Page 217 - Midas Touch

Afterword

For centuries, Ellis Island in New York Harbor has beckoned and
welcomed the “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free”—men and
women from all parts of the world drawn by the beacon of hope and

freedom, drawn to “the Land of Opportunity.”

Whether these immigrants fled oppression or were drawn by the lure of
the American Dream, most viewed this Land of Opportunity as a place for
them to stake their claim, make their mark, and create a life of freedom
and happiness for themselves and their children. Those tough, ambitious
immigrants were willing to do almost anything to gain a foothold, a
humble beginning that would become the foundation for the dreams they

would build.

Many factors impact the courses that lives take, the way they unfold from
one generation to the next, and patterns inevitably emerge. Many first-
generation immigrants are willing to pay any price, take any job, shoulder
any burden, if there is a chance it will give them a foothold, a start. They
do what must be done, for they have come for the opportunity to build the

life of their dreams, to give their children something that they themselves
never had. And for that, there is no price too steep, no challenge too great,
no burden too heavy.

As they hold their children in their arms and dream of the lives their
children might enjoy, they instinctively want to spare them the hardships,
the often all-too-steep price of freedom. These first-generation children
enjoy a different kind of freedom, the freedom and strength that comes

from certainty. They know that their parents have survived, even thrived,
and have thrown open the doors of opportunity. It is typically this second
generation, the children of immigrants, who enjoy the first true measures
of freedom in pursuing their dreams, the dreams of entrepreneurs. They
embrace all things entrepreneurial and envision a life that is theirs for the
making.

As that first entrepreneurial generation sees the fruits of their labor, they

aspire for their children to have some of the things they and their parents
never had. They see their children earning college degrees and enjoying