How They Made It in America:
18 Immigrant Role-Models – 7 Success Values – The Achievers Handbook
How They Made It in America is a comprehensive book that shares testimonies of incredible women achieving incredible things—despite high odds against them. It challenges women to strive for their potential and learn how to forge a path toward success.
The book has three parts. First, the stories, the results of the author’s first-hand interviews and biographical intimacy with the personalities of 18 women “who made it.” Then, an exploration of the values that drove them to action and success, and finally, derived from the first two parts, advice on how to follow in their footsteps but with your own direction, stride and pace, inspired by their examples and know-how.
The author recognized that these women’s stunning successes set a golden standard for all would-be achievers. Why? On their rise to success, they have been learning the rules of the game in business and social practices while facing the toughest hurdles, such as linguistic and cultural integration; lingering stigma against minorities and immigrants; and of course, a glass ceiling.
The profiles of 18 achievers including some celebrities (Isabel Allende and Ivana Trump among them) describe How They Made It in America. Learn from their success stories—and then internalize the values they cultivated, those that empower success in the US.
As one of the early reviewers, Craig Storti, noted, “You’ll probably pick this book up for the 18 women whose stories it tells—and these are some very impressive individuals. But there’s every chance you’ll stay on for the advice that Citkin distils from the profiles. Self-help has seldom been made so interesting.”
And this is what you can learn from the book-subjects.
Content preview of Part Two: Seven Success Values
- Character Building
- Breaking the Mold
- Staying Strong and Positive
- Safeguarding the Self
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling
- The American Mindset
- Realizing the American Dream
- Adapting to Mainstream Culture
- Overcoming Identity Issues
- Maximizing Cultural Heritage
- Being Generous for a Good Reason
- Emotional Intelligence
- Achieving a Strong Intercultural Marriage
- Knowing How to Be Happy
- Fostering Work-Life Balance
- Communication Skills and Creativity
- Overcoming the Language Barrier
- Adapting Communication Styles
- Nurturing Creativity and Innovation
- Strategic Thinking
- Developing Adaptability
- Launching a Successful Company
- Sustaining a Successful Business
- Becoming an Intrapreneur
- Getting Used to Risk
- Inclusive Leadership
- Becoming an Inclusive Leader
- Becoming a Modern Feminist Leader
- Perseverance
- Building a Strong Emotional Base
- Embracing Culture to Prevent Setbacks
- Counteracting Setbacks
Author’s Bio: The author’s credibility and breadth of knowledge on this topic are unparalleled. Born in Ukraine, Dr. Fiona Citkin came to America as a Fulbright Scholar studying languages and cultures at Kent State University, OH. She published two previous books on language/translation and cultural diversity (SHRM Publishing). Her blogs explore the issues facing our multicultural society: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-citkin-phd/.
With experience as Director of Berlitz and a personal consulting portfolio, Fiona has skills in public speaking, marketing, magazine, podcast, and TV interviews, entrepreneurship, and certainly, intercultural communication and languages. She can be reached at Fiona.Citkin@expertms.com or via her book website http://fionacitkin.com/