Imagine being 11 years old, crossing an international border on foot, carrying only two suitcases and a promise, that education will be your way out.

That was Dr. Neri Kara Silliman's story. Today, she's a professor, a global speaker, and one of the world's leading voices on immigrant entrepreneurship and purposeful

business. In this conversation, Neri shares how ambition, faith, and resilience carried her from a

refugee camp to building an international fashion brand and why the most powerful negotiators

are the ones who never forget the human being across

the table.

Her story will remind you that determination isn't about never failing.

It's about believing that every no can open another door.

Let's jump in. How was it for you writing the book?

How was that process?

It was very emotional.

That didn't actually, I didn't expect that because it's not a memoir.

But because of my own background, and I remember in chapter two already, I'm writing about the history of immigration,

I'm writing about other immigrants, and I'm married to an American whose grandmother also

immigrated from Hungary and she came to Alice Island as an 11-year-old. So digging through

pictures, my own personal pictures, pictures from my

own husband's family, it was a very emotional, very cathartic moment. And that's something I didn't

expect at all. But at the same time, it was also a very fast-moving process, because that also surprised me. I get the deal with

the book deal with Wiley and it was end of May. It was actually the night of my birthday,

24 May. So I remember the day very well. And then once you get the green light, once you get the yes, I thought, oh my God, now I have to write the book.

And then it took me by surprise because I sit down.

And I think it's because I've already been researching immigrant entrepreneurship

...