Book ‘Make it Happen’

At the age of 24, André Leonardo, from the Azores and Terceira, set off alone on a round-the-world expedition through 23 countries. His aim was simple: to find energy and encouragement beyond the «crisis» and «debt», to make contact with positive people, to let himself be infected by entrepreneurs, both in business and in life, to learn from people who overcame all kinds of adversity and who, more than creating companies or promoting projects, made things happen by facing the present and the future with optimism and the ability to dream.

It was urgent to collect these cases from all over the world, from radically different societies, cultures and political-economic contexts - and yet all linked by the same desire to make things happen. - Bel Pesce, a Brazilian entrepreneur who, against all odds, managed to get into MIT, found her own company and become, at a young age, one of the most influential people in Brazil for the way she faces adversity.

The Portuguese Ricardo Teixeira, who, despite becoming quadriplegic, continued to «fight», worked at the giant Microsoft and created his own successful company that now employs 600 people. - The young man from Tanzania who became a motivational speaker after, in his childhood, he managed to get his house wired using books he borrowed from the local library; - The story of the “Indian Cristiano Ronaldo” who, in order to survive, became a professional ear cleaner, and who, in a particularly harsh context, manages to survive. These are some of the inspiring stories that André Leonardo collected over 126,000 kilometres of travel and presents to us in this book, where the term entrepreneurship takes on a new meaning and is definitively revealed as a lifestyle and attitude that is independent of the environment and time in which we live.