One of the things that I love to say about NYC is that there is no crying here. If you don’t stand up, get your shit together, and figure things out, you are never going to make it in this city. This might seem a little too harsh, but I am being modest. You need to experience this city to understand what I am saying but, if you are moving to New York, all I can say is that you can expect no crying.
In my previous blog post, IMMIGRANT SERIES - Books Are The Best Friends You Can Have, I mentioned the book If you have to cry go outside. And other things your mother never told you - by Kelly Cutrone. If you have read that post, you would know exactly what I am talking about. She speaks about the NYC lifestyle like no one else and she makes her point very clear, there is no crying in this city.
We all come to New York to pursue a career. We are all busy trying to get our life together and build a career, so don’t think people need to listen to you mumbling or crying about how hard it is to become successful in NYC. It is actually the opposite! I believe that, if you are focused and you know what you want, you have all the opportunities needed to make things happen in the big apple.
Yes yes, I have written a bunch of blogs saying that this city goes pretty hard on immigrants. Especially when you arrive here with nothing. But the truth is that you have all the opportunities you need to achieve your goals. You can get a side job to make money, there are tons of immigration lawyers that can help you with paperwork, there are tons (but tons) of scholarships available for immigrants, and many sources that can help you to insert yourself in the market and become successful.
When I decided to stay in NYC and focus on my career, I had no idea how to start and, if it wasn't for the fact that I fell in love with this city and I am determined to be successful, I wouldn’t have made it. I have to be honest, I spent most of my life being lazy and, if it wasn’t for that, I would probably be in a much better situation than I am right now. But even for me, a lazy ass person who came here with nothing and had no network, I decided to study and did a bunch of research on how I could start my career.
Nothing is impossible when you are focused on what you want and, when you are busy looking for solutions to the challenges you find along the way, less time you have to be sad or to be crying to your friends. It took me a while to understand that and to realize that, in New York, nobody will listen to you complaining about life. I remember talking to my friend (who now is one of my closest friends) and I mentioned that I was stressed about work and school. He told me “Oh, you are stressed? Doesn't that sucks? Kiddo, you have a roof over your head, you have a job you love and you are healthy. If you don’t like how your life is at this moment, change it!”. Such a simple answer made me realize that nobody wants to hear you complaining about being stressed and, most importantly, you shouldn’t have time for that as well.
As I said, nothing is impossible when you are focused on what you want. Keeping it busy and searching for solutions is better than spending your time crying to your friends. I used to be very lonely and had crazy anxiety attacks because of that. Nowadays I actually would rather be alone than do something that is not adding to my future. This is something you can expect to experience in NYC: alone moments, no time to cry, and no BS excuses when is about building a career.
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