Rachel GarcĂa is a wonderful entrepreneur, with invaluable experience in her first project: Jumperr, whose story undoubtedly deserves an article by its protagonist. Rachel is currently studying theVII edition of the Scalabl Entrepreneurship and Innovation Course in Buenos Aires. When thanking him for a deep and forceful reflection that he published, In our Academy's Facebook group, his response caused me to panic. a smile, followed by a warm feeling of joy in your chest.
Then I started I began to write a paragraph trying to convey a memory to the group, and that led to in this article, which leads me to redefine history, merging with the moment that I live today with Scalabl Global. Although it is very personal, I decided to share it because I consider that it conveys a series of important learnings.
“Francisco, when I listened to you speak for the first time I thought that you were a little utopian…”
Enormously grateful!
“Utopian”, a word that has been sweetly said to me since I can remember (almost a child). Others, without so much tact, simply called me “crazy”.
Fran: (argument)
Mundo: “What you say is utopian”
Step 1: Entry
At first, immaturity led me to get angry, to insist in a thousand ways, to look for infinite arguments (mom very subtly called me "the drill") so that people would believe in me, to show that I was trying to point out valid and possible ways (but outside the norm) to alleviate their frustration (considering myself victims, I would learn later) and encourage them to achieve what they expressed they wanted (or that I did not know then, I saw inside them). Caring, protecting others, the relative nature of conventions (and their social establishment that is often confused with “the truth” or “what is”) kept me awake from early on. Maybe for seeing my loved ones suffer for many years, or having extreme sensitivity, or perhaps because I myself felt devalued, diminished, misunderstood. Obviously without credentials, nor developed emotional intelligence, nor clear, slow and confident rhetoric (because the arguments did not differ much from those I maintain now), my struggle was in vain and filled me with insecurity about myself, it convinced me of my own madness (that voice of others), and it made me feel totally helpless, although without overturning my convictions or my desire and self-imposed goal in an almost irremediable, to change the world. Making a parallel with the entrepreneurial methodology that I teach today in Customer Development, it can be said that I repeated over and over again, what I call “the bighead” (hearing that the consumer wants something else, which is clearly not your target and continuing to insist on supporting your product).
Step 2: Strong. Strong Dish.
[In case of allergy to philosophy, we suggest maintaining accelerated reading and not stopping at the concepts].
Adolescence, economically independent since the age of 16 for having created the second chat program in Spanish (on IRC) at the age of 13 and generating a violent monopoly, found me I was totally unleashed, especially from the determination to follow my own path and experience my beliefs (even with a great level of suffering and anguish). Taking refuge in a deep introspection (philosophy always with real application), he remained determined to make people see the infinity of possible paths (rescuing the value of utopia), certain that the real world was that of “being”, where feeling became full by manifest the infinite potential of one's own essence in a state of self-acceptance. In contrast to the “system”, which trained us to carry out social and normalizing behaviors, distancing us from that naturalness of “being” and focusing on “distractions” (work, goods, money, routines) that somehow protected us by isolating our abyss from that of others. He imagined the ideal world as one in which we could all live the real thing, the “being” with acceptance and respect also from others, and he outlined as multiple examples of those possible paths that could materialize this vision in practice. Love (for me the purest feeling) was caring for the other not from one but from the other. The nickname of madness already sounded flattering by then. LucĂa had 20 cm of “afro” hair (yes, it grows upwards and then turns into dreadlocks!), speaking in a loquacious but incomprehensible way, at an overwhelming speed, for hours, insatiable, with a mind that did not stop. It is not difficult to imagine then, that my attitude did not help to gain friends, and even less loves, that were not "impossible." Those loves were my terrain of battle and training against the "utopian", where I demonstrated case by case, that any "utopia" (with more quotes than ever), with creativity, work, and relentless resilience, it could become reality (to girls who, out of incomprehension, surprise, or their own insecurity, bet on me for a while, sometimes long, and believed (they believed!) to finally surrender to the impossible). It was there, in those passions, in those challenges, in those stories, that caring, protecting, loving, developing the other, and making it possible (showing that it was!) came together: the most intimate part of myself, "my being", which even today gives me happiness full.
I never lost In any case, the conviction that he held from a very young age, that the only way to change things was to be "the best in the system" (once again a bit exaggerated!). He insisted that "the good ones" stayed micro, and were not willing to make the effort and the learning path required (a life) to reach that level of transformative power. Always prioritizing ends over forms (unacceptable), the “bad” They had that tenacity and dedication (hence the negative connotation of power), and outraged by this fact (and a fervent believer and defender of replacing the definition of the word "utopia" in the Royal Spanish Academy) I took the responsibility of doing something about it.
Meanwhile and almost without realizing it, with my life experience completely elsewhere, and suffering from reality deeply, my family-driven self-demand as a child (mamma! with all the good and bad of her unconditional love and desire to give me intellect, sensitivity, kindness, culture and tools prematurely), found me By surprise, not only received with honors but with a Master's Degree in Economics at the age of 23 (when I say surprise I mean surprise, studying as I could, with what was left of my body, the night before, with the blessing of notes from classmates of prodigious prolixity, and perhaps with the added value of the training of “war” secondary school at the National School of Buenos Aires, which also contributed enormously to my philosophical tendency and enormous imbalance).
Step 3: UTOPIC Sweet
Experience, security, emotional intelligence, the ability to manage teams, to alternate between land and flight, to adapt to circumstances, to know how to read others and different situations, the ability to intuit the validity of one's own intuition, patience, the importance of not overprotecting to develop, along with many other learnings, emerged in two fundamental areas:
1) in corporate life (where meeting objectives and growing required a level of attention, continuous learning, perseverance, strategy, results, politics, solid and stable relationships, and care for every word, where a mistake could deviate you a year from the goal of the "system", which in turn, was an indirect goal for me “utopian” final dream).
2) In healthier and more stable relationships with wonderful people, and the possibility of spending my last 9 years in love with my current wife, Roxana, who chose me. completely from what I am and among many virtues, I consider her a being of superior emotional intelligence (only surpassed by her mother, my mother-in-law, my much admired Mari!). Yes, that was also a problem for me. lucky.
Rachel, I haven't heard that word "utopian" in a while today, and I think that's why your comment raised eyebrows. This sweet memory drew me a smile, and with a simple phrase, he made all this ebullition arise(I wrote this text in succession, then I made small style corrections to it)
The credentials, the path taken, being "respected", having the collection of elements that society takes as a proxy (or reference) to validate your speech, makes, as I anticipated, As a child, the way people listen to things changes (I complete my curriculum since I can remember by choosing activities strategically, obtaining titles and “awards” that cost me very little and that people overvalue, aiming to be better every day “in the system”).
From these credentials, and as credibility grows, I affirm that a large percentage of people admire you and surrender to the message before starting to speak, with a conviction so immediate that it always surprises me again, and another percentage (also inexplicably) secretly hates you with great depth or conspires in the shadows, tries to hurt you and succeeds (with a mixture of jealousy, resentment and admiration, but not against you, but against the symbolic figure that they project of one). There it is the intelligence (and major challenge) of not letting oneself be affected and choosing the best way to respond (which in general, and with experience, involves knowing that when one has power, and even if one is right, one always loses in the confrontation).
Coffee and Tiramisu truffle
No bill but with tip (applause and sharing!)
It is important to understand that in each case, what is called “utopian” They are simply our dreams.If you saw the things I heard and I saw in Singularity… If you imagined the “utopian” square of the world we will have in a few years (I will tell you much more about this). Everything, everything, surpasses the greatest science fiction book you have not only read, but also imagined. We are rapidly approaching a world without impossible things. [I REPEAT: We are rapidly approaching a world WITHOUT impossible things]. And there is still time to discover with entrepreneurial methodology, working in community, combining talents, taking care of ourselves, sharing what we feel, what happened to us, as Rachel did in our group, or as I do now, who we really are and our dreams: that those Impossible things no longer exist today nor did they exist yesterday.
We don't even need the technology that is coming. Technology is a product of “utopia”, sustained over time by millions of Homo Sapiens. Since we invented the first technologies, tools (a sharp stick to hunt or defend oneself, some element to take shelter, an element to light a fire or cook).
We aim and have the opportunity today to form with Scalabl a real community, where for the first time the dreams of many mix naturally with the system, and the system with dreams, where organizations are generated with the purpose of good, and their reward is the satisfaction of fulfilling our vision and leaving a legacy by living and manifesting each one of us. essence, being happy, living by being what we are (remember that money is the intermediate step to buy things that lead us to that, this path is much more direct). And Scalabl is just one of thousands of communities that are forming.
In my vision, the world that is coming is not a world of hierarchies, it is not a world of successful or unsuccessful, it is not a vertical world. Or more than ever, it may not be! With enormous probability it will be. a horizontal world where each one as an entrepreneur (formal work will disappear, yes) and from his talent generates value for others independently or in a community (pay attention to crowdsourcing, it is going very unnoticed among other exponential technologies). The world of tomorrow depends radically and today more than ever on the values that leaders and individuals manifest in actions or inaction. What follows is a struggle of values, and we are all participants in this game:
Each individual decision, each word, each act, each posture towards the other, will be fundamental and multiplier from now on. Individuals, due to our impact on communities, will become more influential than ever in history in the world to come.
My vision, my dream with Scalabl, and fortunately, after a long road, that of so many other Alumni (we are already 400!) is to have a global, diverse community, with values of good, of caring for others, and experts in playing the game of making possible, that helps from every area, from every science, from every angle, and united from the power of our differences, to win this battle.
Thank you! for hearing this part of my story. Thank you Rachel for everything you provoked in me with your reflection and that comment! Your act is conclusive proof of how your individual contribution to the community nourishes others and generates new multiplying possibilities.
Big hug! And yes… Treat yourself, if I still don't convince you, you can call me “&UTOPICO”
With enormous affection and dedication,
Francisco Santolo
