LIFE AND CHALLENGES as an Immigrant in Canada — ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR THE SAKE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

Arriving in Canada on January 20, 2015, in the middle of winter, Franck Kouamé vividly remembers that striking moment when he discovered for the first time a landscape entirely covered in white.

Originally from Côte d’Ivoire, where January weather is synonymous with heat and sunshine, the shock was immediate. A few weeks later, in February, he experienced what he describes as “the coldest day of my life,” as he was leaving an integration center. This arrival in Canada, despite its contrasts, marked the beginning of a new professional and personal adventure.

In Côte d’Ivoire, Franck Kouamé was already an entrepreneur. At the head of a communication agency, he was generating significant monthly income for the local context, between 500 and 800 dollars. But the sociopolitical crisis shaking the country slowed down his activities: businesses no longer had the means to maintain their advertising budgets. Faced with this dead end, he decided to take refuge in a neighboring country, then prepared his departure for Canada.

Upon arrival, his first priority was to understand how the Canadian system worked. Quickly, he found a job in a banking subcontracting company. More than a search for financial stability, it was for him an experience of integration. “I worked to learn, not for the money,” he explains. Yet, his entrepreneurial spirit quickly resurfaced. Gradually, he invested his savings in new projects, accepting to start again from scratch in order to build anew.

Passionate about communication and marketing, Franck Kouamé decided to put his expertise to good use. He developed a strategy he calls “the coronavirus strategy,” designed to create a cascading impact effect starting from one influential contact. This plan enabled him to develop a new structure and establish himself in his field.

The entrepreneur insists on one point: it is not enough to want to start a business in order to succeed. “You must not become an entrepreneur for money, nor out of hatred for your current job. That is the path to true failure, discouragement, and stress,” he warns. For him, the key lies in training, continuous skill acquisition, and clarity of mission. “Sometimes I work from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., I learn, I train, I watch videos to sharpen my potential.”

He also draws a distinction between two profiles: merchants, who sell in order to generate side income, and entrepreneurs, who build a long-term vision. His advice to newcomers in Canada is unequivocal: one must understand the local realities, know the regulations, adapt, and develop a genuine “mindset.”

This vision, Franck Kouamé sums it up as follows: “What you are is what you attract. The important thing is to help people, to bring them a real solution. As long as you distance yourself from helping others, you move away from the right path.”

In his journey, he admits to having gone through moments of doubt but affirms that he has learned to “deactivate stress” in order to stay focused on his goals. His closing message is a call to community engagement: “Canada is a country of opportunities. When you receive, you must give back.”

In 2017, he published his book The Prescription for Success – to be consumed with exaggeration, available on Amazon, where he shares his experience and advice with all those who aspire to entrepreneurship.