Category: Blog

“I know that if I start making “focaccia barese” in a take-out restaurant in Japan, I will succeed, but… I have nobody there, I can’t do it…” someone told me few years ago. Knowing that no matter what I could have said to this individual, nothing would have changed his mind, I just stayed quiet. […]

In the previous article, I shared my thoughts about how immigrating gives, as a default, the potential empowerment to anybody that has, secretly or not, the desire to start a new business. I mentioned how some people immigrate with the hidden desire to become self-employed, even if they were not exposed to the idea of […]

I strongly believe that inspired immigrants, the ones that have “felt the call”, have everything they need to succeed if they decide to start their own business, independently of what they were or are doing in their native country. Yes, I know I am putting a smile on someone’s face, but being an immigrant is […]

In my previous article, I attempted to separate the different types of an immigrant’s spouse into four groups, according to the degree of support that they give to their partners in regards to the immigration adventure. I want to reinforce the fact that a spouse is rarely stuck in one group all the time; within […]

Here are some samples of the complaints that I hear over and over again (and there are new ones coming out every day): “I am trying to convince her that this is the best place to be, but she is so negative!” “It is impossible to make it here with him whining about everything!” “She […]

How can we use our culture to grow as immigrants instead of being penalized by it? Appreciating and leveraging what we bring with us in our cultural luggage can only happen if we don’t attach our “being” to it. I will give the following example in general terms, so that when reading it, you can […]

“We are what we think!” I have heard this more than once from motivational speakers and authors. If I think that I am a strict father, then I will act like one: my beliefs and my thoughts will govern my actions when I am engaged in that specific role, and so a complete quote might […]

I wish that in my first week as a newcomer I had understood why I had this compulsive need for comparing almost everything – socially, culturally, geographically, economically, politically, etc. – between Canada, my new country, and Italy, my native one! I should have focused on leveraging my immigrating experience much earlier instead of wasting […]

I woke up on this typically cold Canadian November morning with the impulse to write something about my life of a few years ago. I wanted to share something that I used to do and that, because of the changes that I have gone through, I don’t do anymore. Some of you may smile and […]

I guess there is nothing wrong with following the advice of others when we don’t know what to do. Since we were little kids, we have all been told, directly or indirectly, that this is normal, some of us more than others. I remember my Mother’s advice to me at the start of every school […]