I was recently invited to speak at the TransEurope Express 2012 in Rome. Here is my speech. 

Being an entrepreneur was always something very natural and even obvious to me. I always imagined myself working on my own company. I always imagined myself running and growing a company, employing lots of people and having both financial and social impact. Probably I always had this in mind, because my grandfather was a visionary and an entrepreneur, my father is a serial entrepreneur and I now consider myself an entrepreneur in the making.

I'm the co-founder and Chief Pirate Officer at Startup Pirates, an up and coming accelerator for entrepreneurs in the making. Simply put, through a combination of training, mentoring and idea development, we help participants structure and develop their ideas and in the end we give them the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors and successful business leaders.

To get here, I was, in the past 4 years, involved in multiple initiatives, promoting entrepreneurship among college students, promoting happiness and creativity and working on different organizations that allowed me to acquire a broad range of skills. I definitely had a very rich experience in college and I always understood the importance of preparing myself for the real world and put myself in different situations so I could learn what I like vs. don’t like to do and what I'm good vs. not good at.

However, in my entrepreneurial journey, there are 3 stories that summarize who I am, what I am doing and what my passions are. These are 3 very simple stories that can help you understand what I believe in, why I'm doing what I'm doing and the importance of entrepreneurship in my life.

The first story is about opportunity and choice. I believe in luck. Some people say that luck is the combination of opportunity and preparation, others say that is something that sometimes happens to those who are looking for it. I don't know what luck is, but I have to say that I'm a very lucky person and that I believe that luck can play a very important role in someones life and success. In 2007, I made the decision to study management at the University of Porto. This decision turned out to be the best and worst decisions I made in my life so far, which is rather odd.

During my first year in college, I joined a junior enterprise (an organization run only by students that does consultant jobs). For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who could understand who I was, who were role models to me and who were doing much more than they were asked to do. I had a glorious first semester. Good grades, lots of learning, new and very interesting friends and for the first time in my life I felt I was in an environment that was constantly challenging and demanding more from me. However, I soon realized that something was wrong. I was learning a lot in my daily work at the Junior Enterprise, but in classes, I started to realize that most things I was learning weren't that relevant for what I wanted to do in the future. The months went by and I realized that every day I was more focused on the work I was doing at the junior enterprise and less and less focused on the actual classes. For a long time I was struggling with the idea of dropping out of school and I was fighting against myself not to do so. But I soon realized that the university could be an amazing opportunity and excuse for me to learn and do lots of things. So, I started to devote more and more time to the junior enterprise. In my third year at the junior enterprise I was a managing director leading a team of more than 40 people. After 3 years, I decided it was time for me to explore other ideas, other areas and focus on something that I always loved - technology. So, I start organizing conferences, events, meet new people from completely different areas and extend my knowledge to areas that usually, business students are not that interested in. Choices are a big part of our life and I was lucky enough to, most of the time at least, make the right choices.

The second story is about failure. There are plenty of articles and stories about the importance of failing and the importance of failing fast and as early as possible, but I wanted to share my own experience.

I was a brilliant student. I always had good grades, always wanted to know more and more and I was a very happy young student. But, I never failed, except on the most important exam of my life. In the 12th grade, I had to do a math exam. This was the exam that allowed me to attend the university I wanted and because I never failed before, I failed at this particular exam. This must seem a paradox, but it's true. Before this exam, I always answered all the questions in my previous exams or tests. Sometimes it could be harder other times not that hard, but I was always able to answer all questions from the beginning to the end, without postponing any questions. But on my math exam in the 12th grade, I didn't know the answer for a particular question. What happened was, I had all questions right until that particular question that I couldn't answer and everything wrong from then on. The result was that I had 14 out of 20 at the exam, the lowest grade I ever got.

This taught me a very importante lesson. Until that day, I never put myself at risk. I never allowed myself to go an extra mile and do something unreasonable. I never allowed myself to fail. But on that day, I realized that to be successful I need to leave my comfortable zone, explore new things and do things that scare me.

My last story is about curiosity. I've always been a very curious person. I wanted to know everything, I wanted to know the details and the why of everything. Until 9th grade, I believed that one day I could know everything there is to know in the world. I was probably very naive, but truth be told, I was on the right path to do it. I was reading more than a book per week, I only watched the History and Science channel and I was always asking questions. Now, I know that is maybe hard to believe but I'm still very very curious about everything.

This curiosity led me to ask myself why some people were so entrepreneurial and pro-active and others seemed to be happy with the ordinary. Why some people when creating projects, developing business ideas, and others were afraid to do so. Why some people were looking for the unreasonable and extraordinary and others were just waiting to do what they were told to do. All these questions led to an even more interesting and intriguing question: Is it possible to teach entrepreneurship? Is it possible to teach an entrepreneurial mindset?

As the result of all these questions and the need to start finding answers, I co-founded Startup Pirates with 4 more friends. At Startup Pirates we try to answer the question: is it possible to teach entrepreneurship? We believe that the answer is yes. Everyone can be an entrepreneur. Everyone can have an entrepreneurial mindset and that doesn't mean they have to create their own company. For me, having an entrepreneurial mindset is all about action, being pro-active, being a risk taker and always do more than asked. By empowering entrepreneurs in the making with tools, knowledge, vision and inspiration, we are promoting and teaching entrepreneurship and the results so far are very very promising. After organizing two Startup Pirates events, we now have 5 start-ups working on their products/services. Some participants told us that the Startup Pirates event was life changing and an opportunity to realize their potential, expand the horizons and believe that everything is possible. We have big plans for Startup Pirates and an ambitious vision to make the world a more entrepreneurial place.

I made it my life mission, for the next years, to continue promoting an entrepreneurial mindset among college students and recent graduates and to go even further and use entrepreneurship as a way to help children at risk or with social problems and bring entrepreneurship to all classrooms in the world. If we want to prepare our children for a world that we don’t know how it is going to look like in 20 years, we need to give them the tools so they can deal with the challenges they are going to face at the time.

I have ambitious goals and I know that my goals require a lot from me, but I have a dream...

 

A big thank you to Nadia Laurinci, for the revision. 

 

 

Against all odds, here I am, again, in Portugal ready to start a new phase in my life. Some people called me crazy, others courageous but I'm neither crazy nor courageous just pragmatic. But before going there, let me talk about the experience I had the pleasure to live in the last 7 months. 

In the past 7 months, I was working at the Sandbox Network, where I had the opportunity to grow, learn a lot, change my working habits and meet new and super interesting people and very cool projects. 

After finishing my college degree I wanted to have an international working experience and Sandbox was definitely the right choice. Having the opportunity to work with amazing people, meet new people everyday and be part of the Sandbox Global Summit team was an fantastic experience that I won't ever forget. 

Now, I'm back and I'm going to work full-time on Startup Pirates while exploring some other business ideas. I decided to work on Startup Pirates because I deeply believe in the work we are doing, I'm passionated about entrepreneurship and education and I believe this is the right time to pursuit the dream of taking Startup Pirates to a global scale. 

And, I decided to to this while based in Porto. Why? Because I truly believe that when starting a new project, family, friends and our network are essential to grow a project, because my amazing co-founders are also based in Porto, because Porto has direct low-cost flights for the most important startup hubs in Europe and because Porto is a very cheap city comparing to most cities around Europe. 

I don't know how my life is going to be in 4,6 or 12 months. But I have no doubts that I have exciting and challenging times ahead of me. 

 

 

Couldn't be more proud of this video produced by the OupasDesign. 

 

Recently, I realized that everyone has at least one topic, a common idea that is present in everything they do. Sometimes, that topic is very clear, but most of the times, it's quite difficult to define a clear topic and it's also quite difficult for us, as individuals to find our own topic. 

In the past 6 months I've been searching for my topic. What is the common idea that is present in everything I do? What are my passions? What do I see myself doing in the next 5 to 10 years? What should I focus my attention on? 

It was a rather difficult process to try to answer these questions. Not because they are difficult to answer, but because they demand commitment and I wasn't sure if I was ready for this kind of commitment.  

So, after 6 months of struggle, after 6 months thinking about a huge variety of topics, I realized that I have two big passions/topics in life: Entrepreneurship and Education. 

In the past 4 years, I've been working on a local and national level to promote entrepreneurship among college students and recent graduates. I've always tried to give young people the tools and knowledge they need to launch their own projects. Over the years, I've been woking under different brands. I organized Startup Weekends, Ignite events, TEDx events, but in April 2011 I though I was ready to launch my own brand. Now, with Startup Pirates I want to have impact, not only in Portugal, but also in Europe and the world. By starting locally, but thinking globally, since the very beginning, Startup Pirates is now not only in Portugal, but also in Algeria and Bratislava and soon in South Africa, Spain, Russia, Germany, Brazil, among other countries. 

Step by step, I want to have an impact in the local start-up ecosystems. Under the brand Startup Pirates I want to help improve the local startup scene, I want to help young people launch their ideas, I want to provide opportunities for those who dream about having their own company. This is my passion, this is my topic and this is my dream. 

As I said before, Education is my other passion/topic. i believe that our education systems need to be improved and I believe we need to bring a more entrepreneurial mindset to the classroom. After months of research,I'll be launching a couple of projects focused on the future of education. These projects will try to answer two questions: 1 - How are we going to learn in 10 years? 2 - How can we bring a more creative and entrepreneurial mindset to the classroom? 

I believe Education is one of the fields where we are going to see more changes in the next 10 years and I want to help and accelerate that change. 

I don't know how my future is going to look like. I don't have any intention to guess what is going to happen or where I'm going to be in 5 or 10 or even 20 years. I just want to enjoy what I'm doing, work on my passions/topics and in the end, try to make some impact in the people I'm surrounded by. 

 

 

I believe I´ve always wanted to go to college. In my family there was no other way. It wasn’t a dream, but something I had to do. I never doubt this decision for the 12 years it took me to finally get there. I knew what I needed to do; I knew where I wanted to go and true to be told it was a fairly easy path. 

For 12 years I didn’t have any other expectations: I wanted to know as much as possible, to read as much as possible and I wanted to play soccer. My job was to study and the only thing that was expected for me was getting A’s in school. No one told me I could do more. No one demanded more from me, I didn’t have any role models and now I know I didn’t have that any expectations.

Then I went to the University and suddenly I was in a complete different world. For the first time I was meeting people with higher expectations, people that were working hard on side-projects and very demanding of themselves. For them, studying was only a part of the bigger picture.  I meet people that were doing summer internships, working on international organizations, running their own companies, creating non-profits and doing more than they were expected to do. I desperate wanted to be part of this world.

In the first semester I felt in love by college. I was having good marks, working in a junior enterprise (company inside the university run only by students) and I was learning a lot. Everything was new and I felt very inspired by my colleagues. But after this first initial good impact I start realizing that in the classroom I wasn’t learning as much as I was supposed to.  Our main goal was to pass in the exams. Never in my 4 years of college degree had I heard the words: creativity, imagination, motivation and entrepreneurship. Suddenly I realize I was in what was supposed to be the best management college in Portugal, but I wasn’t learning anything I could use, I wasn’t preparing myself to think and I wasn’t feeling any joy or happiness in being a student.

Back then, I realized I had two choices. On one hand, I could give up on college and start working or, on the other hand, I could use the university as an excuse to experience different things and work on different projects. I decided to not give up, mainly because of peer pressure and family pressure. So, for three and a half years I used my college degree as an excused.

I did everything I could. I didn’t want to waste time so, I worked in my college’s junior enterprise, I did summer internships, I did part-time internships, I organized events, I attended international summer schools, I created my own organizations and so on. These were the best 4 years of my life and an amazing learning opportunity. However, I can’t say these were easy years. For months I struggled and I felt lost at times. I couldn’t understand the meaning and the reason things were the way they were and it felt I was always fighting against something and someone.

I truly believe that college is overrated. I don’t think college is for everyone and I don’t think that Universities are doing a good job preparing students for the job market. Lots need to be done, but I’m afraid that the problem is not only in college. From primary school till high school, teachers are not giving students the tools so they can create their own opportunities. Teachers have a syllabus they need to teach and there is no time for other activities and real world experiences. Students need mentors and need the opportunity to learn what they feel they need to. We need to give students the responsibility for their own learning path and the role of the teachers is to guide the students through his/her learning path.

I feel I need to do something. I can’t stand anymore watching kids lose their sense of creativity, losing their imagination and the joy for the learning process. I need to do something, so I’m working on an initiative to tackle the problem I’m seeing in K12 schools. I believe that having a good education system is one of the most important pillars of our society so, in the next years, this is a field I’ll be working on and I hope to have a positive impact in the world.

Hope to have great news soon! Get in touch with me if you want to discuss ideas on how to improve our education system. 

 

This blogpost was first published in the Uncollege Movement blog. 

My Jojo Shoes just arrived!! I felt in love by them a couple of weeks ago and now they are here;) Check their website: http://jojoproject.com/

I've never been a huge fan of eating. For me eating it's something I have to do to keep my body running. But, here in Zurich, I believe I'm in an eating phase. There are so many small and cosy restaurants around the city with delicious food that it's almost impossible to resist the temptation. 

Living in Zurich is making me appreciate the good things of life. For the first time in years I have time to think, to read, to walk for hours and I'm enjoying the opportunity to be alone.

I really liked the my life in Portugal, but my life here is completely different. Zurich is not London or New York. You don't have access to the events, the opportunities or the craziness that other cities can provide. But Zurich can give you the serenity and the peace that sometimes you need in your life. It's a city that makes you think, it's a city that gives you inspiration and allows you to live in peace.  

Today I've decided to put some ideas, concepts, inspirations and key words on paper. Most of this post-its have things that were in my mind for some time now and I decided to write them down and see what it looked like. 

To help me with this I'm reading "Making Ideas Happen" from Scott Belsky and it's really helping me find a more effective way to develop my creative process. 

 

Having lots of fun in Zurich with Nadia Laurinci! 

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

By Steve Jobs

 

Usually it's not difficult to find what we love doing. Sometimes it's difficult to convince others that we want to pursuit an alternative path. Sometimes it is difficult to make money out of your passions, but doing what we love can do an amazing difference in the life we have. We only have one life, no rehearsals, no second changes, so instead of waiting for a better future we have to make our like work right now. There are no other chances.