Neri Karra Sillaman discusses what she sees as common themes of resilience and creating opportunity among immigrant entrepreneurs.

There’s a harrowing personal story behind the Neri Karra brand but, as Neri Karra Sillaman, Ph.D., describes how she and her family founded the business, she focuses more on the values by which it operates — values synchronous with our Social Capital ideals. And she shares why she believes it’s no surprise or accident that these values are held close by many immigrant entrepreneurs.

“I was born in Bulgaria and I was born to a Turkish ethnic minority family,” Neri Karra relates. “I was born in 1978. In the 1980s, the communist Bulgarian government decided they are going to carry out an ethnic assimilation process against Turkish minorities.”

Her family’s fight to keep their name — and their culture — “came to an end when one evening Todor Zhivkov came on TV and said, ‘Anyone who is Turkish needs to leave the country.’ And in June of 1989, my parents took two suitcases, myself and nine-year-old brother, and we headed to the Turkish border. And when we crossed, I will never forget my father’s screams and the sadness in my mother’s eyes who didn’t want to leave.”

Neri Karra’s 11-year-old self decided “the way out of this will be if I get a good education. … It was something that I held onto as my north star. It defines everything I do today. It defines everything I do in life.” She saw education as a way “that will help me have a better life.”

And indeed it was, as she rejoined her parents after earning her bachelor’s degree at University of Miami and “had the business idea to start our own brand, Neri Karra.”

This was, really, a natural next step for a family leather-goods business that had started with mobile phone covers for Nokia.

Why Nokia was a big deal is part of the creation story she shares, but the inspiring origins actually lie much earlier. “We were first in a refugee camp [in Istanbul] and the way out of a refugee camp was through a long-lost relative that my father tracked down. And eventually, my parents have to do any jobs they could find in order to put bread on the table. And in fact, many nights we wouldn’t have bread.”

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, her father visited Russia and the former Soviet Union, and he noticed that “people were carrying their belongings in plastic bags. And he decided, ‘If I sold wallets and bags, it’ll work. There is a business opportunity here.’” She shares the remarkable story of creating that business opportunity — and then more on top of that one — exemplifying capitalism in a natural and organic way.

There’s an element of luck in creating opportunity, but “you have to be able to recognize it. The fruits of it may not come into the picture for years later.” She illustrates this with examples of her father’s experiences. And makes this also a jumping-off place to discuss her point about immigrant entrepreneurs.

Starting with “our immigrant background, the fact that we come from nothing and we know what it is to be in challenging circumstances,” she says, “We know what it is, how you want better life for your family, how you want to give the best possible education for your children, go for a nice vacation yourself, be a human being. And this is very important. We need to respect people. They are our employees, but that doesn’t mean we own them. And I think from the very beginning, this was a huge element in how we run our business and how we treat our suppliers, our retailers, everything. And it’s not just me. In the book, when I was doing my interviews, I was very much struck how similarly other immigrant entrepreneurs run their own businesses as well.”

With her parents now running the Neri Karra leather goods company, Neri Karra herself is an entrepreneurship expert at the University of Oxford; founder of Moda Métiers, a consultancy for entrepreneurs in the fashion and luxury industries; and author of recently released book Pioneers: 8 Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs.

Click on the link below and settle in for a riveting, thought-provoking story of determination overcoming adversity as Neri Karra emphasizes the importance of social responsibility and long-term thinking in building sustainable businesses.