I will tell you a bit about my life.
I was born as a result of an unwanted pregnancy. My biological mother got pregnant when she was very young and hid her growing stomach for 9 months so that her grandfather would not find out about her pregnancy. If he had found out about it, he would have beaten her and thrown her out of the house, as he was quite an aggressive person. So, when I was born, she left me in a neighbor’s house so that her grandmother would not discover what had happened. But this neighbor was not able to keep me, as their family hardly had the means to support their own family, let alone one more child. The neighbor took care of me for about ten days, but then told my biological mother that she had to find a way to take care of me herself.
As she had no money, she picked me up and left the neighbor’s house, and went round door to door throughout the neighborhood, offering me around, begging someone to take me in. But all of them told her that they didn’t have the money to be able to take in a new baby. Everyone who lived in that area was very poor. They were families who came from various regions of the north of Brazil, and they had come to Sao Paolo to try to make a better life. They lived in little houses in shanty-towns. As nobody wanted to take me in, my biological mother decided to throw me in a swamp. However, one of the neighbors, (the woman who was to bring me up) suspected that this might be what my biological mother was driven to do, and so she took me in and decided to keep me, even though their financial situation was very bad. After this, my biological mother came to visit me on only one occasion – after which she moved away and we heard nothing from her again. It was in this manner, with great luck, that I escaped death, right at the beginning of my life. And, in addition, I got marvelous parents and fantastic sisters. The family was very poor and practically illiterate, Negroes, without vices, Christians, very honest and very hard working. My mother was a cleaning woman and my father worked as an assistant in a metalwork company. I remember what a strict disciplinarian my father was at that time with all of us, even becoming aggressive at times. On various occasions, I hid under the bed when he was angry to avoid getting hit with his belt. My sisters were also beaten, and they have marks on their bodies to this day. One time, in an effort to avoid being hit, I banged my head quite hard on a piece of furniture. I got a big cut over my right eyebrow. I had to have a number of stitches and I still have a scar there. After that, my father never hit me again. On the other hand, my father never drank, and he had no other vices. He was a severe, reserved man from Bahia State, and a hard worker. The neighbors all thought he was a very pleasant and helpful person. Throughout my childhood, I was educated by my sisters, who took care of the house when my parents were working. My mother worked as a cleaner for a middle-class family, so she couldn’t devote very much of her time to me. But in the little time that she did have she was very loving and attentive. Because we had so little money, I grew up eating lots of beans and flour. I think that is the main reason why I still love beans today.
I never played outside, because my father didn’t want me to mix with the other kids that hung out on the streets. As a result, I became an avid reader of comic books, and I started to learn to read even before going to school because I used to look at so many comic books at home. In this way, I began to develop my mind very early on. I also learned how to have a great friend available at all hours – and that was ME! I would often spend the entire afternoon in our quintal playing by myself, while my sisters were going about their different activities. I had long hair down to my shoulders and it was shiny and smooth. Everybody thought that I looked very cute with that type of hair. I think it was at this time that I first became conscious of my appearance, and perhaps a little vain. Although it is true that I was shy, I also loved to be noticed. Before entering the regular first grade, I was sent to pre-school. I can still remember my school uniform: I had red shorts, second-hand shoes, and a little shirt.
The first year of school was a little difficult for me because I got sick with both chicken pox and the mumps. Because of this, I missed a lot of classes. All the same, I managed to pass from 1st grade to 2nd grade. Because of the problems I had had, my handwriting was quite weak and my second-grade teacher wanted to keep me back. But, as my work was good in all of the other subjects, she had to let me pass.
I always loved going to school. I loved being with my friends. At that time, I was very playful and had a good sense of humor (a personality that I had until the 6th grade.) After 3rd grade, my hair was cut short and I starting combing it to have a parting on one side, the same hairstyle that I have today.
I had a normal childhood but was watched over with great vigilance by my parents. I had some friends who would sometimes come over to my house to play. One of them is married now: we are still friends and we meet up sometimes and play chess. My best memories of that time are from the 5th and 6th grade. I was always good at maths and also was quite good at most other subjects. I loved puzzles and maths problems and my maths teacher always set me new problems and puzzles as a challenge. However, this gave rise to some trouble for me from the other kids in the class who didn’t have the same aptitude or interest, but who had to study more because of me. One of my classmates, a kid who was only just managing to get by, has today become a national samba singing star, and he even has his own television show.
From early on, I was a leader type. I liked to inspire others to do things they wanted. I was one of the creators of the first graduation ceremony at our school, together with our history teacher.
Later on, I entered High School, and, thanks to a friend, got my first job as a general assistant in a factory that made padlocks and door locks. I started working there at the same time as two friends of mine. I worked from 7.00 am until 5.00 pm and then went straight to school at night. I caught the bus very early in the morning and brought my food in an aluminum container. I have lost count of how many times my lunch box fell open by accident, or how many times the door of the bus slammed shut on my bag and crushed my lunch-box! In those eleven months, I went through a lot of difficulties, but I had a good job. I thought my work was going to be operating automatic machines, but, once I got there, they put me in a warehouse, where I had to load material from one department to another. Because of these lousy working conditions, and after one incident where I almost lost one of my fingers in a machine, I decided to leave the metal factory altogether and to start my life over again in another sphere.
I managed to get another job at a different company, where I earned only a third of the money I was making before. My family ended up suffering because they no longer had the same amount of money that I had been able to give them before to help with the household expenses. But anyway, my mother was solidly behind me, because she herself was worried that if I stayed at the factory I might have an accident. In the new company, I worked as an office boy and therefore did not run the risk of losing any of my fingers. The work was also a lot easier. I liked it a lot. I made a number of friends there and this encouraged me to fulfill the expectations of the bosses and the secretaries who needed my services. I ferried mail and packages between different internal departments in the company. I had only one pair of trousers and two shirts, but I was always neat and presentable, with my clothes clean and ironed. And I had a good attitude. These things meant that in the end, many people liked me, which therefore put me in a position to try for a job as an office boy at the company’s headquarters on Avenida Paulista. I had an interview, but unfortunately, I wasn’t successful. However, the manager who interviewed me liked me very much and said there was another opening in a different company of the group. So, I was transferred to Headquarters near Avenida Paulista. Everything there was new for me, but I felt very happy because I wanted a chance to go forward with my life and to grow. In the beginning, it was quite difficult for me. I didn’t know any of the streets in that area and all of my work was done outside the company building. My colleagues at work were always playing around with me, and I was the worst one in the group at these external jobs. But, as time passed, I began learning all the addresses and began to be much faster than most of the others. In a short time, I became the favorite office boy of many of the managers in the company, because I was so fast. I also learned to earn money by saving on cab fares. I often took the bus and sometimes I even ran, using whatever form of transport would get me to my destination in the fastest possible time.
I was always very curious and was always willing to learn new things. At that time, I took a free typing course offered by a club in my neighborhood during the weekends. With my ability to type, I would help one guy in the Telex area type some of the letters whenever I had any free time. The other office-boys made fun of me and said that I was an “apple-polisher" but I never stopped what I was doing. The result was that, when the Telex guy went on holiday, I was asked to step in and work in his place. I stopped doing the external deliveries and even ended up getting the office boys who used to be my colleagues do some deliveries for me! Many of them had been in the company for 2 or 3 years and found it difficult to get used to seeing me, a new guy, in a more privileged position than they were. In six months I got my first promotion. One year later, I was promoted again. I had finished my high-school studies and I wanted to enter university. However, my salary was only just enough for me to live on and to help a bit with expenses in our family. But anyway, I decided that I would study hard and do some specific preparation courses, believing that one day, I would manage to complete a university degree. I took the entrance exams at two different universities for courses in Business Administration. I passed one of them and was very pleased, but at the same time, I was frustrated because I knew that the fees I needed to pay to study at this university were three times my monthly salary! When my boss heard that I had passed the exams, he told the director of the company. As luck would have it, the director of the company had graduated from the same university where I had passed the entrance exams. He took the initiative to ask the Board of Directors of the company if they would authorize a study grant for me. It was a big surprise for me when my boss advised me to matriculate, and informed me that the company would pay for 70% of the cost!!!
In this way, I managed to take a big step forward in my life. After paying 30% of the university fees, I hardly had any money left over, because my salary was very low. But, as time passed, I got promoted twice, and as a result, I managed to earn a bit more money, so that I could continue to help my parents. Later, I was the company’s employee of the month in the travel sales section for six months in a row. For this, I was rewarded with a new motorbike as well as a study grant to study English for six months every Saturday. I took full advantage of my Saturdays and also did a course in motor mechanics. Also at this time, through a colleague of mine from work, I came in contact with a philosophy of life that has continued to inspire me from then on, Buddhism.
I went to a first meeting together with a friend of mine who had a lot of problems (sickness, debts, difficulties within the family). My friend had managed to solve all of his problems through the practice of Buddhism, but he stopped practicing after some time. I continued to practice and study Buddhism. I made some fantastic friends, and, encouraged by the experienced practitioners and by the visible, tangible results my Buddhist practice was having in my life, I converted. I worked, I studied and I dedicated myself to Buddhist activities during the weekends and whenever I had some other free time. Before becoming a Buddhist, I had followed the religion of my father (the Lutheran church) and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. But I never really identified myself with their beliefs. I never managed to believe in the existence of a superior, imaginary being, or in an imaginary paradise. It was through Buddhism that I found various answers to my spiritual conflicts. Buddhism believes in the Universal Law, and not in a personified deity. In the beginning, it was difficult for my father to accept my new beliefs, but, as time went by, he began to understand that this was the spiritual path that I was going to follow, and he stopped criticizing it. Also, the material and spiritual changes that he observed in me were further proof of the validity of my choice of religion.
With my motorbike, I managed to get to lots of places a lot faster. I was experiencing one of the best times of my life because I could enjoy a standard of living that I had never been able to have before. I was always ambitious. At this time I met someone who became my friend and we often went clubbing together at the weekends. I helped my friend organize parties and events for famous artists. I got interested in this type of business and I decided to leave the company where I was working and to start a discotheque together with my friend. This was a very difficult decision for me because I was giving up a steady, well-paid job to start an enterprise that was completely uncertain.
Against the advice of my colleagues at work and my family, I left my company after 5 years of working there. I guess I was making a very big mistake. Six months later my friend cheated me and made me lose all of my money and my savings. I ended up with my reputation and my credit rating in ruins. My family was pressuring me to help with the expenses at home. My father got to the point where he said I should leave the university because he raised me so that I could help the family and not so that I could harm them. I found myself in a totally depressed and miserable situation. I tried to restart my life in many ways, for example selling fish balls at the Largo da Matriz, selling magazines, selling computers, selling water purifiers. All of these businesses failed. At various times I became depressed. I got so low that once I locked myself in my room for a whole week and stayed in bed. The only thing that gave me any energy were the concentration exercises of my Buddhist practice, and my internal will to succeed in life. My brother-in-law, who was leading the most prosperous life of anyone in my family at that time, saw my situation and recommended me for a job in the commercial office of a friend of his. His friend needed someone who could look after the office and close it down, as one of the workers had violated his confidence and stolen various clients and started his own, competing company.
In this way, I managed at least to get a job, but, I had no idea how the company worked, and I didn’t have any experience in this type of sales.
But, through that job, I managed to earn enough money to pay off the debts that I had from university and various other debts left from the discotheque fiasco. For just about the entire week, I was handling the bad cheques from that time that were in my name and that had bounced. After six months the owner of the company said that he was going to close it down and that I would only be working there for two more weeks. By good luck, another commercial representative offered his office to me, because he needed someone with whom he could share the rental costs of the office. In this way, I was able to start my own business. In a short time, I managed to pay off all of my bills and restore my reputation. With the passing of time, the competition became very intense and it became too difficult to earn money through sales. As I had already rebuilt my reputation and restored my credit rating, I decided to look for a part-time job in order to earn some more money. I sent out my resumé and I was selected to work for a Human Resources office. I was invited to a job interview. I passed all the steps of the selection process without knowing exactly what type of company it was. I was selected and I joined an airline firm connected to Varig. At this company, I started as a despatch agent. I was promoted twice and I eventually became a check-in supervisor at the airport.
The company was in a meteoric phase of expansion. I had the opportunity to travel to England twice, as the employees had the chance to travel for only 10% of the regular ticket price, as one of the benefits of working for the company. During these trips, I was able to improve my English. I worked for that company for five years. However, after the death of a very good friend of mine at the company (he died from a heart attack), I didn’t feel like working there any longer. At this point, a childhood friend of mine, who was working as a private English teacher, encouraged me to become an English teacher myself. He gave me the name of a friend of his who wanted to have private English lessons. I hadn’t any experience as an English teacher, but, having taken a very good English course (with a very interesting method) when I was in England, I decided to try it, using the method I had learned with. In this way, I became an English teacher in a short time. The first student recommended me to other friends of hers, and, after a short time, I had a number of private students. I worked at the airport at night and during the day I gave English lessons to companies and private homes. As I had already lost interest in working at Varig, I decided to quit and to dedicate myself solely to giving English lessons. I informed my manager of my intention to leave. He seized the opportunity and fired me, as he had always been jealous of me and had always been looking for a way to get rid of me. I understood that I had finally found something substantial that I loved doing, teaching English using the same method by which I myself had learned English. After expanding my network of students, I put an English teacher in my place and I took another trip to England to study further how to use this method, and also to take the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English. Before that, I had already sent a number of cassette tapes of my lessons to the creator of the Teaching Method, and he had sent me a Letter of Recommendation that stated that he had been impressed with my technical knowledge of the Method, especially since I was Brazilian. He invited me to meet him personally. After getting to know him, I was invited to participate for free in a Teacher’s Training Course, and I was the first non-English person to be admitted into it. I lived in England for about 6 months and then I returned to Brazil. My English friend had gone to China, to work on a project related to his field, and I continued to work with my old students. Many of my students had, in fact, learned to speak English quite well with my English friend. Gradually the number of my students declined as their English improved, and this put me in a difficult financial situation. My sister offered me the use of her house and I decided to give lessons from her sitting-room. Bit by bit, I found new students and began to re-establish myself. My sister was having a number of financial problems at the time and I thought I would be able to help her, taking care of her house and giving lessons there, as there had been an attempted robbery there in the past. One day, we received a formal notice to quit. This took me by surprise, especially because I had given that address to various students. Suddenly I had to rush around trying to find a new place so that I would be able to carry on giving lessons to my students. It was difficult because I didn’t have any assets (like land or a car) to serve as collateral for a loan, and with most places, you had to pay a deposit before you could rent them. For a high price, I managed to rent a small room on Santa Amaro Avenue, because the owner of the building was willing to trust me. I was able to convince my students to come to the new place for their lessons. Even though it was much farther away, all of them decided to continue to study with me. It was a small room, in bad condition, with the lavatory completely blocked up. Many times I would arrive early (or leave late at night) in order to clear the drain in the toilet because it smelled awful. After some time, I met some English people and they started giving lessons in the classroom as well, sometimes almost one on top of the other. I helped one of them rent his own place by giving him a loan. A bit later, he cheated me and abandoned the place he had rented via through me, and started his own company, even though he was working illegally because he didn’t have a work permit. When I decided to send the other English guy away as well, he tried to strangle me. A year later, both of them went bankrupt. One was kicked out of Brazil and returned to England, leaving behind many debts in Brazil. The other disappeared. With the passage of time, I got more students and in one year, I rented another place with three classrooms. The owner of that place had been robbed and was desperate for money. For that reason, she agreed to rent me the building at below the market rate. I had to convince my father to sign the rent contract as my guarantor, even though he was extremely hesitant to sign it. Our house was the only thing he had of value, but, in the end, he agreed to sign at the last minute. It was a very luxurious building and I found it incredible that I had managed to leave one very small room and come into this lovely, big place.
I began by doing all the work myself, working as a self-employed person. Late on, I hired a young woman (a sixteen-year-old) via an incentive program run by the State Government to help me with the students in the reception area. I also managed to find a foreigner who at that time was undergoing a series of difficulties in finding a place to live and earning money. I offered him the opportunity to work with me and he accepted, knowing that it would not be possible for me to pay him a very good salary. He became my right-hand man, managing after only a few months with me to earn four times as much as he had in the beginning. This was how I managed to start my English School. I soon took on four more teachers to teach and to find new students. After a year of work, when it was time to renew the contract, something extraordinary happened. A woman had bought the building next door (it had been falling apart), and she renovated the whole thing with the intention of putting her children to work there in a shop which sold food supplements. After the renovation, the building was in beautiful condition, but the business wasn’t going well. Having been robbed twice, they closed the business and put the place up for rent. It had six rooms, two bathrooms, two corridors, a backyard with a garden and a small house at the back with one bedroom, a sitting room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Thanks to the good relations I had established with the owners of that building, they agreed to rent it to me for a good price so I could then expand my school. When I had the signed contract in my hands I cried with happiness. Once I had finally moved into this beautiful new building, I did a small amount of renovation and started to live in the small house at the back during the week. I hired a receptionist, three more teachers and raised the number of students I had. This is how I started living in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of São Paulo in my own school of English.
My quality of life had improved immensely. I had time to go to the cinema whenever I liked, to sleep late whenever I chose, to travel to other cities and countries and dedicate myself more to the humanistic activities, and, in general, to do the things that I liked most. I could help my father to take care of my mother during the last years of her life. She suffered a lot due to diabetes and unfolding health complications because of this horrible disease. Even in pain, she always smiled at me and felt happy to know that I was going well in life. The boy she had adopted had become a man now.
After a few years and some problems with teachers stealing books and persuading students to study directly with them without my knowledge, I decided to change my business administration.
I waited until these teachers left my school. My most trusted recepcionist became one of my teachers for around one year and then found a better job in a bank as bilingual secretary and left me. I was happy to see her improving her life condition because she was from a poor family and in 7 years working with me was always loyal and hard working.
I found myself working alone in the school and hired an Englishman who was a cook but unemployed. I adapted the structure of my business and instead of having another receptionist I hired a virtual office to deal with calls and student's support.
After the cook found a job in his field he left me and I started bringing people interested in my interchange program from England and America. They came, lived in the school and learned Portuguese and how to teach English with me.
After almost 10 years living and working in the building a large company started buying all houses around mine and I heard they were negotiating with the landlady owner of the building I was.
In the end, she sold the building and they contacted me telling that I would have to leave the building. I told them I would only leave the building if they helped me find another one. After many negotiations, they decided to help me sponsoring me to one of their bank managers who authorized me to have credit to buy a new house. The credit amount was above my conditions to meet the monthly payments but I sold everything I had and looked everywhere to find a house for sale that would accept the bank's letter of credit. I walked for days until late at night asking for kilometers asking and trying to negotiate with landlords. Luckily one day a real estate agent heard of someone desperate in selling his house. He offered my letter of credit and then asked his girlfriend (who knew the owner) to persuade him to sell the house to me. In the end, he decided to sell the house to me and finally I found a house 10 minutes from where I was that I could buy. The house needed refurbishment, but I was determined to it all by myself (painting, fixing electricity, etc).
I finally bought my own house and would also serve as my school!
Unfortunately, after a few months, my father passed away and couldn't visit my house. My father didn't know how to read and always had a humble life but he was so wise in the way he raised me and in his own way directed me to succeed in life.
Everything I conquered was based on the love of my parents and family and all their sacrifices to raise me.
Due to the Brazilian economic crisis, one of the companies where I had many students, suspended English courses for its employees and this caused me a hard financial situation. I had to stop bringing teachers and started using Airbnb to rent one of my rooms as a way to help me with my bills. I'm working by myself hard in order to keep paying the monthly installments for the purchase of my house. After this long road, there's nothing that can put me down.
I love sharing my knowledge and personal growth opportunities for others. I prefer to live a simple life, without luxury. I don't need much to be happy. All I need is to maintain my health, a room to sleep, my TV to watch series and films, my computer with internet connection and the good friends I have.
I believe strongly in the inner force of people, science, technology, acting based on reason, common sense and in the will to succeed. I believe that it is not necessary for us to look to external forces to help us overcome our problems. All the power we need we can find inside of us, in our determination to succeed and to fight for our happiness. When we join together with other people with a winner mentality, we can realize our potential.
I keep developing my knowledge and my business in order to give my contribution to society. I am very happy to see people enjoying the benefits they get from being able to speak the international language - English, like finding a good job, doing business overseas or becoming professional and self-employed English teachers and school owners.
I have big dreams that I am planning to realize. I have trained people from many countries and I want to keep expanding the reach of my consultancies, private lessons and courses.
I wish for world peace. I am putting all my effort into reaching my goals and succeeding in life.
We are born to accomplish all of our tasks, to continually be victorious. There will always be problems. For this reason, we have to solve all the problems that come our way. That is part of what makes life so interesting. Life goes by quickly. Each of us was born to make a difference in the world.
As an ancient teaching says, “If you want to understand the past, observe how it has affected the present if you want to know what will happen in the future, pay attention to what you are doing in the present.” I hope, together with me, many people will keep working to make this world a better place to live in.
Thank you very much for allowing me to share a bit of my life with you!