My experience in YLAI
I learned about YLAI from two people. My wife shared with me a post she saw in the embassy’s social page and also a friend of mine gave me a call and told me about his experience in YLAI; he had been selected in 2016 (the first time).
When I started investigating about this program, I realized the impact it could have, so I applied. The waiting was hard, I was subscribed to the newsletter, and every time I got an email that had “YLAI” in the subject my heart bumped really fast. Finally, I received the confirmation. What a great day!
I was going to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Digging a little bit about the city, I couldn’t find much about digital animation, what Studio Ático, my business does. When I met my placement (or company I was assigned), I could see that they as well didn’t worked on animation. The city had a big movie studio, used in some Hollywood blockbuster films, but no post-production.
I wasn’t identified with the stories I heard about other fellows getting their dreamed placement. For a moment I was kind of disappointed and bummed. But hey, I got selected because of my abilities and leadership skills. An entrepreneur will face failure, but the important thing is how we deal with it and what we can take from what we have or we are living. So, I started asking my placement a lot of questions, what they did, how they did it, why not try this way, how can we work together, etc. And took the best of them; everybody has something to share. And they were really good in what they did.
The next step. If I couldn’t learn everything I wanted from them, I will find other people that can. I did a lot of research trying to find companies and universities that could help me achieve the goals I had from the program.
Grow your network. Part of my research was trying to find potential clients or partners that we could work with when I returned to my country. So, I started contacting and visiting many companies. A bit of advice: embrace rejection!
Living for a month in a place you wouldn’t imagine is an experience! You get to know people from other countries who become your family. You share your entrepreneurial experiences and failures and you get to learn from them as well.
Lastly, before departing to the U.S. I met with the other YLAI fellows from Costa Rica. It took a couple of hours the feel as if we had met a couple of years ago. There is some bond we made that when we were in Detroit for the launch and introductions, people thought we were all lifetime friends.
So, the YLAI experience is something that will change your life. I returned confident of the work we are making in Studio Ático, with a bigger and international network, having the opportunity to present the business in front of a crowd, getting out to the street to find potential clients or partners, getting to know people with different projects… YLAI is a program you will learn a lot, it will help your administrative viewpoint of the company and it will make a deep impact on your life and company/project.
