Today I've decided to share with you a excerpt from the book “Faz Acontecer”.
The book “Faz Acontecer” brings together the stories of several inspiring entrepreneurs from around the world. Here I share with you an excerpt from the book and one of my favourite stories.
Meet Bel Pesce from Brazil, one of the most inspiring people I've met on my trip around the world. She makes it happen! Here you go:
Name: Isabel Pesce Brito de Matos
Age: 26 years old
Favourite quote: Dream the impossible, make it happen!
“I arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, on a Thursday to take part in an entrepreneurship event. I then had the whole of Friday and the weekend free, so as soon as the event was over, I went looking for ways to make the most of those three days. I wanted something different before returning to São Paulo for another week of interviews. I decided to visit the famous Iguazu Falls, one of the seven wonders of nature! I was ambitious. To get there I would have to travel eighteen hours by bus from Friday to Saturday, and another eighteen hours to get back, from Sunday to Monday. The aeroplane wasn't an option because it would cost money I didn't have - “It'll be tiring but what the hell, I'll sleep on the bus. You only live once. It'll be nothing,” I thought.
Located on the border between Brazil and Argentina, the falls are a set of around two hundred and seventy-five waterfalls on the Iguazu River. They are surrounded by thousands of hectares of rainforest and animals I had only seen on television. I travelled there and back by bus on a tough, very long journey (around 18 hours to get there and back) and, unluckily, with people snoring next to me. However, when I got there, I saw an incredible and immaculate setting, almost straight out of the times of the dinosaurs. Something imposing that reminded me of some “little monkeys” - as we say cartoons in the Azores - that I used to watch when I was a kid - “In Search of the Enchanted Valley”. A series that was a hit in the 1990s, where volcanoes, dinosaurs and nature in its rawest state dominated the Earth. The scenery was absolutely magnificent and made the whole bus journey worthwhile.
On Monday, back in São Paulo, I decided to visit the Delta-Cafés offices in Brazil. Very friendly and hard-working people who are bringing this beloved Portuguese company to Brazil, our sister country. They ended up offering me Delta coffee for the rest of the journey.
The following day, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bel Pesce, a young Brazilian entrepreneur who is already one of the 100 most influential people in Brazil. Bel Pesce is an inspiration, a well of strength and a true celebrity in Brazil. She welcomed me into her office at eight o'clock in the morning, “in a good way André? Then the day gets busy and we can talk calmly. Relaxed and very ”good vibes‘, as they say in Brazil.
Isabel Pesce Brito de Matos, known simply as Bel Pesce, was born in São Paulo to a simple middle-class family.
“I grew up in a family full of love but who expected me to be born, get married, buy the house next door and live my whole life nearby! I never grew up with the ‘world’... it's strange how different my story turned out to be.”.
Always very curious, ever since she was a child she wanted to know how everything worked. At the age of three, she would break watches and bracelets and then try to put them together. A desire to learn that Bel believes she was born with:
“I can't really explain where it comes from, I think it was born with me. From a very young age I tried to understand how things worked, whether they were things or people. I loved creating and destroying things. I learnt more from destroying than from creating,” she says.
A little later, he started collecting stickers. “I never imagined that stickers would change my life,” she says. There was a newsagent's inside a bakery and whenever her father went to the bakery, Bel would ask him to go to the newsagent's to buy stickers. One day, the owner of the newsagent's, seeing a little girl so young but already so responsible for the stickers, challenged her: “Bel, can you tell me how many packets of stickers you can buy with one real? If you get it right and also tell me how much the change is, I'll give you twice as many stickers.” This is where her passion for maths was born: “After all, if I knew the multiplication table, I could get twice as many stickers. It took me hours to answer, but I've been in love ever since,” says Bel with a smile.
Restless and active during her teenage years, Bel sold jewellery, created websites and computer games to sell. She had an easy time at school and as she was an excellent student, she managed to get scholarships at good public schools. Later, she prepared for the ‘vestibular’, a kind of national university entrance exam. She wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and build aeroplanes, but when a teacher realised that she was exceptional, he challenged her to try a university outside Brazil, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a renowned American school. “Me? Outside Brazil? MIT? I'd never thought of that! I did some research and immediately realised that the prices were very high. My family was very simple, we'd never be able to afford it. What's more, I had no idea what it would take to get into university,” says Bel. “Even though I had nothing, I didn't want to live with the doubt. It probably wouldn't work, but I didn't want to sit down with my grandchildren at 60 and say ‘Grandma didn't try’... I went for it!”.
He began to do some research and found some important information. Firstly, he discovered that anyone in the world could apply to that school. Secondly, he realised that at MIT they were looking for the whole human being, in other words, they valued not only technical skills but also social skills and personal ambitions. Thirdly, she realised that the whole process of applying to and being accepted at the school was quite long. It was already December when Bel realised all this and some intermediate deadlines had already passed.
Bel, who is sitting comfortably on the sofa while we talk, shifts her posture and expressively explains: “I was getting more and more excited about the possibility of going, but I found out that there was an entrance exam for which the application deadline had already passed. Then I found out that I had to be interviewed by an MIT alumnus from the same country of origin, but the deadline for that had already passed too.”.
By now everyone around him was telling him to give up. It was impossible. She had missed several deadlines at various key stages and was going to end up focusing on something that would waste her time and jeopardise her entry to a university in Brazil - “Everyone said that... friends, family... and it wasn't even bad. I really wasn't being prudent, but in my head I thought that the ‘no’ was already guaranteed. I went for ‘yes’!”.
In a story as crazy as it is inspiring, Bel reveals all her will, perseverance and desire to make things happen.
She began by focusing on all the bureaucracy and paperwork that depended on her alone. Then she tackled the problem piecemeal: “As for the necessary interview... I thought that the former student who did the interviews was Brazilian, lived in Brazil and therefore had to be somewhere. How could I know where he was? By asking people who had already interviewed him. I went looking and after speaking to several people, one of them, after much insistence, gave me his address! I went and knocked on his door.
She went to the interviewer's house and begged to be interviewed: “I didn't know what the interview was going to be about because I'd never actually done one. So I put everything I'd ever done in my life in a cardboard box and went to knock on his door. He opened it nicely, but explained to me that the deadline had already passed and that the report he sends to MIT had already been submitted. It was impossible this year, but he offered to help me next year.”.
As soon as she heard this, Bel cringed. Just then, the interviewer noticed the cardboard box she was carrying and asked her what it was: “I told her it was the dream box. I told her I was there to show her how I would try to use MIT's education to improve Brazil and the world, but if it didn't work out this year, I'd come back next year,” says Bel, imitating the sad face and voice she made to the interviewer. Upon hearing this, the interviewer, impressed, told her to come in, “who knows, maybe we can work something out,” Bel said, imitating his voice again. It went very well, so well that the interviewer promised Bel that, even though the deadline had passed, he would send the report. So he did and MIT accepted the report - “First battle won! - says Bel with a smile - “Now the bloody exam was missing!”.
She did some research and learnt that, in fact, the tests came from the USA. The registration deadline had already passed and there was no way for Bel to register after the deadline. However, she discovered that although there was no way to register, the exam hadn't taken place yet - it was going to take place a few days later at an American school in São Paulo. Even though she knew she wouldn't have a test for herself, Bel tried everything. Without much time to prepare, she decided to turn up and approached the professor, trying to explain her situation - “I didn't want to get in the way, but in fact, that test was all that was needed to complete my application to MIT”. The answer was hard and dry. “There are no extra exams. It's counted. Everyone has paid for the exams and no-one has ever missed one! Please leave the room!”. She insisted but was thrown out because “the teacher was German! And with Germans, rules are rules!” says Bel, looking very amused. She left the classroom but asked to stay at the door, waiting in case someone was absent. Bel recalls, “It was a room that must have had about fifty seats. In a somewhat dramatic scene, I waited at the door while I looked in and saw people sitting down... I kept waiting... waiting... until there were only three seats left, with half an hour to go until the exam. I started to get my hopes up... but then two more people came in and there was only one seat left. Then I thought ‘that's it, it's over! But it wasn't over. The last person didn't turn up and Bel actually took the exam and managed to complete the MIT application! Three months later the results came out and the impossible happened: Bel was accepted!
The only thing left to do was find the money to pay for her to go to college and stay in the USA:
“I couldn't go. As soon as I was accepted, I didn't even have time to celebrate because I couldn't afford to go. It was around fifty-five thousand dollars a year, for four years, and there were only six months to go until classes started... my family couldn't afford even 10% of that!”.
He looked for solutions. He started by trying out a few grants and got one that covered about half of his costs - “Even so, it still wasn't enough, it was a lot of money. I thought, ‘I've got to get by! She then spoke to the same professor who had challenged her to apply and asked him for a job. The professor, knowing her abilities well, hired her on the spot and during those six months, Bel managed to scrape together enough money to stay at MIT for a semester: ’I went to Boston knowing that if I didn't work, I'd come back soon. Every semester I had to raise the money for the next one. I went wanting to take over the world! I worked in everything you can imagine, telemarketing, correcting exams, fixing electronic devices, consultancy... everything! Everything I could do, I did! And I did it! It was an incredible experience!”.
During her holidays, Bel also took the opportunity to do internships at various companies, including Microsoft in Seattle, Google in Silicon Valley and Deutsch Bank in New York. She worked a lot, was always surrounded by different people, subjected to international environments and, according to herself, learnt a lot.
Knowing what it took to get here and hungry to learn, Bel did all the courses she could, “The price was the same if you only did the courses you needed or if you did them all, so of course I wanted to do them all!”. She graduated from MIT with several diplomas, majors in engineering and management and minors in Economics and Maths.
Also at university, during a business plan competition, Bel heard about ‘entrepreneurship’ for the first time, something that fascinated her: “I loved the concept! I realised that an entrepreneur was a person who had the freedom to build solutions that transcended themselves, and what's more, I discovered that I had been an entrepreneur all my life and didn't know it.”.
He developed several projects and learnt a lot about design, business plans, engineering, how to sell an idea, mistakes and planning. When he finished university he decided to move to Silicon Valley in California, “When I was there in the summer I ‘went crazy’! It was the most competitive place in the world. Whether you're an entrepreneur going there to start your company, an engineer going there to work for a good company, or an investor going there to look for talent, the best people in the world are there or pass through there! Lots of people and very good ones. However, just as it's the most competitive place in the world, it's also the most collaborative! It fascinated me in an inexplicable way,” says Bel with a radiant look on her face - “I knew that once I graduated, I was going to go back there! So I did!”
It joined a unique programme between the Google and MIT, where he could study for an integrated master's degree. Google. However, soon after being there, Bel began to realise that she wanted something different:
“A Google was very big and I wanted to understand how a company starts. In the meantime, I met three ex-employees who had just set up their own company, the Ooyala. I left my master's halfway through and joined them.”.
He stayed with the company for just over a year. Then, at the age of twenty-three, together with two experienced Latin American entrepreneurs, he founded Lemon, a company that developed an application intended to be a kind of digital wallet. It was a success. Just three months after its launch, it already had around one million users.
In the meantime, a new idea emerged: “I've always been very keen to be close to Brazil in some way. When I told my friends and family what life was like in the US, the questions were always the same: ‘What's Silicon Valley like?’ What's life like in Boston? What's MIT like? And Google?’ I started to think... If all my friends have these questions, a lot more people must have them. So why not write a book and share it with everyone?”.
He selected some simple stories and lessons he learnt in the US and turned them into a book, “I wanted it to be a very simple read that anyone could understand, from an eight-year-old boy to a hundred-year-old lady. I wrote about simple things that helped me a lot: how to have a mentor or the true value of a business plan”. And so, at the age of twenty-four, his first work, ‘The Girl from the Valley’, was born - “I wrote the book in Portuguese and a friend did the illustrations. Then I put it all together in a document pdf and I put it on my website, which only my mum knew about, for anyone who wanted to do it download free of charge. I carried on with my life... four days later I went to see the number of visits to the site and thought ‘this has got to be wrong! It wasn't! In just four days it had over 100,000 downloads! After two months it reached one million! Impressive! I asked her what made this happen. Bel replies humbly: “It was a book written in Portuguese, free of charge, but which apparently added value. I didn't do any marketing, but it ended up going viral”.
Television, radio, magazines... Bel Pesce has become a phenomenon. Such was her success that at the end of 2012, aged just twenty-four, she was named one of the most influential people in Brazil! Bel says, “I started giving talks around Brazil and it was surreal! Thousands of people came to watch, there were people crying in the queues, asking for autographs and others saying that the book had changed their lives! It was unbelievable because I'm exactly like the people in that queue! I think that, in general, people aren't looking for unreachable superheroes, but for people like them who have done interesting things. I actually think that's why it worked. I'm just like the people in that queue, but I've done things that many people dream of - MIT, Google, Microsoft...”.
I'm surprised at how quickly things have happened in Bel's life. I roll my eyes. She continues, “To give you an idea, a video about my story went viral on the youtube. It got a million views, I was ahead of Justin Bieber!”, raising his fists with a funny look, while we simultaneously burst out laughing.
From here, Bel's voice resonated with her and she decided to use it: “I felt I had a duty to do something for education in Brazil. The book I had launched was about entrepreneurship and education and I now had a voice that millions of people could hear. If I didn't use it for something, to do good, I would never forgive myself.”.
She left Lemon, returned to Brazil and founded, in 2013, what she calls “the school of her dreams” - Faz Inova. An entrepreneurship school that offers programmes that focus on behavioural factors and technical tools to make things happen, ‘everything we need to fly,’ says Bel. She began by designing courses that teach behavioural skills as well as entrepreneurship and innovation. She partnered with her old school to use the space for the classes, promoted the courses on her networks and the results have been excellent! Today, between classroom courses and online, “When I look back and analyse the factors that led me to succeed, they were almost always behavioural factors such as knowing how to relate to people, knowing what I'm passionate about, being productive, knowing how to negotiate, knowing how to ‘learn how to learn’. I realised that none of these things can be learnt at school. The things that have created the most opportunities for me in life aren't taught,” says Bel.
In the meantime, twelve publishers came looking for her and Bel ended up publishing her book, which is still available for free online and has become a bestseller in bookshops. She has now released her second book - “Superheroes Wanted” - which is also a bestseller.
I ask her what her definition of an entrepreneur is, and Bel promptly replies: “For me, being an entrepreneur means creating products or services that touch lives, and this can be done by setting up a company, but not necessarily. It can be done by working for others or even by doing something artistic. The more lives you touch and in a more positive way, the more successful the entrepreneur is for me. I believe that anything is possible if people put their hearts and minds to it. Of course, there may be things that don't work out, but halfway through, everyone has to do their best. I myself have done a lot of things that haven't worked out, but if I've done my best I don't blame myself. That has to be the mindset!”.
The way she looks at life speaks for itself. Bel is a force of nature. She makes it happen! She never seems to set her sights too high. Even when there seems to be no chance of success, she manages to open doors that seemed locked. She doesn't stop until she makes it happen!”
Did you like it?
You can order your book “Faz Acontecer” duly autographed HERE
