination of various concepts within these two themes. I would put them into two main theme buckets.

Abundant success is only possible with a customized balance of both buckets.

The customized balance is unique to each person. Keep moving forward in this journey!

No matter whether I went to a gathering, event or group get together at a friend's house. I heard this comment at least once- It takes one generation to settle down well in the new country

Why is that? Why are we willing to agree to pay this cost as soon as we land in the new country?

All successful people say that half the battle is won just by building the internal Framework. Once the internal framework and subconscious mind are understood, the rest of the stuff from the job search, LinkedIn, networking, etc. will be easier to understand and implement. You will taste success faster than before.

Why do only 20% of immigrants reach their true potential even after putting 60-70-80 hours for months and years?

What’s missing?

Many immigrants get defeated, the moment we land in Canada or the USA (any other country). We (immigrants) fight with our own selves. check it out.

The subconscious mind is the foundation on which we can build a tower of success.

Here is a demonstration of how the subconscious mind cleaning process works.

The small choices I made + consistency of effort + time = significant results for me. They can be for you too!

The amount of time required to see the compound effect will depend on many factors and your personal situation and ambitions.

One of the main reasons for following a known path is to leverage the accumulated knowledge and expertise within the community.

Beware of expert sounding guys provide wrong advice to new immigrants. They unknowingly put the immigrants on to “the Circle of Nowhere”.

The immigrant even spends 1-10 years in this “Circle of Nowhere”. It is sad, very sad.

Before you approach or accept someone as your mentor, you need to run a test in your mind to see whether a person is qualified to be your mentor. What and how many steps are there in this qualification or selection criteria depends upon the steps like.....

I cried many nights thinking that I spoiled my career by moving to Canada even though I was happy with overall superior quality of life. Check out the video for these steps that helped me. It can be a starting point for you

An immigrant's situation is like running on a treadmill with all the control out of his/her hands. It is like someone is secretly playing with the controls and randomly increasing the speed we have to run as we gasp for breath. This begins the day we land in our new adopted country.

Immigrants are usually torn between the home country and the adopted one. I think I spent too much time in the past, reading too many news articles from my home country. Check out what should you do instead.

Learn how Sukhbir (Character in my book- included in the course for you) can tell the difference between my two minds (Conscious and Subconscious) every day, all day.

'Unlearning' is an Essential Step in any one’s success but more critical for immigrants settling in their new country. The stuff to unlearn can be...

Choosing the right niche before builds the foundation of your success. If you choose the wrong market, it’s like turning your boat around in the opposite direction and trying to paddle upstream… you’re never going to get where you want to go. That’s so true.

Dress for the job you want, Not the one you have got. Dressing well and right (as per your workplace culture) is just one more simple action that reinforces your professional competence

I have seen many educated and skilled immigrants driving taxis, pulling shopping carts, and even working as a security guard. Or even stuck at one job/position and not able to grow in the organization or industry.

It was not easy for me. It’s never easy for anyone. But with the right mindset, Methodology, Skillset, and Preparation, you can achieve our higher goals.

Current career trends have become very complex to understand.

The days where someone worked one job for 30-40 years and then retired are gone. Keeping yourself marketable is imp.

Ability to keep your eyes and ears open to feel what’s going on at work and business environment is  important especially at the time when almost every company is going through restructuring and layoffs. It is important  to be strategic about your career.

Getting to a recruiter or hiring manager seemed like a piece of cake, however, I forgot Canada is different than India.

My father had one job in his life, I've had six in mine, my kids will have six at the same time”. Robin Chase Co-Founder Zipcar.

There are not many safe jobs left in the world. The ones that are now there, will also be impacted in the coming decade.

The world has changed a lot from what our parents saw it. It will exponentially change when our kids will experience work life.

These new jobs are soon going to be disrupted by drones in the very near future. Check it out and analyze how your own industry/work impacted.

Before you start reaching out to your community and professional network, I encourage all to Discover who you are and what you have to offer. Make an Elevator pitch for yourself.

If I can procure two face to face job search meetings for a friend of mine during a Gym workout and a Run; The possibilities are endless.

What are your plans to expand the network?

I share with you my major challenges for networking and what steps I took as a new immigrant and later as an experienced one to overcome these challenges.

It will be useful to you. You may have to customize a little based on your situation.

Being new to the country, Our primary goal should be meeting people, sharing who you are and what you do, and gaining some valuable contacts and information that you can use in your job search.

Look for 15 tips in the video.

It is very important to be careful about who we connect with, listen to, what advice we take, and implement in our pursuit of establishing our life in the new country.

Even before I became an immigrant, I did not know what I was passionate about. I believe in always improving the probability of success. Immigrants (mostly) don't have the luxury of working only in the areas they are passionate about.

Dee Hock’s old visionary quote: ‘The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out’. This mistake is repeated by many.

Carol Dweck in her book Mindset talks about two attitudes: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. It applies to immigrant's approach to finding jobs, careers, and business success.

Did you know that a lack of language skills was considered to be the most common obstacle for immigrants in finding a job?

This is true for every 7 out of 10 foreign-born immigrants.

The interviewers or colleagues in Canadian and the US offices read cues and facial expressions differently than we are used to, and typically are confused by them.

Transferable skills are ‘portable skills’, which means that you can take them with you anywhere. These are the talents and abilities that can travel with you when you make a transition to a new job or career.

How a few years of working from home can impact your speaking skills, confidence, eye contact, interpersonal relationship, etc. is visible when you look at my story. On top of the usual challenges that immigrants have to face.

I watched the movie “Up in the Air” last weekend and watched how George

Clooney and his colleague handed over layoff documents (termination letters) to employees of various companies. The employees are in disbelief, don’t know what will happen to them and their families after lay off.

Many immigrants without social and family support are adversely impacted. If you are in the US on a work visa, you have 60 days to leave the country.

This is a realty and real people have real emotions. The course and book prepare you both in and out.

Whether the designations are creative or straight; Anyone, at any time, can choose to no longer be part of the game and just try to “rise through the ranks”. You can Leapfrog too! it may or may not be Vertical growth.

Choosing where to direct our efforts is one of the biggest decisions an immigrant takes in his/her life. Our runway to takeoff is cut short due to this move.

50 Races, 50 Days in 50 states. James Lawrence accomplished an unbelievable 120 Miles swimming, 5600 miles biking, and 1300 miles run in just 50 days. Humans can push themselves so much further than we think.

Only a few of us always seem to catch the wind of the new technology or a new niche where the demand will grow exponentially, landing you in rainfall for money and success.

Have you seen advertisements that give you a secret formula, quick fix, or a magic bullet that will give instant success? Well, there is none for immigrant success.

I realized over the years that to be consistent and predictable I need to prepare just like our favorite athletes prepare. I call this method a “50 question method”.

Before you make the decision and take the risk of relocating to a new country, understand that

The best scenario is that

YOU MUST START PREPARING MONTHS TO A YEAR BEFORE YOU MOVE,

but if you are already in your new country, don’t despair, the book and course provide secrets and techniques for success to both new and old immigrants.

It is important to know the immigrant lifecycle to understand where do we put efforts and how much.

Another immigrant asked me the other day,

Why One-pager?

Why not an elevator pitch?

Here is a video explaining why this is needed?

This is a good starting checklist to have for the interview and business meetings whether you are seeking a job, promotion or establish a business

First question- How many lies are there in your resume?

I had a quite unusual interview experience considering it is Canada and Canadians, in general, are super nice.

On introspection, I realized that I was okay going to various restaurants and pubs with my co-workers from around the world but very uncomfortable being there alone or with my family basically being the only brown guy in those restaurants and pubs. Why?

What is Power Pose that these thought leaders are talking about these days?

It applied to me and It may apply to you too.

To build my resume, I copied my friends and/or download templates, borrowed books from the library and spent hours to save on $100-$1000.

In the first few years as an immigrant, you will be exposed to a few types of interviews. A couple of the interview types in the list I am talking about today were a shock to me when I first encountered them.

To add to the previous video--I talk about a few more interview types. Good to know to avoid getting surprised or even shocked.

Here I talk about the importance of correct dressing sense. The true story is hilarious.

As an immigrant, you may be worried about your accent, language, and apart from many other things, sometimes not able to articulate well in a meeting. I know it happened to me.

Implement the techniques and secrets learned in this course and book on a daily basis. Every day adds up and you will start seeing the results of the compound effect. Be a Tortoise!

DISCOVER THE ONLY BOOK YOU NEED TO UNLOCK YOUR FULL POTENTIAL, BREAKTHROUGH THE "IMMIGRANT BLOCK" AND FINALLY ACHIEVE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH YOU DESERVE

The book covers foundational concepts such as

Developing the right mindset,

Building Personal foundation,

Understanding reality and Sources of negative influence

How to prepare yourself for success as an immigrant.

We’ll also cover topics such as How to search for jobs,

Identify your strengths and transferable skills

How to prepare for interviews

How to network effectively

Please don't go into this book expecting to find some underground secret shortcuts to success. This book will be an invaluable resource in your future endeavors and will allow you to put your efforts toward achieving your true potential and success.