The Wednesday Play: The Immigrant Effect

Hi Playmakers,

I grew up in a farm town of 2,000 people. One stoplight. Just a gas station, a couple of restaurants, and two small businesses I’ll never forget.

Our town convenience store was run by a Chinese family. Their kids were in my class. The store stayed open late, even on holidays, and it carried everything from milk to bandages. A few years later, a pizza place opened up, run by refugees from Iran. I didn’t understand what the word “refugee” meant at the time, but I knew their pizza was incredible, and they always treated me with kindness.

Those were the first entrepreneurs I ever knew. And as a kid, I just assumed business owners were immigrants. They were the ones who showed up early, stayed late, and built something from scratch. That was the model I saw.

Now I know there’s a reason it felt that way.

Immigrants are nearly twice as likely to start businesses compared to people born in the United States. They make up just 14 percent of the population but account for over 21 percent of entrepreneurs. Nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

Google was co-founded by Sergey Brin, who immigrated from the Soviet Union as a child. Microsoft is now run by Satya Nadella, who grew up without a computer after being raised in India. Google’s current CEO, Sundar Pichai, is also an immigrant. Elon Musk was born in South Africa.

In fact, 1 in 3 of all American billionaires today were born in another country. Many of the world’s self-made female billonaires started life as immigrants or children of immigrants — women like Thai Lee, Lucy Guo, and Melanie Perkins.

There’s no mystery behind it. When traditional paths are blocked, you find another way. When your degree doesn’t transfer or your accent gets you dismissed, you stop waiting for permission. Immigrants often show up in entrepreneurship because the other doors were never opened for them. They simply say to themselves: “Why not me?”

And the data backs it up. Study after study has found that immigrants are more likely to start businesses, grow them faster, and hire more people. They raise more venture capital on average. They are more likely to patent new technologies. They succeed not because they are lucky, but because they have learned to be resourceful, resilient, and relentless.

But that resilience doesn’t stop in Silicon Valley. The convenience store owner and pizza maker I grew up with didn’t raise venture capital or patent technologies. But for the people in our town, these entrepreneurs were far more respected than any CEO on the stock market. Sure, they weren’t a Fortune 500 job creator, but they gave many of us our first after-school jobs as teens.

Eventually, I ended up becoming an immigrant and leaving for new opportunities, too. But when I go back home today, they’re still there, happily running their shops all these years later — albeit, with a lot more gray hair now.

In many ways, the heart of entrepreneurship mirrors the immigrant experience. No matter how small or big their impact is, immigrants are everywhere quietly building the tapestry of our communities.

Send this to someone who should read it.

Jenny

Before she became one of the most respected executives in modern history, Indra Nooyi was a cricket-playing teenager in Chennai who fronted an all-girls rock band called The LogRhythms. Today, she is known as the former CEO of PepsiCo and the first immigrant, first woman of color, and first South Asian to lead a Fortune 50 company.

Her story is not one of luck. It is one of bold choices, strategic thinking, and radical empathy in a world that rarely rewards women who sound or look different.

Read the story now.

Indra Nooyi was born in 1955 into a conservative, middle-class family in Chennai, India. Her father worked at a bank, and her mother, who never completed school, ran the household with strict expectations and creative challenges. Each evening, her mother made Indra and her sister engage in mock debates, often asking them to pretend they were Prime Minister making tough national decisions.

Read about Indra’s journey from her mom’s dinner table in India to the Fortune 500.

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This week’s challenge: learn about someone’s immigration story.

This week’s challenge is easy but important. Learn about the challenges a person faced to immigrate to a new country. Maybe this is a person in your life, a famous figure you don’t know, or a complete stranger. The goal is to appreciate the unique set of challenges every immigrant faces when moving to a new country.

Call to Action:

1️⃣ Ask someone you know about their immigration story.

2️⃣ Report back and let me know how it went! Reply to this email and share your experience.

Every week, I spotlight somebody from the community who is making a big play in their career or industry, but today I wanted to do something different — something focused on compassion.

This week’s play comes from a TikToker named Ari, who found a truly unique and special way to honor her late grandmother. This is your wholesome share of the week.

Thanks to Ari for the morning cry!

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