The Brazilian girl from Silicon Valley who became a responsible entrepreneur

Bel Pesce
The Brazilian girl

from Silicon Valley
How being a responsible

entrepreneur can change your life
Acknowledgments
This book talks a lot about the responsibility required to take
projects to completion. There is also a great responsibility
that comes with having knowledge and being able to help.
Throughout my life, I had the good fortune of meeting
people who helped me turn many of my ideas into reality,
including my books. The book you have in your hands (or on
your computer screen) is a combination of the first and third
books I published in Brazil, which both focus on showing how
an entrepreneurial mindset can change lives.
Creating the first book of my life was something special. I
remember each day of the journey with great affection. I can
still feel how each word that I wrote delighted me as I recalled
all the different experiences I had had, always full of lessons.
I thank all the people who are part of my life and show me
what I really want for myself.
When I finished writing my first book, it was only the beginning.
I dearly miss the weeks that I worked with Agencia Yeah! to
create the cover, illustrations, layout and everything else. The
talent of the people involved in that project has become my
reference point for a work done well done. I am very grateful
to them, especially Flvio Augusto da Silva, who made the
connection to Yeah! happen, and consequently helped the
entire project come true. Thank you, Flavio, for believing in
my potential and in my first book. It is an honor to have had
you preface my first book. I have added the same preface to
this English version as well.
I am also very grateful to everyone who helped me in the

production of my third book. I had the joy of working with
a great publishing team that respected me as a writer and
entrepreneur. A special thanks to someone I like so much:
thank you, Maria Joo, or my dear MJ, for being the best
publisher anyone could expect, and also a fantastic friend.
I also want to leave here a huge thanks to Fatima Ventapane,
a dear student at my school FazINOVA, who surprised me
with her talent and gave me the great joy of drawing the
illustrations of this book. Fatima, I loved working with you and
I am sure we will work on many more projects together.
I am very grateful also to my team at FazINOVA, who took on
the dream of creating a school different from everything that
we have seen, focused on dreams and achievements. You
mean the world to me. Thanks for the happiness you bring
me everyday.
I want to thank all the entrepreneurs who teach me so much
every day. In this past years, I had the chance to sit down, talk
and learn from the cream of the crop from around the world.
But the cooles of all was to see that they are also top notch in
terms of values. This strengthens my great belief that growth
occurs much faster for those who work hard and have a good
heart.
Finally, I want to thank someone who I had a chance to meet
in person in 2012 and changed my life forever, just by being
who he is. Jorge Paulo Lemann, I admire you in a way that is
absolutely impossible to put on paper. Thank you for giving
me the immeasurable honour of accepting the invitation to
write the preface to my third book.
Table of Contents
Preface by Flvio Augusto da Silva
Preface by Jorge Paulo Lemann
Being An Entrepreneur = Being Responsible by Bel Pesce
1. An Entrepreneurial Journey
15
2. Work Really Hard
19
3. Move Fast, But Be Patient
24
4. Cultivate an Open Mind
28
5. Always Be Humble
33
6. Share What You Know
36
7. Share Your Struggles
40
8. Let Others Find Out About Your Triumphs
44
9. Forget The Glamour
48
10. Find People Who Want You To Be Successful
52
11. Little Things That Make a Difference
56
12. Think Longer-Term
59
13. Get Used To Learning From Your Mistakes
63
14. Dream Big But Keep Your Execution Down-To-Earth
66
15. The Real Value of a Business Plan
71
16. Trust Yourself
75
17. Do Not Worry About Your Age
79
18. Personal Goals vs Business Goals
84
19. Find Out Who Inspires You And Why
89
20. Learn To Say No
92
21. Team, Team, Team
97
22. Be Hungry To Learn
100
23. Books Worth Reading
105
24. Keep a Diary
112
25. Find Your Passions
120
26. The Value of Feedback
123
27. Find People Who Were in Your Shoes Some Years Ago
127
28. Make People Curious
130
29. Impress the World With Your Motivation
134
30. How Entrepreneurship Changes You
137
31. Advice > Money
142
To Bruna Pesce, the most

special and beloved gift that life
could have given me
Preface
by Flvio Augusto da Silva

Every time we witness reports of earthquakes, tornadoes and
severe flooding, we tend not to consider that the same could
be happening to us, with our family or even with some of our
closest friends. Even though they are facts, we often read or
watch these reports as if we were in front of a very distant fiction
script, removed from our reality.
Similarly, when you hear about a single lottery ticket winner, who
pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars, do you think it could be
someone from your close circle? Or do you always consider it to
be an unknown face of a remote town?
In my case, I know people affected by some of these unusual
reports. For example, I am close to someone who lived through
the flood that struck the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro
in 2011; I know a person who has lost a family member in the
last plane crash at Congonhas Airport in So Paulo; I have a
cousin who lived with his family in Japan near the nuclear plant
in Fukushima and experienced the earthquake and tsunami that
swept Japan some years ago, and I know a person who won the
lottery.
I also know Bel Pesce. The story of this 27-year-old is something
from one of those Hollywood scripts which is happening now,
right before our eyes. It is a very inspiring story that shows us
that the power to change our destiny is in our hands, through
the choices we make every day and through our enthusiasm. We
have the power to believe and fight for the unlikely, although
many may say it is too big of a dream to be dreamed.
I first met Bel in Buenos Aires in 2011, after posting on my
Facebook page that I would be there for two days to open one
more branch of my company. Since Bel was also going to be there
then, she sent me a message through Facebook, proposing we
grab coffee. In our meeting, in a short time I could see that I was
in front of an enthusiastic person with a glow on her facehuge
glow in her eyes, many projects on her mind and enough energy
to accomplish them. The word impossible certainly had been
kicked out of her dictionary long time ago and I could see that
she would do a lot in her life. After our coffee, we recorded a
video, GV #08 (www.belpesce.com/GV), which quickly reached
the milestone of 1 million views on YouTube.
Bel Pesces trajectory is very rich, but never forgets the power of
simplicity. It is a bold story full of achievements in short amounts
of time. Her intelligence and charisma, her technical knowledge
and skills in interpersonal relationships, her overflowing courage
as well as her big accomplishments without ever losing humility,
makes Bel Pesce a rare entrepreneur and a profile desired by
large corporations and investors.
When she told me about her desire to write about her
experiences in Silicon Valley with the purpose of helping others,
she immediately had my support. Bel, through this digital
book, distributed free on the internet, shows all her generosity
and willingness to change the world, giving young people all
over the world, among so many negative news, the push and
encouragement necessary to believe in their potential. This is
invaluable!
What I can conclude is that this book aims to tell you, You also
can. Believe in your projects and work for your projects. You can
change your destiny.
Bels story is not fiction. It is a true story that can inspire you
to be the star your own script. Her experiences in Silicon Valley
described here may be used as raw material for the construction
of ideas that encourage you to go ahead with determination,
believing even more in your future.
Good Read!
Flvio Augusto da Silva
Preface
by Jorge Paulo Lemann

I heard about Bel when her first book came out. I was excited to
hear about a Brazilian so young, newly graduated at MIT, who
had already had the opportunity to spend some time in Silicon
Valley. I also got a little frustrated, Wow, having graduated from
MIT, she must be great at math and I never learned math well,
and she has already had time to live through one of my dreams,
which is to spend a season in the Valley. In fact, I would like to be
an investor in technology and there is nothing like spending some
time near Palo Alto to learn about this subject. I believe the world
will become increasingly digital and the great opportunities of
investments will be such areas.
Being older and with a portfolio of traditional investments, I do
not know if I will have the time to do something meaningful in
the technology area, but it never hurts to dream. Since I could not
move to the Valley, I decided to get to know Bel and follow her
ascent towards her dreams. The first thing that strikes you when
you meet Bel is her energy level. She is electric and seems to
radiate sparks everywhere. After a few minutes of conversation
you notice that there is also lots of good sense in what she says.
She has a long-term plan and will undoubtedly do something
important. Bel represents several things that Brazil needs: lots
of energy, the ability to start and follow through, willingness to
undertake, responsibility for building and leading a team, and
the ability to focus on the right things.
Currently, her big dream is to help thousands of people in
Brazil become better entrepreneurs through on-site and
online courses. The courses she set up already enrolled 2,000

students in her school and 90,000 virtual classroom students.
Her mission is to improve the country and our entrepreneurs. I
always say that in order for Brazil to reach its potential, it needs
to improve the quality of the education and give people more
access to opportunities, and we need to have thousands of new
entrepreneurs in every corner of the country. That is what will
create new jobs and bring us prosperity. Bel is on the right track,
for herself and for the country.
She is providing something for which there is great demand and
therefore also helping Brazil. This book is an attempt to convey
to all entrepreneurs what she has learned and observed. I hope
it helps you and other readers to do more.
Congratulations, Bel. And keep educating and inspiring
thousands of Brazilians to turn their projects into reality.
Jorge Paulo Lemann
Being An Entrepreneur
= Being Responsable
In 2012, I wrote my first book and published it in Brazil. A book
about entrepreneurship requires an entrepreneurial history. My
big dream was to share with the world what I had learned in the
previous years: that if you have an entrepreneurial attitude to
life, you will grow a lot, both at the professional and the personal
level.
And that is the attitude I embodied from head to toe to write
my first book. With all my courage, I put on paper some of the
thoughts and actions that had changed my life, in the simplest
and most accessible manner.
With the help of very dear people, what was once a dream
became a reality. An unbelievable reality. More than 2 million
downloads and 100 000 copies sold in Brazil. On the bestsellers
list for months. For me, being an entrepreneur is touching lives
with the projects you are a part of. My goal was exactly this:
to touch lives with the book. But I did not expect that my life
would also be changed forever. And it did. Suddenly, I had a
voice on education in my country. What I had in my hands was
like a clay, and it was up to me to act so that I could model this
clay before it became hard. After seven years living in the United
States, I decided to move back to Brazil and focus on education. I
founded FazINOVA, with the mission of discovering, developing
and connecting talented people. We believe that everyone has
talents, it is just a matter of finding which ones.
My company www.fazinova.com.br offers several free online

courses about human behavior, entrepreneurship and innovation,
and we created a network of good people who help each other
make their dreams come true. Running FazINOVA has been a
wonderful experience.
I learned a lot in these first 18 months of FazINOVA. And the
strongest feeling I have is the following: responsibility. Being an
entrepreneur is a hell of a responsibility. If you enter this world
understanding this, you will have started the game ahead of the
others. I will talk a lot about it in this book.
Welcome to The Brazilian Girl From Silicon Valley. A book full of
stories and reasons to have an entrepreneurial attitude toward
life and be responsible toward your dreams.
With much love, Bel Pesce
bel@fazinova.com.br
An Entrepreneurial
Journey
Bel Pesce
THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

SILICON VALLEY
have always been obsessed with knowledge. Since my

childhood, I have been extremely curious and I have loved
learning new things. This fact, coupled with dedication
and drive, has helped me open doors to many of my dreams.
I often went into completely unknown territories that led
me to participate in delicious and extremely unexpected
adventures. For example, the very unlikely dream of
studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) became a reality in 2006. When that happened,
I wanted to grab the world with my hands and learn as
much possible. With an open mind to try different classes
and take part in various programs and competitions, I
discovered that entrepreneurship is one of my greatest
passions.
After MIT, my challenge was then to move to Silicon Valley,
California, and devote myself to this passion. I immersed
myself in the startup world, full of young innovative
companies seeking a scalable and sustainable business
model.
Since then, I follow hundreds of blogs about companies,
investors and entrepreneurs. I read several books each
month on the different aspects involved in creating a
startup, from how to choose a business model to how to
motivate teams. I meet dozens of people every week and
learn a lot when they share their stories and advice with
me. But, above all, being an entrepreneur is getting your
hands dirty with lots of work. In recent years, I worked in
many different environments, always with the focus on
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learning more and more about how to build a business.

I worked in large companies that still maintain the
entrepreneurial vein. At Microsoft, I was part of Office
Labs, an incubator dedicated to innovations related to
productivity. There, at age 19, I had the chance to lead
a team and manage projects from start to end. It was a
phenomenal experience. Some years later, I worked in the
research sector of Google, with the goal of innovating the
systems behind Google Translate. I learned a lot about how
to create the magic that exists around various products we
use on a daily basis.
To contrast with large, established companies, I worked at
companies that began their journey recently. At Ooyala,
a company focused on the management, monetization
and delivery of online videos, I learned a lot about
entrepreneurship while I lead three teams of engineers. I
saw the company quadruple in size. At Lemon Wallet, I was
part of the founding team, and experienced firsthand what
it is like to start a company from scratch. Before that, I had
taken part in the creation of many other projects.
It is amazing how much you can learn from each project.
In 2013, I returned to Brazil to start FazINOVA, a platform
that helps people make their dreams come true. We
already have more than 90 000 users. I am learning a
lot at FazINOVA and I am very grateful to my team and
customers for making me grow every day.
I am well aware that there is much more to learn and that I
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will be on this entrepreneurial

I am well aware that
adventure for years and years
there is much more to
to come. But I already wanted
learn and that I will be
to share with you some of the
on this entrepreneurial
learnings that I had so far. I
adventure for years
am extremely grateful to the
and years to come.
many people who helped me
over the past years and this book is a humble way to give
back a little of the big things they did for me.
The vast majority of the lessons Silicon Valley taught me
can be used anywhere in the world. Just like this knowledge
has helped me, I hope it will be useful to open doors to
some of your dreams.
Never forget: anything is possible if you put your mind and
heart to it.
18
Work
Really Hard
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
ometimes we hear stories of people who accomplish

great things from one day to another. The way these
stories are told, it seems that there is a magic formula
to make dreams come true in the blink of an eye. But there
is not. These stories of great overnight success are simply
exaggerations of a romanticized story that we know now
to have worked well, but before that, you can bet that the
person went through years of work, suffering and learning.
There is a lot of sweat, preparation and guts behind every
victory . There is no secret: do
There is a lot of sweat,
you have a dream? You will
preparation and guts
have to work hard for it. When
behind every victory.
the dream happens others
may think it was just good luck, but you will know how hard
you worked to get there.
When I was in my senior year of high school, my dream was
to get into MIT, the one and only Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, the reference school for the subjects I love
such as Engineering and Business. I am from Brazil and was
planning to go to college in Brazil since I did not know MIT
accepted people from outside the United States. When I
learned they did, I had already missed the deadline to apply.
More specifically, there was no way to be interviewed by an
MIT alum anymore and I missed the sign up date for the SATs.
But that did not stop me. Giving up would mean to simply
accept no as answer. There must be a solution. I broke the
challenge in smaller bits: I needed to find the address of an
alum and I needed to see if there were any exams leftover
for me.
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Through a friend, I found the address of a former MIT student

who lived in So Paulo. This was my chance. As I was not
really sure what to expect from a college interview (we do
not have those in Brazil), I put everything I had done in my
life in a cardboard box and proceeded to ring the bell of his
house, with all my courage.
I was greeted by a very friendly guy who wanted to help,
but he warned me that I really had missed the deadline.
While we were talking to each other by the door, he did not
understand what that cardboard box in my hand was. That
box was about to save me. I explained that I was carrying
my life there and I begged for a few minutes to show how I
might use what I learn at MIT to change Brazil and the world
for the better. He agreed to talk to me.
For the second challenge, trying to find an SAT exam for me,
I was surprised by a very positive fact: I found out that the
signup date had passed, but the date of the exam was still a
couple of weeks ahead. Again, it was my chance. I decided to
show up. Because my name was not on the list, I was asked
to leave. And there was I, begging again, this time asking
to be allowed to wait by the door to see if there were any
exams left for me. After hearing everyone telling me that
this was impossible, I managed to convince them to let me
wait there. It was one of the most dramatic scenes of my life.
Each time a new person came into the classrom, the odds
became even worse, and I was a step further from my dream.
Three empty seats ... Two empty seats ... One empty seat.
But this single seat was never filled by someone else. This
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seat turned out to be my seat. I was able to do the SATs. A

few months later, I received a letter from MIT, inviting me to
study there.
Some people may think this is a story of luck. But luck only
helps the ones who open the
Work hard and you will
right doors. I could have given
see that you can create
up at any time, but I did not
your own luck and
stop until I saw that I could
make your big dreams
change the ending. And luck
come true. There are
only helps the prepared
no secrets, magic forones. If I was not prepared,
mulas or shortcuts.
there would be no use for my
There is only focus and
interview or my SAT exam.
sweat.
These moments only become
victorious because of all the work I had done prior to that,
through all my life. Work hard and you will see that you can
create your own luck and make your big dreams come true.
There are no secrets, magic formulas or shortcuts. There is
only focus and sweat.
23
Move Fast,
But Be
Patient
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
ilicon Valley is full of technology startups, many of

them in high-potential markets. Some companies
may have certain advantages, such as patents or
a large user base, but competition is everywhere. Several
companies launch new projects and quickly find out that
other startups are trying to solve the exact same problem.
Since you can run a startup from your own apartment these
days, time becomes one of your most important assets. You
need to move quickly. However, the direction in which you are
moving toward is also very important. It is absolutely normal
to have failures along the way, but the lessons learned
from those mistakes need to accelerate your company in a
positive direction. It is not good to move a thousand miles
an hour toward a brick wall.
On the other hand, while
While running your
running your company, you
company, you need
need patience to validate
patience to validate
your market and product.
your
market
and
Companies that succeed are
product.
rarely those that create very
quickly whatever product they have in mind. Companies
that succeed are those which learn as fast as possible from
everything they do. These companies go through feedback
loop after feedback loop to validate assumptions and fly
through these cycles. Often, it takes several attempts to
find a product that customers really want. The secret is to
learn fast from each attempt and to keep moving forward.
In the Lean Startup method, this feedback is called Build25
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Measure-Learn. Lets take Zappos as an example. Their

story is fantastic and full of great details, but I will focus
just on one aspect here: an important assumption that they
had. They had a great hypothesis: consumers want to buy
shoes online. This assumption could be true or false, they
needed to test it. It made no sense to start by building all
the infrastructure to receive thousands of shoes from stores,
accepting different payment methods and partnering
with brands. Before all that, they needed to validate their
hypothesis.
So they built a simple website that offered some types of
shoes. People could choose the shoes they wanted, but in
fact, there was no technology to help with the purchase and
delivery of those shoes. The founders were the technology.
They had visited shoe stores and taken pictures themselves
to create the initial inventory. When someone made a
purchase, they bought the shoes in the physical stores
themselves and shipped them to the consumer by mail. By
doing it, they were able to measure how many visitors were
converted into buyers and they could test other things such
as shipping costs and how many people wanted to return
the shoes. Only then they decided to build the technology
and infrastructure needed to have a scalable product.
Besides taking the time to validate your product, you also
need to be extremely patient while building your initial
team. It may take a long time to find the right partner and
hire the first employees. Do not rush. If you want to speed
up the process, spend more time looking for these people.
Never hire anyone below your standards or who does not fit
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the culture just because you are trying to move faster.

Finally, as an entrepreneur, you have to face many questions
for which you will not know the correct answer. If you keep
delaying decisions until you have perfect information,
you will probably never answer these questions. You will
often need to trust your instincts and decide before very
uncertain circumstances. Think about it: if you are truly
building something new, then you must answer questions
no one else has ever answered. Some answers you will get
right, but not all. If the answers were all easy and obvious,
someone else would have worked on them before. So you
need to move fast and answer some questions even when
you are not one hundred percent certain of the results.
Moving fast is crucial to the success of a startup, but you
need to make sure that, your mistakes taken into account, you
are moving in a positive direction overall. Even your failures
should teach you lessons that help you move down the path
of success. Be patient and analyze your hypotheses. This
will increase the chances of building a successful business.
27
Cultivate
an Open
Mind
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
have always liked to observe the world. I find it fascinating

to watch people walking around, and I keep wondering
what stories, dreams and accomplishments add up to be
the essence of each person. When I was a little kid, I liked to
sit near Paulista Avenue in So Paulo, and see a big crowd
of people crossing the streets. If I could talk to each person
and learn each of their stories, I would.
I grew up and I learned that each person has their own way
of seeing the world. And there is nothing worse than not
respecting this fact. Each of us grows with their own values
and beliefs, and my point is not that we should change
these values in any way. But people with closed minds suffer
unnecessarily.
If you have a closed mind, it is very easy to quickly reach
conclusions and make a judgment based only on your point
of view. However, often a point of view is exactly that: a
point of view. Not necessarily a fact. And coming to a wrong
conclusion can hurt you for no reason and also hurt others
around you.
30
If you do not open

your mind, it is like
seeing everything
in black and white
and not knowing
it. Only when you
give people a chance
to show you other
colors will you
understand that
there is more to see.
Bel Pesce

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If you do not open your mind, it is like seeing everything

in black and white and not knowing it. Only when you give
people a chance to show you other colors will you understand
that there is more to see. And when you look at the world
with these new eyes, you see more solutions and you suffer
less before adversities because you see more alternatives.
You are also less scared of embracing life and allowing
yourself to try things you never tried. Experiences become
a priority and you end up wanting to know new things. And
when you realize that there
You see more solutions is still much more to learn
and that you will never know
and you suffer less
everything, you allow yourself
before adversities
because you see more to be vulnerable. As much as
this may scare you, it can also
alternatives.
bring you delicious emotions.
Open your mind and give other points of view a chance. You
do not need to change your own opinions, but it certainly
will help you relate to other people and help you create and
seize more opportunities for your life.
32
Always Be
Humble
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umility is one of the most important virtues anyone

may have. Regardless of how far you have gotten in
this life, there is always
more to learn. In addition, at
Being humble means
any moment life can surprise
being honest with
you and turn your reality
yourself. It means
upside down. It makes no
being conscious of
sense to believe that you are
the fact that you
better than anybody else.
can always improve
and get the most
Being humble means being

out of each of your
honest with yourself. It means
experiences.
being conscious of the fact
that you can always improve and get the most out of each
of your experiences. Humility makes you grow. Arrogance
slows you down.
Being humble also has several great side effects and
numerous advantages for your business. It is much easier to
get people to trust you when you are genuinely interested in
hearing what they have to say. The conversations flow more
naturally and people become more willing to share with
you the lessons they have learned. And if you have an open
mind and a burning curiosity, you can learn from every single
conversation.
In addition, a company with the culture of being humble tends
to generate a more open communication among employees.
Good communication causes tasks to be completed more
quickly and helps companies move forward.
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There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.

Confidence is your friend: it makes you believe you can solve
the most difficult problems, it helps you motivate teams
and it gives you a burst of energy to keep working well when
you most need it. On the other hand, a large ego can be
devastating to startups. It is very difficult to innovate when
you are not open to the world and cannot care beyond your
own interests. Creativity grinds to a hault gets stuck and the
work environment becomes very unpleasant. Be confident,
humble and conscious. Run away from any bit of arrogance.
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36
Share
What You
Know
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believe it is possible to add lots of value when you freely

share relevant content. I think many of the worlds largest
companies will have business models that will be based
on offering several valuable things for free to users and
then monetizing the network of knowledge and contacts
that they created by providing these important things for
everyone.
I use this philosophy in all
I use this philosophy
I do, and so far the results
in all I do, and so
have supported my theories
far the results have
that dividing is actually
supported my theories
multiplying. When I wrote my
that dividing is
first book in Portuguese, A
actually multiplying.
Menina do Vale, I decided it
should be available for free.
Even after I launched the printed version of the book, I did
not take down the free version from my website. The online
version has been downloaded over 2 million times, and
that did not stop the printed book sales to continue to rise.
Why is that? Because when you offer something of value
to someone for free, without really expecting anything in
return, that person has a special gratitude for you. And that
gratitude is transformed into an honest promotion of your
work.
When I created the business model for my company, I
also tried to focus on the same paradigm. At FazINOVA,
we produce many online courses on entrepreneurship,
innovation and leadership. The production cost of a course
is the same, no matter if one person is watching, or if one
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billion people are watching it. Knowing that there are millions
of people who are interested in this content, I did not want a
model that restricted content to paying customers when so
many wanted access.
I therefore created the following model: FazINOVA is in
charge of the creation and production of these courses,
users can watch them for free, and brands that want to be
associated with such content pay for the costs. This is a
good way to make all the parts happy. If you want to access
these courses, you can by visiting www.fazinova.com.br.
The world is already open. This is a fact. Some people are
showing that they understand this new world well. Elon
Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and one of the people I most
admire, decided to open the patents of Tesla cars to anyone
who would like to modify them. I thought this was brilliant.
The real value of knowledge is in the people who actually
learn how to use this knowledge.
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Share
Your
Struggles
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tarting a business is an exciting experience, but not

an easy one. You will constantly be sleeping way too
little, working very hard and, even with all that, things
will often not come out as planned. To make your life even
more difficult, you will often be confronted with questions to
which you have no answers and you will have to trust in your
intuition to make some decisions.
Something that helps a lot in those agonizing moments is
simply talking with others. Of course, the decisions are still
yours, and depending on the topic you cannot open all the
details to someone outside of your company. But if you
get opinions from the right people, it is quite possible that
someone has had a similar problem and can help you.
For example, suppose you are developing a product and
have a working prototype. However, you do not know if it
is the right time to show this product for users. A frequent
question in startups is: Do I need to add more functionality
or improve the product a little more before releasing it?
Asking such question for people who have launched products
in the past, or just listening to some of their experiences, can
help you tremendously. Launching the product too early or
too late can be deadly for your company.
You can also learn a lot from users. Suppose that after the
release of your product a good amount of people experience
it once or twice, but the vast majority of people do not
return after that. You have no idea why and you are not
sure about what decisions to take to correct this problem.
A good starting point is to send a survey to existing users,
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with the goal of understanding

what they like and what they dislike
about the current product. It is also
worth observing the interactions of
users with your product. There are
ways to aggregate metrics on user
actions and having this information
in hand can help you greatly in your
next decisions.

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You need to be
true to yourself
and be aware of
the issues you
are facing and
the decisions you
need to take.
During the process of creating and growing a business, you

need to be true to yourself and be aware of the issues you
are facing and the decisions you need to take. It is very easy
to keep postponing dealing with problems, or fixing just the
symptions of the problem but not its root cause.
For example, startups often have very small teams, so it
can be destructive when even two people do not get along
well. Postponing the date of a conversation to resolve these
differences can be painful for the whole team. There are
several startups that die because of disagreements between
the people in the founding team. Another danger is to take
care of the problems, but not their originating causes.
Lets say your developer is not having a good performance
and is taking a lot longer to develop certain features than
expected. The real problem, however, is that the technology
you chose to develop the product on is not ideal. You fire
the developer and and hire a new one, just to find out that
he also suffers from the same problems. The real cause is
the choice of technology. When dealing with problems, it is
crucial to understand how they originated.
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When dealing
with problems,
it is crucial to
understand how
they originated.
You will probably struggle with various aspects in your

startup. This is the case with pretty much all successful
entrepreneurs. Do not keep these questions just to yourself.
What makes all the difference is how you deal with these
difficulties and how you proceed to choose a decision that
puts the company back in the right direction.
Let Others
Find Out
About Your
Triumphs
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hink if the following situation has ever happened

to you. You meet someone at a dinner with friends,
have a fantastic chat with that person and a few days
later you discover that she has done something you really
admire, but she had not talked at all about this during the
conversation. Maybe the person has written a book that you
read and liked it, maybe she is the founder of a project you
love. The interesting thing was that she did not spend dinner
talking about her triumphs. If this situation occurred to you,
you probably admire this person even more now.
Of course it is okay to talk about your triumphs. It is important
to be proud of what you have done and in certain contexts it
is important to describe the accomplishments yourself. The
point is not to undervalue your work or not ever mention
your big realizations. The point is the following: thehumbler
the way your achievements are unfolded, the more delighted
people will be.
We all feel good when our achievements are recognized
and congratulated. But I find it strange when some person
seems to plan every single word he says just so that he can
make conversations revolve around him. Based on hundreds
and hundreds of conversations I have had, the people who
leave a positive impression are those who do not speak a
lot about themselves, but show genuine interest in helping
others.
Some friends and I liked to do the following experiment:
when someone scheduled coffee with us, our focus would be
to show a deep interest in what the person was saying, and
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not focus at all on ourselves. The result is rather surprising.

If I asked the person who had coffee with my friend what she
thought of him, she would reply, So-and-so is amazing, what
a nice person, I really want to keep in touch and have that
person in my life. This is interesting. My friend left a positive
impression because of the way he made that other person
feel and not because of any particular accomplishments.
One of the greatest skills we can learn is to truly create value
for our friends, family and customers. If your main worry is
to add value to others, you can be sure that little by little
all your triumphs will come to light, and people will admire
these achievements even more.
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Forget The
Glamour
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t is interesting to think how Microsoft, Facebook, Google,

Apple and many other companies which today are highly
influential began. Usually, it starts with a team and a
vision. It is fascinating how a group of passionate people
can turn ideas into products that end up changing the world
forever.
I love the fact that we can create products with the potential
to touch billions of people. Sometimes I spend hours and
hours thinking how my ideas may evolve over the coming
months, years and even decades. I love to dream big. When
I do that, I feel that I have super powers to make the world
a better place.
Even though these idealizations may become reality at
some point, it will not happen overnight. Starting a business
is time consuming and you need to execute really well in
order to have a chance to succeed. There are many, many
things that need to be done every day and doing them on
time is crucial. You will have to work hard all the time.
Some people think that starting a business is glamorous.
Sorry to disappoint you: it is not. You will usually be sleeping
less than you thought it was humanly possible, eating ramen
noodles for lunch and dinner and spending more time in the
office than anywhere else. However, this can also be the best
time of your life, especially if you are dedicating this time to
the construction of something that really matters tor you
and to the world.
The most successful entrepreneurs rarely think of success
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as a quick catalyst so they can

jump on other projects. Their
current business is their life. They
are successful because they are
extremely passionate about the
issues that are trying to solve
now, not because they want the
glamour that may come with
success.

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The most successful

entrepreneurs
rarely think of
success as a quick
catalyst so they
can jump on other
projects. Their
current business is
their life.
Before you dive into this world of startups, you should know
that the dream will only evolve with lots and lots work. In my
case, I enjoyed every second of my entrepreneurial journey
so far and I keep trying to improve every day. No glamour,
but completely enjoying the ride. I would not trade this life
for anything. One of the best feelings in the world comes
from doing something you love. That is a glamorous feeling.
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10
Find People
Who Want
You To Be
Successful
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ur world is more connected than ever. Various

technologies and tools help you connect with
several people at the same time. Stop and take a
note of how many people you interact with every day by
email, phone, Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook and various other
channels. If you wish, it is possible to interact with hundreds
of people in a single day.
But does quantity matter that much? I like to focus on
quality and, for me, the most important metric is to find
good people who know the art of making stuff happen. I
love meeting people who have big dreams, who help others
and who do not only think of themselves.
There is something that happens once in a while to all of us,
and it may even go unnoticed, but it should be considered
a major event: we find good people who want us to be
successful. There are lots of good-hearted people out there.
Some of them have gone through the things youre going
through now. Others may identify very strongly with you.
For some reason, they want to help you.
You should grab this opportunity with passion. Listen to
these peoples ideas, act upon what makes sense and show
them the results. Thank them and give them context. Show
them how much they have helped you. These people may be
responsible for positive changes in your life, for investments
in your ideas, for invaluable tips that make a project really
get off the ground. They can also become strong inspirations
and friends for a lifetime.
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I love meeting
people who have
big dreams,
who help others
and who do not
only think of
themselves.
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The coolest thing is that these people can appear at any

time, from anywhere. In fact, they appear when you least
expect it. And they will not necessarily be older or more
experienced than you. Good people who want your success
will be of varied ages and backgrounds.
There are several networking programs that help you find
people who can open new horizons to you. I had the great
joy of being part of some programs that have changed my
life. One is One/Thousand, a network of young people who
promote extraordinary changes in the world. We are young
and still have lots of time to accomplish much more, but all
my friends in this network are good people who genuinely
want the success of all other members of the network.
Based on this, people find many ways to help each other. For
example, we are about a thousand people in this community,
and when someone needs help with anything, be a contact,
a response to a question, a place to stay during a trip or just
someone to bounce ideas with, several people volunteer to
help in a matter of minutes.
Whenever you meet someone,
pay attention in case that
person is someone who truly
wants your success. These
people are gifts that we need
to embrace and value highly
so we can feel we deserve
their help.
These people are

gifts that we need to
embrace and value
highly so we can feel
we deserve their help.
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11
Little Things
That Make a
Difference
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uilding a business is an amazing experience, but it

consumes a lot of energy and time. You will constantly
have to do things you have never done before and you
will wish you knew a little more about certain topics. There
will also be days when the universe appears to be against
you. And there will be times when you feel very tired. All of
this is normal and happens to the best people.
Over the years, I found a few little things that have an
immediate effect on me. They really encourage me and act
as fuel to get more stuff done. They make me smile and they
make me quickly focus on my new goals. In my case, these
things include a song, an advertisement and a thought.
Queens song Dont Stop Me Now makes me feel amazing
every time I hear it. It not only brings me complete peace of
mind, but at the same time it makes me believe that I can
move at the speed of light. It makes me want to jump out
of my chair, and dance and sing along with the song (which
I often do). I like listening to this song when I am in a battle
against the clock trying to finish some tasks. This music
works like a charm in these situations. If you are curious to
hear it, you can do so here.
Apples advertising campaign 1997, Think Different, inspires
me to keep thinking big and to never forget that each of us
has the power to change the world. If you have not watched
this ad, it is worth taking a look.
Another thing that gives me energy is to listen to customer
feedback. I love to read even the harshest of the comments.
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Seeing that people are dedicating some of their time to help

my team create a better product is amazing and makes me
want to work as much as possible to provide customers with
a good experience.
Finally, there is a thought that immediately makes everything
alright. I strongly believe that anything is possible, but
getting into MIT was an extremely improbable dream for
me for many reasons. One of the happiest moments of my
life was when I opened my admission letter and read that
the dream had come true. Just thinking about that moment
fully recharges my energy.
Find the little things that energize you.

These things are often extremely simple
and can end up making a huge difference
in how much you produce every day.
In your entrepreneurial journey, passion will help you focus
and work hard. But as a human being, from time to time
you may have some difficult times. Find the little things
that energize you. These things are often extremely simple
and can end up making a huge difference in how much you
produce every day. Hard times will suddenly not seem so
difficult.
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12
Think
Longer-Term
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hat do Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Jorge Paulo

Lemann have in common? They are all ardent
supporters of philosophies that value long-term
strategies over immediate results. Bezos is so obsessed
with long-term vision that every year, since Amazon went
public in 1997, he attaches the very first letter he wrote to
shareholders to the end of the new annual statement. In
this letter, he says that the only way to realize the potential
of Amazon, be it as people or as company, is thinking longterm.
Yes, we live in a hectic world. People are impatient. Many
things are ephemeral. Be it in professional or personal
relationships, everyone seems to suffer from a certain
desire to see results right away. And maybe even receive
recognition for these results immediately.
There are entrepreneurs whose mission is to create one
company after another. The faster they sell the company,
the prouder they get. We need to respect all preferences,
but there are companies that could be huge but their lives
are shortened because of this rush to sell.
Do not run over yourself.
Even though the world is
changing fast, and you
also have to be quick, plan
for the long term, believe in
yourself. Create structures
that can continue to grow
for a long time. When
Even though the world

is changing fast, and
you also have to be
quick, plan for the long
term, believe in yourself.
Create structures that
can continue to grow for
a long time.
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making a decision, look beyond the short term effects of

this decision. Consider what this decision may affect several
years down the road.
Anyone who thinks long-term has a different story to tell
from their competitors. Bezos himself once mentioned
that when all you do has a scope of three years, you will
compete with many people. However, if you work with seven
years targets, you end up competing with far fewer people,
because fewer companies will be willing to plan so far ahead.
Of course it is also important to think short term, to
differentiate yourself quickly, to think of each day as an
opportunity for growth. But your actions and results from
day to day should be planned so that together they can
establish an even more incredible long-term outcome. Try
it. See where your company can get in ten, twenty or thirty
years. It is a fact that things change and it is difficult to plan
far ahead, but if your values and
your broader goals as a

company are clear, then long-term thinking can help bring
longevity to your business.
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13
Get
Used To
Learning
From Your
Mistakes
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unning a startup is
Running a startup is
hard. There is a long
hard. There is a long
list of things that can
list of things that can
go wrong: you may create
go wrong.
a brand people do not
sympathize with, you may forget to pay attention to some
legal requirements, you can hire the wrong people, you can
spend a lot on marketing, you can charge very little, you can
launch your product too early. The list goes on and on.
Other topics covered in this book can help you avoid some
mistakes. For example, a mentor can help you with the right
advice to shed some light at a crucial time. In addition,
testing your hypotheses methodically can minimize the risk
of building something that nobody wants.
However, even the hardest-working and most intelligent
people still make many mistakes. Incidentally, the only
people who generally do not make mistakes are those who
do not take sufficient risks. As
When you have a an entrepreneur, you have to
passion for what you learn to deal with failures.
are doing, you do not

let failures defeat the
plans. You learn from
them.
Many successful founders are

able to learn from mistakes
quickly. This is key. When you
have a passion for what you
are doing, you do not let failures defeat the plans. You learn
from them. You know you are running towards a larger goal,
which is to create a business that will help the lives of many
others. So you have the determination and positive attitude
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needed to keep learning and keep motivating your team.

Mistakes can be so subtle that you might not even notice
some of them. For example, if you are always in a hurry, you
may forget to stop and listen to new ideas. Make sure that
you are paying attention to your own actions, and to the
actions of others, and think about how you can make things
better. Do not underestimate the value of thinking about
your own behavior. I believe in the values of self-awareness
and constructive feedback so much that I keep a notebook
that I use to think deeply about how I can improve day after
day.
In addition, a good entrepreneur works hard to make sure
the entire team is growing. In order to avoid problems that
appear out of nowhere, it is very important to have an open
communication with your team. In some places I worked with,
people liked to say that it is better to ask for forgiveness
than to ask for permission. While this works fine for some
situations (especially those in which wrong actions cause no
great harm), it does not apply in all cases. An open dialogue
can be extremely useful to avoid misunderstandings.
While creating your company, you will probably make
mistakes more often than you want. As long as you are
learning from them and quickly apply these lessons to
accelerate your company, then you are on the right track. Do
not let mistakes defeat you. Defeat them. All you need is an
open mind which is hungry to learn and the determination to
be better and better every time.
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14
Dream Big
But Keep Your
Execution
Down-To-Earth
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love to dream big. I have pages and pages in which I

describe my dreams to myself. I make lists of what I want
to accomplish this week, this month, this year, this decade.
I even have some files that I name middle-of-the-night
hallucinations because I like to write these late at night,
and when I get started and write down everything I hope to
accomplish, they do seem like hallucinations.
Still to this day, almost every
What really enables
single hallucination I wrote
people to achieve
down ended up happening.
goals is to plan every
Getting into MIT, getting
step of an effective
certain jobs, writing books,
implementation.
starting
and
completing
several projects, one by one every dream was falling into
place. But that only happened because, if on the one hand
the realization seemed unreal and dreamy, on the other
the execution was completely down to earth. What really
enables people to achieve goals is to plan every step of an
effective implementation.
Big dreams are much closer to being a marathon than a
sprint. As much as everything seems urgent and immediate
those days, there is no way of doing everything at once.
There are many entrepreneurs who maintain a frenetic pace
at first, thinking that after a couple of weeks they will be
able to slow down. But it is necessary to maintain a certain
pace for years, and it is not healthy to tire yourself from the
start.
Since it is not possible to build dreams alone, knowing
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how to manage the team that will be part of this is very

important. It is common for entrepreneurs to believe in their
dreams so much that for them some dreams are already a
reality in their minds. But promising impossible things to the
team could end up demotivating them. The promises must
also be down-to-earth.
For example, you can encourage your staff by saying that if
they complete a certain product in a certain time, you will
be able to sell this product for $ 200,000 and then the
company will be able to grow more quickly. But if this sales
goal is not achieved, you will lose credibility and you will
demotivate the team. Having a long-term vision is great for
motivation, but do not turn unreached goals into arguments
for motivation.
Having a long-term vision is great for

motivation, but do not turn unreached
goals into arguments for motivation.
Wandering in your dreams is good. Wandering in execution
is not. When it comes to taking the necessary steps so that
a great dream can be realized, any detail is important. Every
day is crucial. Every victory has to be celebrated.
There will be steps that you will be uncertain of how to take
without making any mistakes. You should not be afraid to
take those steps. The important thing is to have very clear
goals you want to achieve, so you can see the results of what
you experimented and understand if the metrics are positive
or if you have to change.
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As Jorge Paulo Lemann says, dreaming big takes the same

effort as dreaming small. In the end, the important thing is
to make sure that you follow the dream you really want to
work towards, and to know it will be necessary to quickly
and constantly switch between thinking big and taking
small and effective steps.
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15
The Real Value

of a Business
Plan
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hen you are starting a company, you have the

option of writing a business plan to better explain
your ideas and how you will execute them. But
what is a business plan after all? In general, it is a document
that describes the vision for your business and its financial
projections.
When it comes to vision, business plans usually include
several sections: the business description, an explanation
of what products and services the company will offer, a
deep dive in the market (including analyses of potential
competitors), detailed sales and marketing plans, as well as
who the people behind the idea are and why they are the
right team to execute it. The sections on finances generally
include at least a Balance Sheet, an Income Statement and
Cash Flow Statements for the first years of business. But it
can include many other documents.
After completing all sections of the plan, you should
summarize the document in an Executive Summary.
Normally, the Executive Summary is very short, about two
pages long, and provides a good overview of the business,
including the current state of the company and its future
plans. This is the last part to be written, but it is the first that
readers seek. Therefore, people try to write it in the most
compelling way possible.
Some MBA programs make a big fuss about business
plans. Several universities organize competitions around
these plans and many people argue that the document is
essential to raise capital. While there is value in setting up a
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business plan, the main benefit does not lie in having a long
document that you can share with others. Generally, the
world moves so fast that your business
The true value of plan will be out of date as soon as you
a business plan finish writing it.
is in the time you

spend thinking
about your idea.
The true value of a business plan is

in the time you spend thinking about
your idea. To write the sections of your
business plan, you need to research the market, understand
competitors, test some of your hypotheses and evaluate
different strategies for your business. After that, you need
to analyze your plans through a financial point of view. All of
this helps you understand your business better.
A word of caution: there are people who write a business
plan solely to convince others to join or to invest in their
company. I have seen people that, in order to be more
persuasive, focus on creating a plan that shows insane
growth and beautiful numbers. Since a lot of the plan is
based on hypotheses and estimations, it is possible to make
up numbers and fool others. But if you do that, you will be
fooling yourself as well.
Finally, I have also seen people that get so attached to their
business plan that they use it as guide to their business.
However, business plans are full of assumptions. If data
from the current execution is not matching the plan, review
the plan. Do not follow it blindly thinking the numbers will
catch up in the future. There is a comparison I like to make:
imagine you have a beautiful detailed that tells you are
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somewhere, but somehow when you look around it does not

look right. In that case, you should believe the actual terrain,
not the map.
The business plan should be treated as a living document.
When the business and the market evolve, it is a good idea
to update the plan. The value, once again, is in stopping to
think more. So make good use of the plan: when you write it,
think critically about your business, work out the worst and
the best scenarios and be realistic with yourself about the
opportunity that is in front of you.
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16
Trust
Yourself
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ot believing in your own abilities is one of the

most harmful things that you can do yourself. Life
is made of experiences and you should be the one
responsible for your fate. Your results depend on what you
do. And your happiness too. When you do not trust yourself,
your life becomes an endless wait for someone to fix things
that are actually yours to fix. What ends up happening is
that you cease to live.
Your journey should not be a lonely one. Many of the best
experiences we have in our lives are shared with others. But,
in the end, the decision about who you want to share your
journey with is yours. You know your values and you know
what you want for yourself. You will find people who do not
share the same values as
you and may hurt you. Never lower
your standards just because one person has disappointed
you.
I met people who were extremely intelligent, but did not
believe in themselves. When something good happened to
them, instead of doing the best work of their lives in order
to grow and create something even bigger, they simply
believed that what happened to them was luck and that it
would not last. And they acted desperately, trying to take
full advantage of the situation before it ended. In doing so,
they caused the situation to be short-lived.
The worst experiences I have had were with people who
avoid responsibilities. People who think short term and
act as parasites. Rather than spend a week learning what
they needed to do a certain task, they would spend days
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discussing and delaying things until they no longer had to do

the task. Instead of putting their heads down and focusing
on working to get even more
long-term benefits from their
We know the world
great work, they wanted the
is not 100% fair, but
merit and benefits right away.
what I have seen so
far shows that people

who are committed
and work hard create
the best opportunities.
We know the world is not

100% fair, but what I have seen
so far shows that people who
are committed and work hard
create the best opportunities. When you understand what
you are capable of doing, you change your own standards.
You understand that there are things we know and things
we do not know. But you must believe that you will succeed
in the things you know and that you will learn the things you
do not know. And this removes all the negative stress that
could be in your way, leaving space for more positive energy
that drive even more achievements.
When you have a business, all who depend on you will only
be doing well if you are doing well too. And they only will
trust you if you also trust yourself. Trust, work, learn, work
more, learn more and keep trusting. It is the only way to be
the master of your destiny.
Trust, work, learn, work more, learn more

and keep trusting. It is the only way to be
the master of your destiny.
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17
Do Not
Worry About
Your Age
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ge is something really interesting. We carry this

number with us and along with it comes certain
beliefs. Some people think that if you are young,
you must be inexperienced and immature. And if you are an
adult, then it is too late to embark on new adventures.
If you really dream of turning your ideas into

something real, your age does not matter. What
matters is being extremely passionate about solving
problems and improving peoples lives, and being
willing to work hard to make things happen.
Do not believe these generalizations. In your life, you will
find people who will use a variety of arguments to try to
discourage you. If I had listened to these people, I would
have given up on many wonderful opportunities. You have
to believe in yourself.
If you really dream of turning your ideas into something real,
your age does not matter. What matters is being extremely
passionate about solving problems and improving peoples
lives, and being willing to work hard to make things
happen. What matters is to understand that sometimes

not everything will turn out as you expected and always be
ready to learn and try again.
There are successful entrepreneurs of all ages. Here are
some of the stories that show that age is a mere detail.
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Ray Croc In the mid-1950s, Ray Croc, a salesman who

was over 50 years old, had tried to sell a little of
everything. He had even tried to be a pianist, but money was
always short at the end of the month.
At that time, he sold multimixers, machines that poured
drinks into several glasses at the same time. Since the
economy was not doing well, sales fell continuously until
a restaurant in San Bernadino, California, ordered eight
multimixers. Surprised, Ray decided to visit the restaurant
himself and see the operations with his own eyes.
He was amazed: it was a very simple restaurant, with a very
limited menu. People ordered from inside their cars and
received the food in minutes. This was possible because the
rapid production of meals was organized as a production
line. The restaurant name was McDonalds and was run by
two brothers.
Ray saw an opportunity there: why not open other restaurants
like this? He discussed the idea with the McDonald
brothers, but they were not interested in expanding the
restaurants operations. So Ray, who had no experience
in the restaurant market, decided to take charge of the
expansion of McDonalds. At 52, Ray began the journey to
make McDonalds the largest fast-food restaurant chain in
the world.
Catherine Cook In 2005, Catherine and his brother Dave,

e Dave Cook then in high school, noticed that many
American schools offered students a
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photo album to remember the main events of the year. They

had the idea of creating a digital version of the album, but
did not have much money and were not experts in developing
websites. To follow their dreams, they convinced the older
brother to invest $250,000 in the project and decided to
hire a website development firm in India.
They founded myYearbook and managed the company
during their years of high school and college. Little by little,
they added features that increased user engagement:
games, live chat, phone applications and more. In 2011,
myYearbook was acquired by social network Quepasa for
$100 million.
Jack Arnold Jack founded Rockmount Ranch Wear

Weil when he was over 40 years old in 1946.
The company set new standards of style for
cowboy clothes, from ties to shirts, selling millions of items.
The brand has been used by many celebrities and appeared
in several scenes of the movie Brokeback Mountain.
Jack was the CEO of this company for over 60 years and was
involved in the daily operations until the last day of his life.
He died in 2008, at 107 years of age. Jack is considered the
oldest CEO of all times.
college,
Drew
often
Drew Houston and During
Arash Ferdowsi encountered problems when trying
to access his digital files on different
computers. Solutions that existed at the time did not help
him.
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One option was to save the files on a thumb drive. But he

had to take the pen drive with him all times, and every time
he updated the file on a computer, the update was not
reflected on another. Another option was to send emails to
himself with attached files and access email from anywhere
with Internet. But that was too much trouble and became
tiring. It was very difficult to manage files that way. All that
Drew wanted was to store all his files in a central location
online and access them from anywhere in the world.
There were other teams trying to solve this same problem,
but they were not getting traction and users were not falling
in love with any of their products.
In 2007, at 24 years of age, Drew began to create a solution
for his problem. His partner, Arash Ferdowsi, was two years
younger and still in college. Arash decided to abandon his
studies to build the company Dropbox with Drew. They
created a revolutionary product, which is used by over 300
million people. Today Dropbox is valued at more than $10
billion.
Next time you are worried about being too young or too old
to start your own projects, remember these stories. Believe
that regardless of your age you can turn your dreams into
reality.
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18
Personal
Goals vs
Business
Goals
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ore and more, people tell me that their business

and personal lives have become inseparable. This
is true for my life as well. For example, I may travel
with friends to a place without access to technology that
is disconnected from the world, and perhaps this fun and
enjoyable trip will give rise to a business idea that defines
my professional life for years to come.
There are some jobs in particular where everything gets
mixed, and entrepreneurship is one of those. And it makes
sense: if you want to dedicate your life to a project, you
are probably passionate enough to allow this project to
permeate all aspects of your life. Personally, I love meeting
people, hearing their stories and helping them move closer
to their dreams. This is what I like to do in my life, both at
work and in moments of pure relaxation.
I do not think that this blend of professional and personal
lives is necessarily bad.
The problem arises when
I do not think that this
your personal goals are not
blend of professional
aligned with the objectives of
and personal lives is
your company or job.
necessarily bad. The

problem arises when
your personal goals
are not aligned with
the objectives of your
company or job.
Understand wholeheartedly
what you want for your life, as
this will help avoid conflicts
of interest that prevent the
growth of your business or
your career. For example, if
your biggest dream is to be in the spotlight and be the face
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of a project, do not commit to a job that will require you to

work 100% behind the scenes. It will be only a matter of time
before problems start to appear.
I have heard stories of entrepreneurs who destroyed their
own business because they focused more on their personal
interests than in the company objectives. For example,
there are people who love to travel. There are businesses
that require you to travel a lot and there are businesses
that require you not to travel at all. If you choose a business
that requires you to be at the office and, instead, you keep
traveling around, the business will be doomed to fail. Of
course you can hire someone to be present and substitute
you in certain situations, but especially when the business is
young it is completely reckless to delegate the heart of your
company to someone else.
On the other hand, if you are a ninja in communication and
know how to lead teams very well, do not choose a job or
business that has nothing
The business has to to do with it. The work itself
help you achieve your can teach you new skills, but
life goals, and your choosing something that has
personal skills should no connection to the things
enhance the business. you do very well may be a bad
decision. The business has
to help you achieve your life goals, and your personal skills
should enhance the business. When you find a job that fits
this equation, the results appear much more naturally.
The same goes for employees. If you have a company and you
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are recruiting new people to work with you, understand their

personal skills and what they really want for their lives. It is
easy for people to get excited and grab an opportunity that
actually has nothing to do with what they want. You, as an
entrepreneur, understand the companys culture better than
everyone else. It is your role to examine whether everything
aligns well. If this is not the case, do not hire those people.
Whenever you are choosing a professional opportunity,
analyze to which extent your skills can leverage this
opportunity, and also how this work could help you reach
your personal goals. If things are too misaligned, it is worth
to looking at other opportunities before making a decision.
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19
Find Out Who

Inspires You
And Why
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reaming can do wonders. You probably have a list of

things you want to achieve in the coming months,
years, decades. But finding where to start can be a
big challenge. And remaining committed to turning these
dreams into reality can be even harder. If you are not careful,
you may get too attached to everyday problems and forget
your long-term plans. Not to mention that you could end up
not dreaming big enough.
Throughout your life, having someone to admire can help
you stay focused on the achievements that matter. Also,in
general admirable people have very broad horizons and
help you broaden your ambitions.
One of the people I admire is Richard Branson, best known
for founding the Virgin Group: a conglomerate of over 400
companies, covering products from different markets, from
soft drinks to flights. I admire the fact that he has a very
sharp intuition for business and trusts his gut. He is not
afraid of making decisions in the face of uncertainty or of
making mistakes. He loves what he works on and at the
same time he provides excellent services to his customers,
because he truly cares.
I also admire Steve Jobs. It is extremely surprising that
Steve was both a visionary who could think decades ahead
and someone with immense attention to the tiniest detail.
Some people believe that Steve had a reality distortion field
around him. He believed impossible things were possible
and that made everyone else believe them as well. In the
end, the impossible became possible.
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Another person I admire is Ayrton Senna, one of the best

Formula 1 pilots Brazil has ever had. I admire his determination
in being the best driver he could be and how he worked so
hard for it. His ambition and love for the sport were gigantic,
but his heart was even bigger. Despite having experienced
an ultra-competitive environment and often being harmed
by unfair decisions, he always remained faithful to his values.
Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Ayrton Senna and others
who I admire help me see that I can and should aim high.
By understanding what I admire about them, I end up
understanding a whole lot more about what really matters
to me.
By understanding what I
admire about them, I end up
understanding a whole lot more
about what really matters to me.
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20
Learn To
Say No
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fter I graduated from college, I worked at a startup

called Ooyala. My position was Product Manager and
my main role was to manage the team of engineers
who built the companys products. When you are launching
a new product, everyone from clients to colleagues has
opinions on what you should add to the specs. One of the
things that can happen is feature creep: you always want
to put one last thing in the specs and the product is never
released. I really did not want that to happen.
I learned that knowing how to say no is essential to deliver
better results. My best work was when I said yes to the
focus and when I said no to everything else. Are you clear
about what is the heart of your business? If you are, say no
to things which are not aligned with it.
It is always good to be open to different points of view,
but do not stop a project from launching in order to try to
please everyone. The truth is that it is impossible to please
everyone. Never say yes out of guilt, internal conflict or
because you believe you can take care of everything. Saying
yes and then suffering or feeling hurt is not the same as
being cool. The relationships that really are worth are those
that are win-win in the long-term.
It is nice to be open to new experiences - I am the first to
defend it - but do not annihilate what you already have by
committing to too much. It is so much better to say no than
to say yes and then not do it. The no may be unexpected
and cause some pain in the short term, but it will be honest.
More than that, since you are telling the other person the
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It is so much better to say

no than to say yes and
then not do it.
truth, you can avoid bad consequences. Imagine if the other

person depended on your yes to then say yes to a bunch
of other people. When everyone discovers that the yes is
not real, it creates a domino effect of loss of credibility for
everyone who promised things and did not deliver.
I am terrified of those people who say yes to everything
and in the end do almost nothing. Good old friend, count
on me! For sure I will be there! And then the person never
appears. It has never made sense to me why people do this.
I do not understand why it would be better to promise and
escape instead of simply saying that you cannot be there.
Also, if you have to say no to any situation, do not say it
with a defensive tone or deeply apologetic look. This makes
it seem like you owe something or that there is still a chance
that you will change your mind and say yes. There are two
better alternatives. First, if you can suggest an alternative
to what was proposed, then suggest how you can help.
Second, if you cannot help but you know someone who can,
put this person in the loop.
People who say yes to everything can lose focus, commit
to more than they can do and harm others by not doing what
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was promised. Remember: be honest and if you cannot say

yes, tell people the truth. They will be happier about your
authenticity than they would if you said yes and then did
not follow through.
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21
Team,
Team,
Team
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he importance of having a good team is invaluable.

Ideas come and go. You can find dozens and dozens
of new ideas within hours. As long as your idea is
associated with a good sized market, the thing that makes
all the difference is having a team that is able to execute
those ideas.
The
members
of
your
It is natural to change
team need to be extremely
plans to tackle the
passionate about the mission
same need in some
of the company. Sometimes
other way.
the ideas that you thought
would work end up not working. It is natural to change plans
to tackle the same need in some other way. The important
thing, therefore, is to not get emotionally attached to the
solutions you prepared when the company started, and
then get stuck if they do not perform as expected. The
important thing is to find a problem that needs to be solved
and touches many lives in a positive way. This may require
you to jump from idea to idea a bit before finding a solution
that really works.
The work days in a startup are long and you often end up
spending more time at the office than at home. You will
practically live with your founding team, so choose your
partners well. Above all, you need to trust your partners
blindly. A startup is like a marriage: you will experience
wonderful moments together with your team, but will also
have to survive the dark times. All founders must be willing
to make sacrifices for the company and work hard to make
things happen.
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The whole team needs

to have the freedom to
present their ideas, but
also be able to reach
decisions when there
are disagreements.
Choosing
people
you
have worked with in the
past make sense. Each
member individually can be
wonderful, but it is crucial
that they work well together.
In this case, a special kind of
magic happens and your company progresses very quickly.
The whole team needs to have the freedom to present their
ideas, but also be able to reach decisions when there are
disagreements. Also, having a team with complementary
skills plays in your favor. Your team has to be able to build
and sell, which usually requires at least one person with a
technical background and one with business experience.
There are many other suggestions that increase your chances
of having a successful relationship with your partners.
However, if you try to find people who match all these
suggestions perfectly, it will be impossible to assemble a
team. In the end, what really matters is to choose people
with whom you can work day and night, always with respect,
admiration and trust.
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22
Be Hungry
To Learn
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s I mentioned before, I have always been very curious.

I grew up wanting to learn about everything simply
because I enjoyed getting to know new things. At
that time, I did not know that being hungry for knowledge
could open up so many doors for me. But now I am fully
aware of the advantages.
From middle school to high school, I moved to Colgio
Etapa. My passion for learning had helped me do very well in
Mathematics, which then helped me get a scholarship in this
new school. In my days of high school, we had four exams a
week, one every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
That good old strategy of procrastinating until last minute
and learning all the material the day before the exam became
a little dangerous because there was no time to learn it
all. And then the situation got worse: should you fail one
exam, you would have a second chance, but the date of this
second exam would be the same of a new test. Again, how
you can learn everything the day before? There was only one
solution: Etapa showed me that I should learn the material
at the time it was being taught, instead of waiting to have
something scheduled to prove that we had mastered it. And
I found this was not painful or difficult. On the contrary. It
was much effective. Colgio Etapa changed my life.
We are now living in a culture of procrastination in

which we wait until the very last second to actually
take action. But every moment counts. And every
moment can be used to learn something.
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We are now living in a culture of procrastination in which we

wait until the very last second to actually take action. But
every moment counts. And every moment can be used to
learn something. Are you watching a baseball game and do
not understand anything about it? Learn all the rules during
this game. Are you out with some friends who are crazy
about old movies? Ask tips on which movies you should
watch.
My favorite word is serendipity. It is a word that is much
easier to feel than to explain. But if I were to explain it, I
would say it relates
to finding, randomly,
Absolutely all topics can
valuable moments which
eventually be important.
you were not looking
Believe that learning
for. Being hungry to
something new may be
learn has brought lots of
useful in the future, even if
serendipity into my life.
this new knowledge is not
useful right away, even if
Absolutely all topics can

you learned it a moment
eventually be important.
of pure serendipity.
Believe that learning
something new may be useful in the future, even if this new
knowledge is not useful right away, even if you learned it
a moment of pure serendipity. Learn with burning desire to
learn. If you notice, all situations can give you tips on how to
improve in many aspects of your life: as a brother or sister,
as a son or daughter, as a boyfriend or girlfriend, as a boss,
or as a colleague.
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The best people I have met in my life are ingenious with

the knowledge they have. These are people who can put
together several things they know, along with the people
they met, and then can create structures to solve challenge
after challenge. Be hungry to learn. I am absolutely certain
that this will give you a competitive advantage and will
bring you much joy.
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23
Books
Worth
Reading
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lthough
nothing
Building a business
compares to putting
is like riding a roller
learned lessons into
coaster: there are
action, some books provide
many ups and downs.
information that can help
Having a structure that
you accelerate what you
guides you and draws
learn. Building a business is
attention to the right
like riding a roller coaster:
things can be extremely
there are many ups and
valuable.
downs. Having a structure
that guides you and draws attention to the right things can
be extremely valuable. Here are the books that helped me
over the past few years, along with a summary of the main
lessons I learned.
Startup, Jessica Startup is a collection of interviews with

Livingston entrepreneurs. In this book, the founders
of Yahoo!, Hotmail and many other

companies offer very interesting perspectives on the joys
and challenges associated with starting your own company.
What do these founders have in common? They all
made many mistakes along the process of creating their
companies. They all learned quickly from these mistakes
and got it right the next time. It is also amazing how much
their ideas and business
Many companies were models have changed. Many
founded with an idea companies were founded with
that was completely an idea that was completely
different from the different from the product
product that was that was eventually built. A
eventually built.
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very important point is that the founders were extremely

passionate about the problems they were trying to solve,
willing to work day and night to make the company succeed.
Despite their similarities, they also have many differences.
They grew up in different environments, learned different
skills throughout their lives and took many different
decisions while building their companies. In the book, they
share their stories and reflect on their actions. Reading
these interviews makes you feel like you are taking part in
the creation of these companies.
Four Steps To This book offers a new perspective

The Epiphany, on how to validate your market and
Steve Blank understand who your customers are.
Steve explains the methodology of
customer development, which focuses on leaving the office
and testing your hypotheses with real people in the real
word. Steve believes that, especially in the beginning of their
lives, startups just know opinions, not facts. And a company
that is built only on opinions may end up without clients.
The customer development technique helps entrepreneurs
validate assumptions and create a company that meets a
real need.
These are the four steps mentioned in the book tittle:
1. Customer Discovery: The goal of this step
is to find out if there are people who want
your product and what value they give to it.
2. Customer Validation: In this stage, the
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goal is to prove that it is possible to have a

sustainable sales cycle. This happens when
more and more people who experience the
product become users or buyers and you can
monetize the product in some way. The first
and second steps together serve to validate
the existence of a market for your product.
3. Customer Creation: In this step, you decide
the strategy to grow your customer base.
4. Construction of the company: In this step
you set up the structure of your company,
including hiring the staff that is able to scale
the business.
This book is not very easy to read, but once
you begin to understand the concepts, you can apply them
to the real world and get good results.
The Lean Startup, While Four Steps To The Epiphany

Eric Ries offers a methodology to develop
customers, The Lean Startup offers
a methodology for developing your product and again
avoid creating something that nobody wants. Eric believes
that entrepreneurs can avoid failures if they find out what
customers really want. There are several concepts in the
book to help you figure out what users want.
Validated learning: startups live in circumstances of extreme
uncertainty. The number of assumptions made about what
will work and what will not is absurd. So, be ready to make
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Making mistakes is not

a problem as long as it
generates knowledge
that can be applied to
improving the company
and accelerating it in the
positive direction.
many mistakes. Making

mistakes is not a problem
as long as it generates
knowledge that can be
applied to improving the
company and accelerating it
in the positive direction. This
is called validated learning.
The Build - Measure - Learn cycle:

1. Determine a hypothesis about your product.
2. Decide what information is needed to
validate this hypothesis.
3. Build as little as possible in order to gather
this information.
4. Take conclusions based on the data you
collect.
The Lean philosophy believes that the faster entrepreneurs
manage to complete this cycle, the greater the chances of
screating a successful startup. Note that the ideas are quite
similar to the book Four Steps To The Epiphany, which also
seeks facts around their assumptions.
Minimum Viable Product: In Erics definition, the Minimum
Viable Product is the version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the least effort. For example,
Groupon started as a blog. Each post was an offer, and the
coupons were made with a PDF generator and sent via
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emails at the end of the day. With this MVP, the founders
were able to validate that customers were interested in the
offers and decided to continue to create the product, in a
scalable way.
Pivot: on the journey to validate your hypotheses, it is very
likely that you learn that the course of your company needs
some corrections. These corrections are called pivots. You
may need to change the customer segment, the business
model, the platform or even a combination of these and
other aspects. In general, the sooner you learn that a pivot
is required, the greater your chances of a successful change.
There are many other concepts in the book, which is very
quick and easy to read, with several captivating examples. A
highly recommended reading.
Other Books
There is an extensive list of good readings related to
entrepreneurship. Here are some more of my favorites:
Losing My Virginity, by Richard Branson
Steve Jobs, by Isaac Walterson
What I Wish I Knew When I was 20: A Crash
Course on Making Your Place in The World,
by Tina Seelig
Business Model Generation, by Alexander
Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
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Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your

Lawyer and Venture Capitalist, by Bred Feld
and Jason Mendelson
Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to
Accelerate Your Startup, by Bred Feld and
David Cohen
Grinding It Out, by Ray Croc
Creativity Inc: Overcoming the Unseen
Forces That Stand in the Way of True
Inspiration, by Amy Wallace and Ed Catmull
I read at least one book a month, always focusing my
attention to some specific aspect of startups and thinking
how to apply the learning to my own company.
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24
Keep a
Diary
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f I had to pick one thing that provided me with good

opportunities, it would be that Ive always kept a journal of
notes. This serves me so well that I basically complete one
notebook per month. I take notes of pretty much everything:
observations, ideas, things to do, inner thoughts. I transform
every interaction I have into several records.
About eight years ago I discovered the benefits of keeping
a daily journal and since then I have accumulated nearly
100 notebooks full of knowledge. It is so important to my
life that I have a daily show about it on the radio in Brazil
and a YouTube channel with over 300 videos on the most
important notes from my notebooks. If you want to know
more, you can do so by visiting www.caderninhodabel.com.
Keeping a diary has many advantages, and many of them

are very subtle but at the same time very important. First,
when we write, we think beyond the what. We think
about the why and also about the how. This leads us to
understand our actions (and their possible consequences)
on a completely different level.
In addition, diaries help us learn more about who we are.
Self-awareness is one of the most powerful tools out there.
Understanding what matters to you, what makes you happy,
what energizes you and what
Understanding what you do not want for your
matters to you, what life can help you take better
makes you happy, what decisions. These decisions
energizes you and what often involve other people
you do not want for your as well, and the observations
life can help you take

better decisions.
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noted in your diary can help you better understand the

relationship you have with the people in your life.
Also, setting down on paper your reality with challenges
and achievements gives you a more realistic view of what
you are capable of achieving. When you write your goals in
your journal, you learn to articulate them more eloquently
and achieving them feels instantly more possible. More than
that, the steps which should be taken to transform your
dreams into reality become much clearer.
Another interesting advantage is that you will always have
a permanent record of your past which prevents the lessons
you learned from being lost. Reading old notes can be very
valuable because it helps you not forget the context of the
past. These readings value the past and teach through the
past. They also help you see things as they are, no worse or
better than reality. That way, you can plan a more feasible
future.
The main reason why I record my everyday life is because
it helps me feel life. And then it transforms feelings into
memories, forever. Want to feel your past, present and
future? Get a notebook.
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Bels Notebook - August 2006

On the plane on my way to Boston from Brazil
Soon I will begin a new life in a new country, with new friends
and new adventures. I already miss my family and Brazilian
friends, the life that I had in Brazil that I loved so much. But
I miss it with a smile on my face. I will do everything for this
change to be worth it. I will also find ways, every day, to bring
those who are already in my life closer.
to MIT
when I get
Priorities
ions for
t my opt
u
o
b
a
rn
a
(1) Le
ses and
and clas
courses
my first
sses for
decide cla
semester
, or three!)
ob (or two
(2) Find a j
e
around th
eople from
p
t
e
e
M
)
(3
world
My first day at MIT

,
First year students have to get here at MIT before school starts
to attend an orientation of what to expect in the next years.
People coming from outside the country have to arrive even earlier
ies
to take part of International Orientation, a week of activit
focused on guiding those who are new to the US.
loving
Im here with about 100 people from all over the world. I am
s.
hearing so many different accents, so many ideas, so many dream
These next four years will be awesome. Among the people I talked
them
to today, three were very interesting and I want to know
from
better: Manu, from Costa Rica; Stella, from Greece; and Alex,
Portugal.
more
this week so everyone can tell me
Idea: Organize a lunch with them
ted =)
exci
Very
Lunch has been scheduled!
about their life stories. Update:
Bels Notebook - May 2011

Thought of the day
t
B2B companies can be very difficult to manage. As a Produc
Manager, I want to spec out features that put us in the lead
as a company in the medium and longer term. However, I also
understand the importance of closing sales and bringing real
income for the company, especially when you are before a million
dollar agreement. But when sales representatives offer more
we
than we have just to close the deal, it can be a problem. If
offer more than we have, then we need to put together what

ic
we do not have. Sometimes the customers requests are specif
the
and do not apply to other clients, or are not aligned with
to
want for our longer-term, with what I think we really need
differentiate ourselves.
Learning: find out how to weigh the

long-term strategic positioning issue vs.
survival by closing deals now
Bel s Notebook - July 2014

FazINOVA Courses We
Could Create
Happiness
The Silicon Valley Way
Of Thinking
Storytelling
Quality Service
User Experience
-> Create a draft of
the course content
over the coming
weeks
Recruiting for next mo

nth
(FazINOVA Family is Gr
owing!)
2 Developers
1 Video Editor
1 Designer
To think:
If you think you are the
table, then you are at the smart one at the
wrong table
25
Find Your
Passions
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
aving passion for the things I do has made all the

difference in my life. It is difficult to put into words
what passion is since it is something that you
feel deep in your heart. When you are passionate about
something, you suddenly have infinite energy to work day
and night on it. It is a somewhat magical feeling.
If you do not know what your passions are, dedicate some
time to find them. It may take a while, but the discovery
process is totally worth it. It is a great way to learn more
about yourself.
You can start simple: first focus on broader topics, such as
travel, music, finance, books and computer science. Some of
these make sense for you. Pick one or two and then think
of more specific topics. For example, if you like finance,
immerse yourself in the subject so you can understand what
is it in finance that interests you so much. Simultaneously,
the question What matters to me? can be of great help.
What activities do you enjoy? Who are the people that
inspire you and why?
In addition to being aware of what matters to you, you must
be open to new experiences. You never know when you will
discover a new passion. Entrepreneurship and music are two
of my greatest passions and I only learned this in college,
when I was doing subjects that were not mandatory. Never
stop exploring.
When you find your passion, you may know it almost
instantly. You may feel something special. You will surprise
yourself with how much you can produce. For example,
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I love the fact that in a few weeks, millions of people will

have access to this book. It fills my heart with happiness.
That is why I do not care about the fact that it is now four in
the morning and I keep writing. This energy comes from the
fact that I am doing something I love. But passion does not
always click instantly. Sometimes passion grows slowly, so
bear with this search.
Silicon Valley has some extremely passionate entrepreneurs.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it is the birthplace
of so many companies. Startups are intensive labor. Often,
you will need to put all your energy into your startup. You
will constantly be spending the whole day with your team,
trying to learn as much as you can about various topics.
Passion keeps you focused on your long-term mission and
also makes work fun. Passion gives you the courage to step
out of your comfort zone and venture into unknown lands.
Some entrepreneurs are very attached to their ideas. In
general that is great, but often the ideas and products
change during the course of a business. Entrepreneurs must
strive to be passionate about solving a necessity. If the
original method is not successful, you can adapt easily and
keep working hard on a new way to solve the problem.
Passion helps you look for the best in yourself. When you
find your passion you will understand much better who you
are and you will be able to work on what really matters to
you. Being able to focus on your passions is an incredibly
wonderful feeling. Do not be afraid of trying new things so
you can experience this feeling.
123
26
The
Value of
Feedback
Bel Pesce
ome
people
love
feedback. Some people
hate it. There is a
simple reason for this. The
quality of the feedback and
its effectiveness depend on
the maturity of who is giving
it and who is receiving the
suggestion.

SILICON VALLEY
The quality of the

feedback and its
effectiveness depend
on the maturity of
who is giving it and
who is receiving the
suggestion.
The receiving part must understand that every criticism

is an opportunity for growth. It is very common to take
opinions personally, when in fact we would get much more
from the advice if we listened to it honestly thinking about
how we can improve the negative points. Maybe you do not
agree with what is being said. No problem, not everyone
will understand your situation clearly, so some advice will
be unfair or inapplicable. But instead of becoming defensive
about it, be thankful, explain that you never saw it that way
and that you will pay more attention to it in the future. You
can even explain your point of view, clearly and with lots of
patience, and if the feedback really does not make sense,
you may discard it. I never saw anyone grow by getting into
a giant exhausting fight about rejecting feedback.
Feedback is good to reflect on. If you can ask questions
during the feedback, do not try to explain yourself. Instead
try to understand what is being said and why. As hard as it
is to cope with some suggestions, take these comments as
a gift. Do not judge them before thinking a bit more about
them. Sometimes we close our ears too soon and end up
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SILICON VALLEY
missing out on some nuggets of gold that could be hidden

in the feedback.
The point is not to always simply accept any

feedback, and then suffer and decide to change.
The point is to learn as much as possible from
each suggestion.
The point is not to always simply accept any feedback, and
then suffer and decide to change. The point is to learn as
much as possible from each suggestion. As you interact
with the same people in your life, it will be clearer to you
which opinions are highly valuable. Usually the opinions that
matters are not from the ones who love everything you do,
but rather those who, knowing that you could be doing even
better, make it a point to tell you.
You lose a lot of information if the receiver has maturity
but the speaker does not. A student who participated in
one of my course made a beautiful presentation about the
right way to give feedback. She explained that the best
feedback is true, specific, relevant and timely. It is best to
give a specific, real, and relatively recent example, and relate
that to something that matters to the person. The focus of
the suggestion should be on how to improve. It is better
to suggest solutions focusing on the situation rather than
focusing on the person.
Finally, if you need to give feedback to someone, do it
directly. Do not criticize that person inderectly to other,
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this is irrelevant and can turn into gossip rather than into
something that will help. Feedback can be one of the best
ways to understand how to improve. But only if both sides
understand its value.
128
27
Find People Who

Were in Your
Shoes Some
Years Ago
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
his lesson has changed my life. I have always believed

that hard work and passion are extremely important
to succeed. If you put your mind and heart into the
things you want to achieve, you will get what you want.
Over the past years, I learned
Along with hard work
that, along with hard work and
and passion, there is
passion, there is something
something that makes
that makes you grow much
you grow much faster:
faster: relevant advice. When
relevant advice.
I first moved to the Valley, I
was very happy to meet with people who some years ago
had similar experiences to those I have today. They were
in their 20s and were starting companies, full of initiative,
energy and excitement. At that time, everything was
new, but today, after many years of experience, they have
accumulated unvaluable lessons.
Some amazing people helped me with extremely valuable
advice. It is phenomenal how they are willing to help
without asking for anything in return - they just want to see
a passionate young entrepreneur grow. Maybe someone
helped them in the past and they want to continue this
positive chain. Maybe no one helped them in the past and
they know how much it would have accelerated them. Either
way, these people spend hours and hours sharing them
wisdom.
It is worthwhile to look for people who have gone through
something similar to what you are experiencing now. Find
these people, tell your story and some of your plans for
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SILICON VALLEY
them. Ask for advice. Do not be afraid to send emails to

people you do not know personally. Also, make sure that
you keep in touch and take very good care of these mentors.
I found one of my biggest mentors at a dinner with Brazilian
people in Silicon Valley, where we talked for three minutes.
Our connection could have ended there. But fortunately,
we exchanged emails and decided to meet again. Today we
have the most amazing friendship that I could hope for and
an enormous respect and admiration for each other.
The advice that mentor gave me made me grow a lot as an
entrepreneur, as a leader and as a person. We talk about
how to engage and motivate a team, how to build trust with
others, how to add more balance to our lives, how to handle
the media, how to raise money, how to stay faithful to our
values and
more. We also talk a lot about past mistakes and

what can be done to avoid or minimize them. If I have any
questions, I know I can call this mentor and friend at any
time.
For an entrepreneurial ecosystem to work, it is crucial that
more experienced entrepreneurs are available to guide the
new generation. Listening to honest advice from people who
have more experience made all the difference to me. Look
for people who a few years ago were going through similar
experiences to your own. Chances are that those people will
make all the difference for you too.
131
28
Make
People
Curious
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
nowing how to delight your users with products

and services you create can be great for your
company. Knowing how to fascinate your employees,
collaborators and partners with a great vision may be what
enables the creation of such delightful products.
There are some ways to make that enchantment even more
likely to happen. It all starts with something simple, but
very powerful: awaking the curiosity of people. Do not just
explain what you are doing. Explain why you are creating
this company and how it is different from everything else
out there. Show the purpose of it all, show how you will
change lives for the better.
For example, one thing is to say what we do at FazINOVA:
we create personal and professional development courses.
Another completely different thing is to explain why we do
this: we believe that all people in this world have talents, and
that by using these talents they can unleash their potential
and dreams. Our courses exist to help people discover their
skills, develop them to the fullest and connect them to
others who can help them turn their dreams into reality.
Tell good stories and unwind them slowly. Create beautiful
(and real) expectations and, whenever possible, show and
demonstrate instead of simply talking. Apple is a master
at this. Show poeple how they will feel when your company
achieves it goals. Make people understand in their gut what
it will feel like as your product makes progress. Interact with
them so that you understand with more clarity the effect
your products have on people.
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Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
To truly awaken the curiosity of outsiders, you cannot spoil

the surprise-effect. Show whatever you judge necessary so
that people are interested in the story, but do not show the
big ending right at the beginning. Let people unveil little by
little how all that work can transform the world.
With curiosity in hand, a
Show the process,
job well done and steady
show the progress
progress, enchanting your
and remember there is
clients becomes a more
always a dialogue of
possible goal. Show the
feelings.
process, show the progress
and remember there is always a dialogue of feelings. What
story will you tell and what product will you create to actually
build this story?
135
29
Impress the
World With Your
Motivation
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
nitiative is one of the most

Initiative is one of the
powerful skills you can
most powerful skills
have. If we stop to observe,
you can have.
there is usually someone
generating work for us. Be it our teachers, our parents or
our bosses, almost always there are people creating tasks
for us to complete.
It is great to achieve everything others expect of you. But it
is amazing when you go beyond expectations. The best way
to surprise people is by taking initiative. Do not be afraid to
think differently or to start projects of your own. Start now,
do not wait until someone asks you to do something.
The best way to

surprise people is by
taking initiative. Do
not be afraid to think
differently or to start
projects of your own.
Try to always stay one

step ahead. Do not follow
rules when it comes to
achievements. Are all your
friends seeking employment
when they are in the third
year of college? Find a job
in the first year. Do you love guitar and your music teacher
expects you to play an hour a day? Practice much more.
Does everyone begin to prepare for university exams a
few months before the deadline? Start years before. Are
people promoted every two years in your company? Do a
phenomenal job and get promoted faster. Sometimes it will
not work, but having the initiative to move in the direction
of some of these goals is the hardest part. Once you start,
always strive to do your best.
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SILICON VALLEY
Your goals will constantly depend on other people. Lets

assume that you are going through some difficult situations
at work. If you find that something is not going well, speak
up. But do not just complain. Think of real solutions to the
problems. If you come prepared to improve the situation for
everyone, you will be highly respected and begin to build a
very good reputation.
You are probably capable of doing much more than you can
even think of. Make a list of some of your goals for the year.
If you have initiative, you can probably achieve each one of
them. Surprises are good and welcome, but the feeling of
having control over your life is simply unbelievable. Imagine
that every year you can complete everything you dreamed
of for that year. With initiative, this can become a reality.
Every day you make decisions that reflect on the quality of
the things you do. Stop and pay attention to small and large
changes you can make to become better every day. Think
about how you can use initiative to go beyond expectations.
In the end, you may even surprise yourself.
138
30
How
Entrepreneurship
Changes You
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
do not want to scare you with this chapter. But I must tell
you the truth about what it is like to be an entrepreneur
and what you will feel when you enter this world. Starting
a company is a mission for the strong ones. Being an
entrepreneur is for those who can handle a roller coaster of
emotions. Being an entrepreneur is for those who can stand
to live in the midst of uncertainty and have a lot of resilience
before a fall or a slap in the face. When you throw yourself
at this task of creating a
Starting a company company, you can be sure of
is a mission for the one thing: you will change.
strong ones. Being an Being an entrepreneur
entrepreneur is for those brings you a unique maturity.
who can handle a roller

coaster of emotions.
Many people romanticize

what being an entrepreneur
is all about. Yes, it does have fantastic sides to it. Being able
to create something that can change lives for the better is
amazing. When you see someone using your product, with
a beautiful smile on their face, your standards about the
power you have in your hands will change. This change is a
great one. But after you have reached this achievement of
touching lives once, get ready: that will be your reference
point forever. You will always ask if the actions you are taking
are the best possible to touch as many lives as possible, as
positively as possible. This becomes a question that will
always be with you.
Creating products and touching lives is magnific. But the
truth is that you will not spend most of your day creating.
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The three big tasks of an entrepreneur end up being the

following: solving problem after problem, ensuring that
the company has enough money to survive and managing
people. For all three of these items, you need a strong heart
to deal with surprises.
People can surprise you in a good way with their amazing
work. When this happens, it is delicious. And that changes
you: it brings you more confidence in humanity and a positive
outlook on the world. When you realize you are creating
jobs for these people, that your business is attracting these
wonderful people, you realize how much you can accomplish.
But there are people who, unfortunately, surprise you in a
bad way. As a manager, you may think that there is always a
way to fix this, and you may decide to spend lots of energy
to help these people. Some people will change, and you
will be very happy with it. Other people, on the other hand,
may surprise you again, even more negatively. And then it
changes you again: you learn that the fate of some people
in your life is purely to show you what you do not want for
yourself.
You also learn that the words of
some people are worth as much
as a contract signed in blood.
There are serious people out
there. But there are also people
whose words are worth nothing.
And then being an entrepreneur
changes you again: you only
And then being

an entrepreneur
changes you
again: you only
celebrate an
agreement when
it is fully signed
by all parts.
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SILICON VALLEY
celebrate an agreement when it is fully signed by all parts.

You only celebrate a big sale when the money has arrived to
your bank account. You learn not celebrate too early.
In the end, it all ends up generating good changes. Because
the real entrepreneur is relentless. The ones who really
want to make an impact will not give up in face of these
uncertainties and painful lessons. The ones who understand
their responsibilities do not suffer from the fact that
sometimes they will be making a decision along. Because
when you get to that point, touching lives will be a certain
goal, totally non-negotiable.
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31
Advice > Money
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
his piece of advice is not very intuitive, but if you

are looking for investments, the best thing to do is
to ask for advice. When you ask for advice on how to
improve your product or business model, you get to build a
relationship with the investor.
When you ask for

advice on how
to improve your
product or business
model, you get to
build a relationship
with the investor.
The period in which the investor

gives you advice is like dating.
During this time, you can show the
investor what it is like to work with
your team and test whether the
partnership would work well before
committing to something more
serious.
If the period does not go too well, thank them for their
advice, and do not ask for money. On the other hand, if the
investor really feels like he is contributing to the idea and if
you agree that he is adding value, it will not take long until
the relationship grows stronger. As you start to incorporate
the investors advice into your product, he will feel more and
more a part of your company. This will probably cause him
to continue contributing, creating a virtuous cycle.
The most interesting part of this process is that when you
add the investors suggestions to your plans, you end up
making the investment seem less risky in the eyes of the
investor. And when it is time to raise capital, he will already
have a reliable relationship with your team.
Asking for advice is a great strategy, but lets look at an
145
Bel Pesce

SILICON VALLEY
alternative. Suppose you meet with an investor, and then

you ask him right away if he is interested in investing in your
company. This is not necessarily bad, but somewhat limits
your chances, because suddenly, the investor is forced to
decide yes or no.
Typically, investors talk to thousands of entrepreneurs every
year, and the vast majority of entrepreneurs ask for capital.
The investors job is to filter the opportunities and decide
which ones to take. In general, only a very small percentage
of companies receive investment. The investor is an expert
in identifying weaknesses in companies, because part of his
job is to dismiss most of the opportunities quickly as it is
impossible to analyze all companies deeply.
For all these reasons, it is worthwhile to invite potential
investors to be mentors for your company. The relationship
may take some time to develop, so start asking for advice
months before starting the fundraising process. If any of the
investors become an active mentor, and add true value to
your company, chances are that capital will come naturally.
146
About The Author

Bel Pesce is a passionate entrepreneur and
founder of FazINOVA, a school that helps
people of all ages achieve their dreams. She
studied at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), where she got majors in
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
and Management Science, and got minors
in Economics and Mathematics.
Bel is also an author of three bestselling
books: The Brazilian Girl from Silicon
Valley, Superheroes: WANTED and The
Brazilian Girl from Silicon Valley 2, the last
two available only in Portuguese. Her books
have been downloaded over 2 million times
and sold over 100,000 copies.
Bel was named one of the 100 most
influential people of Brazil by Epoca
Magazine, 30 under 30 by Forbes
Magazine, and voted as one of the 10 most
admired leaders of Brazil. Recently, Bel
won the Cartier Womens Initiative Awards,
and brought to Brazil for the first time the
renowned Cartier award which evaluates
projects of entrepreneurial women from all
around the world.
She is a TED Fellow and frequent speaker,
having delivered over 200 talks worldwide.
To download this book, visit

www.thebraziliangirlfromsiliconvalley.com
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International
You are free to:
Share copy and redistribute the material in any

medium or format
Under the following terms:

Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link
to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do
so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests
the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial You may not use the material for

commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives If you remix, transform, or build upon

the material, you may not distribute the modified
material.
For more information visit the site:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

The Brazilian girl from Silicon Valley who became a responsible entrepreneur

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The Brazilian girl from Silicon Valley who became a responsible entrepreneur

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Bel Pesce

The Brazilian girl

How being a responsible

I am also very grateful to everyone who helped me in the

2. Work Really Hard 

3. Move Fast, But Be Patient 

4. Cultivate an Open Mind

6. Share What You Know

7. Share Your Struggles 

8. Let Others Find Out About Your Triumphs

9. Forget The Glamour 

10. Find People Who Want You To Be Successful

11. Little Things That Make a Difference 

12. Think Longer-Term

13. Get Used To Learning From Your Mistakes 

14. Dream Big But Keep Your Execution Down-To-Earth 

15. The Real Value of a Business Plan

16. Trust Yourself

17. Do Not Worry About Your Age

18. Personal Goals vs Business Goals

19. Find Out Who Inspires You And Why

20. Learn To Say No 

21. Team, Team, Team 

22. Be Hungry To Learn 

23. Books Worth Reading

24. Keep a Diary

25. Find Your Passions 

26. The Value of Feedback

28. Make People Curious

29. Impress the World With Your Motivation

30. How Entrepreneurship Changes You 

31. Advice > Money 

To Bruna Pesce, the most

by Flvio Augusto da Silva

by Jorge Paulo Lemann

online courses. The courses she set up already enrolled 2,000

My company www.fazinova.com.br offers several free online

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

have always been obsessed with knowledge. Since my

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

learning more and more about how to build a business.

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

will be on this entrepreneurial

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

ometimes we hear stories of people who accomplish

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

Through a friend, I found the address of a former MIT student

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

seat turned out to be my seat. I was able to do the SATs. A

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

ilicon Valley is full of technology startups, many of

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

Measure-Learn. Lets take Zappos as an example. Their

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

the culture just because you are trying to move faster.

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

have always liked to observe the world. I find it fascinating

If you do not open

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

If you do not open your mind, it is like seeing everything

THE BRAZILIAN GIRL FROM

umility is one of the most important virtues anyone

and get the most

2. Work Really Hard

3. Move Fast, But Be Patient

4. Cultivate an Open Mind

6. Share What You Know

7. Share Your Struggles

8. Let Others Find Out About Your Triumphs

9. Forget The Glamour

10. Find People Who Want You To Be Successful

11. Little Things That Make a Difference

12. Think Longer-Term

13. Get Used To Learning From Your Mistakes

14. Dream Big But Keep Your Execution Down-To-Earth

15. The Real Value of a Business Plan

16. Trust Yourself

17. Do Not Worry About Your Age

18. Personal Goals vs Business Goals

19. Find Out Who Inspires You And Why

20. Learn To Say No

21. Team, Team, Team

22. Be Hungry To Learn

23. Books Worth Reading

24. Keep a Diary

25. Find Your Passions

26. The Value of Feedback

28. Make People Curious

29. Impress the World With Your Motivation

30. How Entrepreneurship Changes You

31. Advice > Money