Welcome to America: 52 Proven Strategies That Will Position You to Excel as an Immigrant

By Eric Tangumonkem, Ph.D.

You are thousands of miles away from your country of birth and will need to learn new skills to adapt to this new culture. You are one among millions who have landed on the shores of this great country in pursuit of “The American Dream.” Your success depends heavily on what you do during your first couple of years here.

When I arrived in the US, there was no book like this to give me a springboard to move at the speed of light. That is why this book was written: to help you succeed in a big way.

You have been presented with an opportunity to reinvent yourself, and this process will be directed and implemented by you and nobody else. You will receive much help along the way if you are courageous enough to ask. Besides support from others, you should learn from the get-go that you are the ultimate driver of your boat. How fast you go and how far you reach is up to you. Unlike where you have come from, here, you are expected to take charge and be responsible for your own outcome.

You have sacrificed a great deal to be in the US, and there is no turning back or room for failure. All you must do is follow the time-tested advice you are about to receive; believe it, speak it, act on it, and you will be unstoppable.

The 52 strategies listed in the book are not just for the immigrants who migrate to the United States of America, but for all who migrate within or out of the country and for those with whom the immigrants will be interacting. This is an attempt to maximize the potential that migration brings and lessen the downside that is associated with it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IEM Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636030746

Eric Tangumonkem, Ph.D.

I am excited about people, their stories, where they have been, where they are and where they are going. I love to inspire and motivate people to be ALL God created them to be. I know that with God all things are possible. For I was born in a Caldera on the Cameroon volcanic Line in a village with little resources and face a lot of challenges growing up.I have a Bachelor in Geology and Sociology from the University of Buea, a Masters in Earth Sciences from the University of Yaounde and a Doctorate in Geosciences from The University of Texas at Dallas. In addition to being a consultant geologist, I am a poet, an inspirational speaker and President of Equipping of the Saints International Ministries. I am married to Elizabeth and God has blessed us with four children; Afaamboma, Nstongmboma, Elotmboma and Abuetmboma.

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Introduction

At 11:00 am, 15 years ago, a course mate invited me to go out for lunch. We headed to the student café at the University of Texas at Dallas. While I was busily filling my plate with the goodies on display, my friend checked out. When I arrived at the checkout counter, the cashier asked me to pay. I almost passed out! Pay? In my culture, when somebody invites you to go out for lunch, they pay for it. Therefore, I was expecting this friend to pay for my lunch, but my friend was nowhere to be found. What a culture shock! I had been in the United States for less than two months and was still learning how to live in my new country.

Welcome to the United States of America! You are thousands of miles away from your country of birth and will need to adopt new skills and adapt to this new culture. You are one among millions who have landed on the shores of this great country in pursuit of The American Dream. Your success depends heavily on what you do during the first couple of years of being here.

You are presented with a new opportunity to reinvent yourself, and this process will be directed and implemented by you and nobody else. You will receive a lot of help on the way if you are courageous enough to ask for it. Besides help from others, you should learn from the get-go that you are the ultimate driver of your boat. How fast you will go, and how far you reach is up to you. Unlike where you are coming from, in this new country, you will be expected to take charge and be in control of the outcome.

America is made up of people from all corners of the earth; with this diversity comes a lot of opportunities and challenges. To make it, you MUST learn how to get out of your comfort zone, try new foods, hang around people who do not look like you and be open to new ideas. Some of your dear customs and beliefs will be challenged and questioned, so be ready to defend them graciously. When necessary, drop the aspects of your culture that have become a stumbling block and hindrance to your goals and aspirations. Man was not made for culture, but culture was made for man. Therefore, do not let your culture define and limit you.

The road ahead of you is not a straight one, so get ready to go through highs and lows. There will be days you will wish you had not embarked on this journey. When those moments of self-doubt hit you squarely in your face, and you feel like throwing in the towel, remind yourself that many other people have been through this and are going through it right now. These people did not give up, and you should not give up! Nothing that lasts comes easily, and the road of least resistance is the longest road. Be wary of anything that appears to be too good to be true.

This book results from my fifteen years of living in the United States of America, and the wisdom learned over the years and personal interviews from others who have lived here more than twice the number of years as I have.

This is an attempt to help you avoid some mistakes that some of us have made. There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel. My main objective is to help you move faster and reach higher than those who have gone before you. When I got here, there was no book like this to give me a springboard to move at the speed of light. That is why this book has been written: to help you succeed in a big way. You have sacrificed a lot to be here, and there is no turning back or any room for failure.

All you must do is follow the time-tested advice you are about to receive; believe it, speak it, act on it, and you will be unstoppable. The book is not arranged in any special order. Each suggested piece of advice can be read independently and introduces the subject, expecting you will expound on it on your own. To get the most out of the book, you must apply it. Let us dig in!

Chapter 1

Why I Wrote This Book

There is no friend as loyal as a book.

— Ernest Hemingway

You may be wondering why in the information age, a book like this must be written. You are right; we live in the information age and are bombarded with tons of information each day. Unfortunately, this has led to information overload, and many people have tuned out because of this. It is easier to delete emails, WhatsApp, GroupMe, and posts from social media platforms than read them.

To grab our attention, information must stand out. Unfortunately, some of the information that stands out is not necessarily the best or what we need to know. The information screaming right in our faces may add no value to us or take us to where we desire to go. To make an already challenging situation dire, the sources of the information bombarding us is questionable. Even news sources that used to be reputable are now sources of fake news. Propaganda and personal-agenda-driven information is not aimed at informing the consumers but influencing them to act and will overwhelmingly benefit the originator of the information.

The overarching reason for writing this book is to draw the attention of the reader to some of the crucial areas he or she must consider if they want to make their living in the United States of America productive and beneficial to them and to their host or new country.

Another important reason is to help you avoid one of the saddest experiences many have gone through when they move to this country. That is, a falling out with their family relations. Stories of family members not talking to each other after they lived together abound. Some of these relationships have been strained to the point of no return. Brothers and sisters from the same womb, cousins, nephews, nieces and uncles, aunts, parents, and even husbands and wives who no longer talk to each other are casualties of what happens when you move to a new country and expectations are not well managed. Save yourself the headache of dealing with all this drama by following the advice in this book, especially the one dealing with setting boundaries and expectations from your host.

I write this book because if there had been one like this when I came here more than fifteen years ago, most of the bad decisions I have made and the missed opportunities during all these years would have been avoided if somebody had put together a book with all the major areas I had to take into consideration if I wanted to succeed in the US.

My list is not complete, but I have touched on the most crucial areas that everything else rises and falls around. Take, for example, that I took 15 years to realize that life insurance was the foundation of any serious financial planning. What would have happened to my wife and children if I died before getting ahold of this information? The answer is obvious; my family would have been in serious emotional and financial distress. It is already a difficult thing to deal with the grief of losing a loved one and totally unfortunate to add the distress of financial uncertainty due to a dire situation. This book was written so you could avoid such a thing from happening to you.

This book was written to introduce you to several crucial areas of your life directly linked to your success or failure in your new country. The degree to which you will understand and master these different areas will determine the level of your success. If you neglect, ignore, or fail to master these different areas, failure will not be far from you as well.

I lived in the United States for over 12 years with no savings plan. Why? I did not know where to start and what to do. Right now, I keep telling myself that if I had saved just as little as $25 a month, that would have amounted to something rather than nothing. Now, after all the wasted years, there is nothing for me to show.

Part of writing this book attempts to amend that past. You and I know this is an impossible task. Yesterday is gone, and the missed opportunities are gone forever. The compounding of money I would have saved for my first 12 years did not happen and never will, but it can happen for you!

All the friendships that I failed to develop with people from other nations can be yours when you act on the information being presented here. You could escape some of the awkward situations in which I found myself; that would be my way of making amends for the past.

Over the years, the vast majority of the immigrants I have spoken with emphasize the need to earn a living in the United States. Most say, We are here to make as many dollars as possible. Don’t get me wrong. Desiring to get wealthy and working hard to get wealthy is not wrong. It is a noble thing to acquire as much wealth as is legally permitted, and there is no place more suitable than the United States of America. One benefit of capitalism and a free market is the reward for ingenuity and hard work.

That said, there is something that is more valuable than dollars and more enduring than all the wealth you will ever accumulate. I am talking about wisdom, and according to the following Bible verse, wisdom is more important than anything else.

"Choose my instruction instead of silver,

knowledge rather than choice gold,

for wisdom, is more precious than rubies,

and nothing you desire can compare with her."¹ (Proverbs 8:10-11)

I am bringing up the subject of wisdom because it is a subject dear to my heart, and this book results from my own quest to understand what wisdom is, how to acquire it and live accordingly. The following Bible verse succinctly sums up why wisdom is so crucial. Wisdom is accompanied by:

"With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth, and prosperity.

My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.

I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full."² (Proverbs 8:18-21)

You are being given an opportunity to pursue and achieve any dream you have, and I am suggesting that wisdom will bring you lasting riches, wealth, and honor. Therefore, consider including seeking wisdom and understanding in your plan.

Another important reason this book was written is to propose answers to these questions that have troubled humans since the beginning of time. Where am I from? What am I doing here? Where am I going? These are the broader questions that need urgent attention for, without adequate answers, you cannot maximize your giftedness and will not reach your full potential. Your purpose in life will be concretized as you seek and discover the answers to these questions, which will equip you to have a firm grasp of where you are coming from, why you are here, and where you are going. This knowledge will make you unstoppable!

The last reason this book was written is to challenge you to start thinking from day one why you moved to the United States of America and what you will do to contribute toward making the country better than it was when you arrived. There is a blessing for the giver, and you should desire not just to take from America, but to give back to her. You are here because the country needs you, and there are specific areas where only you will make a difference. That is why this book was written, to challenge you to take an inventory of what you bring to the table and how that will help to make things better.

As I already stated, I strongly desire you will take a short time to achieve your dreams and avoid some pitfalls that I and many others fell into. This book was written to enrich your life and make things easier for you. All the subjects introduced will not be treated in detail, but you can use them as a guide to dig deeper and gain a better understanding.

Throughout this book, I will be focusing on the United States of America, but the conventional wisdom in this book is universal, and most issues discussed apply to people who have migrated to any part of the world. I say this because the underlying reasons people move are universal, as are the challenges that people face in the countries in which they eventually settle.

My desire for you is that you will hit the ground running because this roadmap will take away doubt and illuminate your path as you move from one stage of this new and exciting journey to the other. You will be consulting this book for many years and will pass it to others who will come after you and write the next generation of books for the next generation of immigrants.

If you have read up to this point, then this book will be of great benefit to you. There is no special place to start, but it would be a good idea to read the first chapter if this is your first time visiting or moving to the United States of America. You will be introduced to the first basic survival skills that you need from day one. As you progress in the book, the issues discussed will reflect your needs based on how long you have lived in the country. Jump around and read the area that grabs your attention and makes sense to you. Many other resources will help complement this book, and you can get them and keep learning. To get the best out of this book, share with others what you have learned. One way of internalizing what you learn is by teaching others. You will encounter other newly arrived immigrants or visitors, and you should not be shy to share with them.

Chapter 2

You are Unstoppable

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act,

the rest is merely tenacity."

— Amelia Earhart

Immigrants are generally high achievers, driven, resourceful, and risk-takers. It takes more than the desire for a better life for someone to pack and leave all they know, love and trust to travel thousands of miles to a foreign country where there are no guarantees of success. If you are holding this book, you fit this profile, and there is no other place like the United States of America where you can reach your full potential and be all you were created to be.

You are in the United States of America because you had a dream so strong that you acted upon it, and nothing will stop you. Always remind yourself that, I cannot come this far and fail. When you get up each morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and tell yourself that you have all that it takes to make a difference in your new country. What has made the United States of America great and will propel you to success is the Can Do Attitude of the American people. You are here because You Can Do and are unstoppable. All your life, you have been equipped, empowered, and prepared for this moment.

There is no place like the United States of America for dreaming big. You must have heard the expression, The sky is the limit. Let me introduce you to a newer version of this expression, The sky cannot limit you. You may be wondering why I am saying this. The United States of America is the only country that landed a man on the moon, demonstrating that the limit of the sky can be broken. Besides the moon landings, probes have been launched into outer space, and right now, we have the Voyager 2, launched on September 5, 1977, and it is now about 13,041,109,863 miles away from Earth. Even our solar system could not limit Voyager 1; in 2012 it went out of our solar system into interstellar space and right now it is cruising at the speed of 11 miles per second.³

The only thing that will stop you from reaching beyond the sky in the United States of America is how big your dream is. Dreaming is just the first step; it must be followed by believing that you have what it takes to achieve it and doing the work required to accomplish the dream. Therefore, the only person who can stop you from achieving your dream is you. This is a call to you to dream big and put in the work required based on the size of your dream. You may have to conduct many different experiments before your breakthrough. Thomas Edison, one of the greatest American inventors, is said to have experimented between 1,000 times to 5,000 times or even 10,000 times with different materials before inventing the filament for the electric light bulb.⁴

You are not the first immigrant to move to the United States–millions have come before you, and some have done well, after overcoming significant odds. Take, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger who served two terms as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.⁵ He was born in Austria, but immigrated to the United States of America driven by the dream to make it big in Hollywood and has been described by some as a man of bottomless ambition. After many years of taking smaller roles in movies, his big moment finally came when he starred as Conan the Barbarian with huge box office success in 1982. As somebody noted, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to overcome his thick Austrian accent to become a movie star and eventually governor.

Another famous immigrant is Albert Einstein, the father of modern physics who moved to the United States in 1933. He came to visit but had misgivings about the Nazis coming to power in Germany, so he decided to stay in America. He went on to postulate the famous equation E = mc², which opened an entirely new frontier in physics. He had to overcome obstacles and famously said, I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.⁶

Andrew Carnegie, born in 1835 in Scotland, is another