Maybe you found this article on Google, in which case you have an immigrant to thank, Sergey Brin, the search engines cofounder. Or perhaps someone sent you the link on WhatsAppa company created by another immigrant, Jan Koum. Maybe youre reading it on a laptop powered by an Intel processor, in which case you can thank another immigrant, Andrew Grove. Or possibly its on your iPhone, in which case credit is due to Steve Jobs, whose father emigrated to the United States from Syria.Examples of the contributions first- and second-generation immigrants have made to the world are innumerable. But whats really interesting, beyond the headline-grabbing individual success stories, are the statistics showing that immigrants generally are not only more likely to be entrepreneurs but also more likely to be successful and build a company that lasts compared to their native-born peers.Consider these stats from the American Immigration Councils latest report: Although only around 28% of Americans are first- or second-generation immigrants, 46% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. In 2023, those companies generated revenue of over $8.6 trillion, more than the GDP of every country apart from the U.S. and China. And four out of every five billion-dollar startups have founders or leading executives who were either born abroad or have immigrant parents.As a former child refugee and three-time immigrant, I find these statistics both inspiring and challenging. Why are immigrants so skilled at building businesses that last?Most research focuses on what immigrants lacklike resources or local connectionsthat pushes them toward entrepreneurship. But I wanted to explore what immigrants bring that makes them so successful.To find answers, I studied top immigrant entrepreneurs across industries, from tea to tech. While the immigrant experience is incredibly diverse, I discovered recurring themes in their stories. Here are three key lessonsrooted in the past, present, and futurethat we can all learn from these extraordinary entrepreneurs.Drawing inspiration from the pastAccounts of the immigrant experience often focus on the identity crises created by living across different cultures. But my research shows that immigrant entrepreneurs turn that apparent crisis into a positive, drawing on the richness of their past experiences to create successful businesses that make bridges between cultures. Deep familiarity with another culture helps immigrants spot enormously lucrative opportunities that others simply cannot see, and the ability to build cross-cultural bridges becomes one of their entrepreneurial superpowers.For instance, Hamdi Ulukaya grew up in a nomadic Kurdish shepherd community in a remote part of north-eastern Turkey. After emigrating to New York, Ulukaya was surprised to discover he couldnt get yogurt of the quality he enjoyed back home. Harnessing the knowledge from his childhood in Turkey, Ulukaya created Chobani in 2005. The company now does over $2 billion in sales every year.The orthodox position on entrepreneurship is that budding entrepreneurs should look outward into the world to identify a gap in the market that they can profitably fill. But many immigrant entrepreneurs start by lookinginward,drawing on their complex multicultural identities to create a business that truly matters to them.Entrepreneurs need to follow their heart, and their vision, and their passion first and then see whats out there, not the other way round, says Reem Hassani, an Iraqi-American who cofounded Numi Organic Tea, the worlds largest fair-trade tea company on her approach to starting a business.Another example is Jan Koum. Growing up in the Soviet Union during the final years of communism, Jan felt the pervasive fear of being monitored during phone conversations. After moving to the U.S. in the early 1990s, he faced new challenges, including the high cost of calling home and the overwhelming noise of constant advertising in American culture.Jan drew on those diverse experiences from two different culturesthe fear of monitoring, the cost of calling, and the annoyance of advertisingto create a business that offered a fully encrypted, free-to-use, and ad-free way of communicating: WhatsApp.You dont need to be an immigrant to learn from these approaches to business building. Anyone can look inward and identify the personal passion that they can turn into a profitable enterprise. And cross-cultural bridging also does not require immigration. Anyone can learn deeply about another culture through travel and taking opportunities to live and work internationally.Such exposure can also help you identify trends in other parts of the world that are ripe for export to new markets, a skill that immigrant entrepreneur Hernan Lopez, founder of the podcast network Wondery, refers to as reading tomorrows newspaper today.Taking action in the presentLooking inward, building cross-cultural bridges, and reading tomorrows newspaper today help entrepreneurs identify opportunities. But how do you turn a great idea into a great business? Immigrant entrepreneurs do that in a very interesting way: by prioritizing community above all else.Many immigrants come from countries where the collective is valued more than the individual. Through immigration, they also lose many of their ties, and when they start to rebuild them, they value and appreciate the extra strength that every new connection brings.When my family fled persecution in communist Bulgaria for a new life in Turkey, our way out of the refugee camp was through a long-lost relative my father tracked down in Istanbul, who opened her home not just to us but also to five other families. Today, her son is our factory manager and her daughter is our accountant. And we have nurtured our business for over 25 years by continuing to draw on and give back to our communities: hiring refugees, women, and youths from disadvantaged backgrounds, implementing profit-sharing programs, and reinvesting profits in Bulgaria and Istanbul.The academic literature calls such connections homophilic ties, a phrase that basically refers to the idea that birds of a feather flock together. People are more likely to do business and work with other people who are like them, which in the case of immigrants often means people from their home countries or cultures.However, the most successful immigrant entrepreneurs are often experts at building community and connections even with people who do not come from the same culture. They do so by focusing on common experiences and shared values that transcend individual cultures. A great example of that comes from the story of Saeju Jeong and Artem Petakov, who bonded over their common experience of being immigrants and their shared commitment to improving health, which led them to cofound Noom, the weight-loss app that is currently valued at over $3 billion.As that story shows, connections across cultures can be just as strong as those within them. And all budding entrepreneurs, whether immigrant or otherwise, can focus on shared values and other commonalities to build the sort of powerful connections that characterize strong businesses. We all have much more in common than that which divides us. Changing the futureMuch of what I learned from immigrant entrepreneurs contradicts the conventional wisdom about building a business. They look inward for ideas instead of out at the market; they prioritize community over personal gain. But perhaps the most striking characteristic of the most successful immigrant entrepreneurs is the depth of their commitment to purpose over profit. Often motivated by their own experiences of hardship, immigrant entrepreneurs build businesses that are committed to realizing visions of a better future for all.A powerful example of that comes from the story of Luis von Ahn, who grew up in Guatemala in the 1980s while the country was racked by civil war. Coming from a place where a quality education is a privilege rather than a right gave von Ahn a deep appreciation of the transformative power of learning. Having made his fortune through designing the CAPTCHA system used by websites around the world, von Ahn backed out of a highly lucrative contract with Google to focus on creating a platform that democratized learning for all.His vision of improved, free language learning materialized as Duolingothe worlds most downloaded educational app. And although money was never its motivator, the company currently has a net worth of just over $10 billion. It was able to overturn its main language-learning competitors because over 800 million free downloads have created a vast user base that both markets the app and makes it attractive to advertisers, whose money keeps Duolingo free for 97% of its users.The story of Luis von Ahn powerfully illustrates one of the key teachings from immigrant entrepreneurs about building a successful business. Real success does not come from the money you take but from the difference you make. Focusing on making a difference means that you will create a company that addresses the real issues that people face. And doing that gives your business the fuel that it needs to take off and head to the stratosphere.if you want to follow in the footsteps of some of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs and create a business with an impact that lasts, here are four things you can do. First, look inward to draw inspiration from your own passions. Second, learn what you can from other cultures to inform your business ideas. Third, build a community based on common ties and shared values that will work alongside you to make your dream a reality. And finally, maintain a focus on purpose over profit to build a business and create a legacy that lasts.