thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
NEVER had any general strike in our history. There were some important strikes on important economic centers in Sao Paulo on the beginning of our democracy and some other important manifestations, but never a general strike. One teacher used to say: if they increase the price of the bread in France, there is a general strike installed. A bit exaggerated, but still close to the truth.And then I was making a parallel. Even in US the democracy is not very strong. If you see, there is a difference between the representativeness of each state, tons of people doesnt vote, and yes, people fears the government. When you look at countries in Western Europe, they actually had a millenary construction of a strong democracy. Due to that, now, they can have their governments under their control. Its not perfect. It will never be. But it is still much better than we have in Latin America.After a reflection, still thinking about what we could actually do, I got to my partial and for-now conclusion that we will need to... wait. It will be very hard to change the country in so many ways that is needed for us to reach a true and inclusiveness democracy. We would need decent politicians, decent pensions, a fair health system, decent educational systems and above all, people thinking more about their society than about themselves.
Its weird to be writing this note, but I am strangely happy. First of all I want to say that I am not someone that doesnt like soccer or that doesnt love my country. I truly do. But, in this world cup, for me, it was somehow much more than about just soccer.Our coach is a new guy. He was a brave warrior in the cups that he participated. He was always someone that pushed the team and raised their energies and etc. That must be credited to him, of course. But, as a coach of our team... for me he was a completely disaster.Talking about soccer, and only soccer, he decided to choose the most committed players. There was a reason for that. Last world cup, the whole country was disappointed with the attitude of our players. They didnt show any commitment and energy to win that world cup.However, the decision that our coach took was at least, infantile. He selected just the fully committed players. And what about the talent? What about the so admired Brazilian soccer and soccer players? Why to do not chose a talented substitute for Kaka, our best player when everything pointed for him to do not be 100% for this cup? Summing up, choosing people like: Felipe Melo, Michel Bastos, Kleberson, Josue, Donni... was at least, very controversial.But I am not strangely happy because of this. I am strangely happy because of the completely unacceptable attitude and posture of our coach. He a bunch of things that couldnt be accepted by anyone: he said bad words about journalists in a press conference, he started a war with all the media channels, he was aggressive and was incoherent with his own decision in many times.So, why am I strangely happy? Its somehow simple. During my whole life I was criticized to have the same attitudes that was questioned and pointed about our coach. Many people, so many times, asked me to chance my behavior and to be a friendly person and to consider more the others opinions and etc. I worked hard many years to be shaped more in this sense. Nowadays, I feel like I am much more like this than I was 5 years ago. So, why should we support such a stupid behavior in a true Brazilian leader? Someone that in this season is one of the most important people in the country even more than our president.Therefore, somehow I am happy. Of course I would be happy to see my team to win this championship. But more than that I would like those lessons to be learned in our country and to be taken for the most important world cup in our history, 2014! There, with any coach, any selection of players, in any city... I will be fully supporting our team. Because, today, I think we have learned the hard lesson. Generally its not the easiest job in the world for me to find a topic to write here. I really take care of the few people that take their time
to come here and see what I am talking about. In this post specifically, I had some troubles defining the title. Now that I have it, I can go ahead.I was born in a small city, moved for another one and during this period until the time that I got old enough my family lost the resources that could allow me to see the world. I needed to find my own way to do it.Looking back the most important moment that comes up to my mind in this journey was when I tried to join the Junior Enterprise (if you dont know what it is, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_enterprise ) in the engineering school. When I was accepted to the engineering course it was already the 6th call for students. Just I and one more were called that time. I saw the folder about the Junior Enterprise and went there to know how I could participate on their selection process. They told me that I couldnt apply because they have already closed the applications to the process. I talked to the HR Manager and explained him my situation and they decided to accept me. That small act changed my life.I joined the Junior Enterprise and got passionate enough to decide to quit the engineering course and join the business management one. It was funny because at that time, I used to spend more time on the enterprise than at the classes.I was accepted to the business school and there I already knew: I wanted to join the junior enterprise. Its funny but, the one from the engineering course at that time seemed to be better organized than the one in the business school. Because of that, at the beginning, I wasnt very excited about it. But afterwards with my plans for that organization I started to dedicate more and more. In the end of my first year there, with one vote of difference I was elected president.I had a very successful year and due to that I received the invitation to participate in almost every other student organization in our faculty and afterwards in AIESEC the person that insisted so much for me to join AIESEC was a very special friend that have seen me working on the Junior Enterprise.From that time on, what I have conquered during these years:- I flighted for the first time in my life from Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre;- I met people from more than 10 states in my own country. I have friends on each of those states right now;- I learned how to speak better English even staying in Brazil by living with foreign people;- I spent an year working as national director and also have the chance to work closely to the most important conference held in the history of AIESEC in Brazil;- I worked with people from 6 different countries while in AIESEC in Brazil;- I left my country for the first time (my dream from the beginning of this post). I not only did that but I visited a total of
7 countries in less than a year;- Ive learned Spanish and lived in Mexico a country that stole part of my heart;- I have friends now from all over the world. Some of them are from countries that I barely knew that they existed, before I joined this last position of regional manager. Well, I could write here MUCH more. But thats not the meaning of this post. The idea of it is to make you to think about the importance of that day that I needed to convince the HR manager of the Junior Enterprise of the Engineering School that I should be able to apply for their selection process. And thats what I am asking for the AIESEC network more often right now. Why all of this people are not stepping ahead? What exactly are you winning and what are you losing just because youre not trying to do your next steps?There are hundreds of opportunities in our organization for good people like you and they are being left without anyone, just because nobody is applying. If AIESEC supposed to be an organization to provide you the opportunity to try, why so few ones are taking this risk?It makes me a bit disappointed with the organization to see that amazing people are just afraid of themselves. And this unconsciously makes me think if its exactly whats happening for example with the politicians worldwide. If the ones that are accepting the challenges, are doing that not because they are good, but because all the others just gave up on their will to do so.I dont know the answer for these questions. But I will always remind the few steps ahead that I took in my life that brought me here (and also the many ones that I tried to take, but I just couldnt).
I have seen a very exciting lecture some months ago from a consultant devoted to Innovation from Chile that said something that has changed me forever. He told a story about a friend of him who went to US and got to meet some of the guys from MIT. He asked him: "And so man are them really that much better than us?" His friend answered: "Actually not. They are really good. But as good as them, there are many others here in Chile. But something that they have different is that, they have better dreams." It really changed my life. So, that's it. We're just about to launch a project that took a lot of my time in the past year, but much more than a simple project, it's something that made me dream again. And God... how much dreams are important! And trying to follow what I've learning from this story, it is a BIG dream.If we try to put it in perspective, the big project was pretty much about: having an idea, checking if it was good enough, get a lot of rejections/misunderstandings, start to build up a plan to start up the idea, check the resources I would need to put it together, convince (a lot of ) people that it was a good idea, get a lot of rejections, raise money, need more money, (did I mention rejection?), get a lot of great people on board, get feedbacks constantly, and above all: coordinate the construction of the project. It's a portal...And there are many things nice about this project. I got to read more about stuff related to startups, tech and other stuff which, by the way, I am passionate about. I had the chance to connect to people that are willing to do related things; I had the chance to see similar ideas coming up recently, etc. It was awesome and exhausting.One of the readings I loved was "The art of the Start" - thanks Gustavo Debs - and he says something so real: while creating something, make sure you're doing something that will improve people's life. That is going to make something new or better for them. And that's pretty much my dreams with UnaVox.We always struggled coordinating our opinions. That's funny because, with internet it improved a lot. There are so many more market niches now, simply because you can find more people that somehow are connected to that topic, brand, product, whatever. But... those opinions are mostly spread all over internet and our idea was basically to get it all together in one place where everyone can see and agree or disagree with it. It seems like a pretty simple idea. And as many others, took us a lot of work.And now we're done. About to launch. And from now on everything can happen. Of course, as an entrepreneur and leader of this project, I am always hoping for the great things to happen: a lot of people will promote, people will find it really interesting, some freaking important guys will like it
and tweet about it, it will become popular and someone will be writing about it. Well, and there are so many other bad paths to go... no one gets it, no one likes it, we simply won't reach the right people, people will get bored.Independently of what is going to happen from now on, it's a huge step for my life. Mainly because it's being a project I am waiting for, for a long time already. If you're an anxious person (I bet you are! haha) you can't imagine what it is to be handling a project that supposed to be aired 6 months ago. It's also a big step because, in this period, I decided to do not have many other projects. Actually, I even sold my other website to be 100% focused on this. More than that, it's being like a background application running on my brain all the time. Now at least, this application will come to the front of my screen! :)
Few days ago I received a comment from a very important person for me that my blog is too sad lastdays. I totally agree and I decided to change it :). Therefore, I am back to my theories.I dont know about you and it may sound as another sad topic for some of you but I am (and I always been) particularly interested on the topic of the existence. It could be summarized on the most common questions, such as: why are we here? What is our objective on Earth? etc. Generally, those are easier questions for people attached to any religion and I am truly happy for them in this sense. I am not one of these people, even though I must confess that I am daily more favourable to the existence of a God. For those that didnt know me that much, its a huge advance believe me. But this conversation here has nothing to deal with religion (except for the part that I already wrote about) hehe.When I was in my high school I had the chance to meet some awesome professors that really changed my life. One of them was my writing professor (redacao) hope this translation is somehow okay. If my memory is not betraying me, her name was Luz light, in Portuguese. (Such a nice name for a person... :) ).She once told us a history that never left my mind. There was a philosopher that some years ago found as a conclusion of his studies that it wouldnt matter WHAT you do, if youre the BEST on what youre doing. Sounds to be a bit obvious but the repercussion of the history shows us that is not that simple.Having this idea in mind, he decided that he would be the best thief in the world. He was quite successful for a while and stole many important things from many places in the world. Obviously after a while he was caught by the cops I guess he realized he could even be the best, but not perfect.That small story always brought me the question: What could you do that you feel like being its the BEST thing you can do? Its a question that I never could answer easily. Ive met some people in my life that were able to say that: If I am doing something (generally a position in a work related position) its because I know I am the BEST on it. I felt many times I was very good doing many things, but to answer: whats the best I can do... I dont know what to say.For a while my answer was: to play FreeCell. :D I used to be addicted to that game and able to finish all matches in a very short time. I know thats a stupid possibility and I was just joking even with myself about it, but again the conclusion for this stupid hypothesis is what matters for me. Lets imagine that indeed there is someone that is the best person in the world playing FreeCell. Where
to this gift could take this person? It may sound silly, but if you change the gift for soccer (or any other sport), management, health issues, even poker, being a lawyer, and many other examples... it could take this person to the top of the world. Could the person that has as the gift to be a FreeCell player reach the top of the world?And what if my (or your gift) is something that is not appreciated by the society? What should we do?? And for the ones that didnt find this gift? Until when should we search for it? What about the people this fooled by a hypothetical gift for years and figured out that it wasnt his gift? *** What if some us just doesnt have one (I really dont believe on that... but the proof would be so hard, that I should leave the doubt here to do not compromise all the theory)?-------------------------*** Extra: Now I reminded something else there I would like to share with you. If youre not interested, just jump this part...When I think about this topic, it always comes to my mind the movie about it. Its called Amadeus (1984) and tells us the history of Mozart. The history is narrated by Antonio Salieri a colleague of Mozart that makes a pact with God to give him the gift of playing piano incredibly. At some point on the movie, Mozart is on the piano and they ask Salieri to go there and perform his last composition he was Vienese court composer. Mozart that heard the song just one time performs it perfectly. It makes Salieri extremely disappointed and frustrated and he feels like he was betrayed by God on his pact. At that moment, somehow, he realized at least for his standards that he didnt have an actual gift.-------------------------And then, how could we go further? There are some people that clearly already know what their gifts are. It doesnt mean that they are the best on it in the world. But its definitely the thing that they can do at best. Thats a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7fxIWIQ0wwAnd there are also some people able to show that they can do something really good even when nobody would believe on that.Thats another good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijwEwAvdoI dont know about you, but I am seeking for my gift. And... What about you? Have you found yours already?
Hello guys!!! Yes. Although I posted something some months ago, only now I am back on writing in this blog. To explain why I was away for such a long time comes from my friend Conrado. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but he once told me that when he was traveling around Brazil doing coaching visits for AIESEC he had subjects to talk about. But when he came back home he didn't have much to talk about. The same happened with me. When I was in Mexico and in AIESEC, I could write about my adventures and misadventures. But somehow my life became boring when I came back to Brazil. So now, is it exciting enough for me to write? Well, all I can say is that I will try! :)But what's new?- I am hunting a job - and I can share the experience with you.- I am starting a business.So, this first post I want to talk about hunting a job. It's being a nice experience and something I want to share.One of the coolest things about hunting a job is to meet people and get to know about them. I always enjoyed that a lot in selection processes in AIESEC and in other opportunities. So far I got to know a guy that traveled to meet his relatives in Jerusalem and after he got a job in Angola. Another one attempted 3 times to go to USA to play tennis... he didn't give back on his dream and did it. I even met a guy in a selection process that traveled through AIESEC Uberlandia... it was nice to see that if it wasn't somehow my dedication to AIESEC it would never have happened... Yeah, I really impacted his life. *Of course not everything are flowers (Brazilian expression) hehe. I met some weird guys along the way. And I got bored to hear (more than once) "The biggest achievement of my life was to be accepted in the university." or "The hardest moment of my life was to leave my parents". I constantly ask myself if they don't think if they can differentiate of the rest of us with those examples.But there are other nice things. You get to know about companies. Today I got to know that Procter and Gamble (and its ads about soaps in the past) were the responsible for the creation of the expression: "soap opera". And we get to know about benefits, programs, profile of companies, institutional (and exciting) videos. It's very cool. It's nice to see yourself working with those people in different environments.Something else that is taking a lot of my time is tests! But hey, I know you're going to be a bit disappointed with me right now but... I like tests. :D I always liked it. When I was applying for universities in Brazil... I really enjoyed it (I was accepted in 6 different programs in 3 different universities... I think I was good at it also hehe). But what I really enjoy about tests is the fact
that it always challenges our way of thinking and brings us new information that we have to deal with in a short period of time and take a fast decision. For now I am still enjoying it, although sometimes it's exhausting. And what am I looking for. Now, more than ever, I am sure that I would like to work either with Consulting or in the Consumer Goods industry. I am applying for some positions now and the good thing is that results are going to come in different dates. So I can get a job sooner than I thought.It's my first back post. As I was saying above... I hope you enjoy it. In the next I am going to talk about my adventures as entrepreneur. It's being also exciting and challenging... but you will get to know more in my next post. See ya!! (soon)* I helped to found three committees in Brazil: Ribeirao Preto, Franca and Uberlandia. Everything seems worth now! :)
I am currently living a very interesting experience: be back to live with my family.Its being an interesting experience. Somehow I can be outside of the group and analyze it... I dont know exactly why but I guess its mainly because I spent many years completely away from everyone here... I can join them, but not to make part of them anymore.It should be bad... To do not belong to your family anymore... it should be. But I dont feel like that. I can see now that I became a much better person in many senses. I am not saying that my family is bad. I couldnt ever say that. But I felt clearly that some of my bad habits and behaviours, that gave me so much trouble along the way, are really much weaker nowadays. I am mainly talking about being aggressive, being negative and living with a lot of prejudice in my life. In some aspects (especially about the prejudice) I used to have a different approach of my whole family. But in the others... specially related to being aggressive I was always just like that or one of the worse ones.During my whole life I was criticized because of that. I always understood that I was wrong but couldnt see how much. Its incredible how living with my family takes it to another level. Its common to scream, to fight all the time for everything... I changed. I am no longer that much like this. I believe that the time spent in AIESEC changed me in this way. I am really much more de-attached of almost everything. I dont buy almost any fight. It doesnt seem to be worthy anymore. There are thousand other ways to get to the same endpoint apart of fighting.However, I am particularly surprised about this capacity of putting myself out and just understand whats going on. I can understand my true roots... what made of me what I am right now. A clear example is about the concern about the environment, about wasting and being economic. Every single thing in my house is about reducing costs. It made of me a very cheap guy. Actually after living outside of Brazil for a while it helped me to be able to spend more money! :DBut the main learning point here for me is how were able to change almost anything we want even in our personality and into a very short span of time. If someone would stop on the past and tell me that I would be able to change that much about my personality, I would doubt forever. And I could actually do it. Some time ago I asked my first boss in AIESEC to give me feedbacks and points of improvement. He was totally right about the points that he wrote, but it was about the Marco that worked with him. I am now a very different person.Now I would like to spend some time trying to rescue the things that I would miss from the old Marco. Something that I felt
that I lost was my idealism. I used to be the person blind for an ideal - which is not the ideal state but for sure can drive a lot of good things and change many others.After writing this post, I am asking myself if it should be a post or a page in a diary. Is it completely irrelevant? Should I have written it in a way that it could be more motivational in the line of: YES YOU CAN! or... is it good enough for people to know about me now or to inspire them to change themselves? As I told before, I am much more de-attached to the things... so, I can say that... I just dont care :DJohn Mayer - 83 (all to deal with what I am talking about! :D)