2014 — Year of Surprises
10 min readJan 11, 2015
“I never care a lot about the change of the year.” It was in this way that I started my reflective post about 2013. At that time I called it the “Year of Change,” and that year became one of the most remarkable ones in my all life until now.
This year I continue not caring a lot about the new year. I’m not a person of big wishes for the new year, but, without any doubt, I like to look back on the last 365 days and share what I’ve changed, learnt, grown and lived. These are the moments that make us proud and thankful for everything, and give us even more ambition for the new year.
If 2013 was the “Year of Change,” 2014 was the “Year of Surprises.” A lot of them. Good and bad ones, until the last day. This post arrives with a few days of delay because it will also be announcing a surprise. After so many surprises that life brought to me during 2014, the last, the ultimate, had to be mine for all of you! ☺
So, here is my review of 2014:
- I started 2014 working with a startup (GetSocial), and I finished 2014 working on behalf of more than 80 startups (Startup Lisboa). There were surprises in almost everything: in what I grew professionally in a company like GetSocial, in the feeling that an unlimited will is not always enough to make it happen and happen well, in the way I left a project I was completely involved in with my body and soul, in the way I starting working with Startup Lisboa, in the always different days I have there, in the reach of tasks in my charge, in the amount of really interesting people I contact every day, etc., etc., etc. The surprises never ended and put me constantly to the test, far away from my comfort zone. Regrets? Zero. Evolution? Huge.
- I organized GO Youth Conference once again. It was a project that, for me, was well beyond a simple conference. In 2014 we grew: we had more than 20 speakers, the vast majority from abroad, and more than 400 attendees in two days. We brought to Portugal the founders of Siri, Hotel Tonight and Scan, journalists from The Huffington Post and Mashable, and the best of the startups in Portugal, among many others. The quality this year was ridiculously high and we rose the level to something very difficult to equal in Portugal. But the best part for me was the impact that this had for so many people. People that started new projects thanks to GYC; people that radically changed their predictable career, joining startups; people that were lost in college and started seeing a path for their futures. I built, with an extraordinary team, something that has changed Portugal and the world for the better and, because of that, I couldn’t leave the organization feeling happier. Lessons? They are all here. Cc: Tiago Vidal, Telma Neves, André Miguel, Gonçalo Nunes Das Neves, Hugo Baganha, Sílvia Dinis (the last three from the 2013 team)
- I decided to challenge myself and share it with the world, looking for more health and productivity. Having no idea of the impact this would have, I created a movement that had people waking up at 4:30 a.m. all over the world. I called it #21earlydays and it surprised me every day, from the first day when I announced the challenge, up until today. The surprises were uncountable: the benefits I felt during the days, the growing feedback of support (or not) to the initiative, the fact that one simple blog post that was written in two afternoons reached epic proportions. It received more than 165K views on Medium, more than 1M views (yes, 1M !) on Business Insider, thousands of views also on P3, appearances on national TV (SIC), radio (Renascença) and magazines (Visão), the post was republished on more than 20 websites in the world and in several languages, since Russia to Ecuador, since Spain to Mexico, hundreds of tweets and messages on Facebook and the creation of a movement that today, after 6 months, still has people waking up earlier. Lessons: 1) It is worth experimenting and changing if that brings us benefits. This is not applicable to only waking up early, it is applicable to everything. What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for others, but experimenting is the foundation of continuous improvement day by day. 2) I realized that I have the gift of the word, at least the written word. With zero promotion costs and using only my network, a text written by me spread all over the world, and this made me sure that I need to write even more. ☺ Cc: Marta Couto , Rita Salomé Esteves , Renato Duarte
- 2014 was also the year where I was surprised for good with the impact that physical exercise can bring to my life. I started the year with an injury to the knee, which fortunately didn’t force me to undergo an operation, but I had to stop my long runs through the city for some time. That was the warning signal, and since then I’ve designed a more consistent plan to improve my health and physical look. I started going to the gym as never before in my life, and I played football almost every week, which I hadn’t done since my school times. Lesson? The benefits are clear and it is worth betting on doing regular exercise. A special thank you to Dr. Frederico Varandas (yes, the Sporting doctor ☺) and his team, who gave me a “new” knee, and also to Tatiana Fontes for having stretched all my physical limits and for making me believe that I can evolve even more physically (if you want a personal trainer in Lisbon, there is no one better than her!).
- It was a complete surprise each time college students looked for me because (imagine that!) I’m an example or an inspiration case. I keep humble and I always say that I did still very few things. But it’s always good to be recognized and, mainly, to help young people in a way that I wasn’t helped in my college times. I wrote about that in one of those moments and it’s good to realize that everything is still true.
- Surprises also included the little things: in football, starting with the surprise of not seeing FC Porto national champion and for losing in the same year against Benfica and Sporting (I never saw that before!) and continuing with the madness in the middle of thousands of Real Madrid’s fans with the unexpected goal in the last minute of Sergio Ramos that after gave them the famous “La Decima”; in the ridiculous amount of new and interesting people I met throughout the year; in the reunion with my school class and learning how we all changed after 10 years; for not travelling a lot this year (2014 was the first year since 2000 that I didn’t go out of Portugal, something that I will correct in 2015); in the fact that I like living in Lisbon more and more; in the little pleasures of life, such as sea diving on my 25th birthday or a sunny afternoon spent doing nothing more than reading a book.
- But this was also the year of bad surprises: a year where I was fired, not for being bad at my job but on behalf of the future of the company, increasing even more my feeling of helplessness in the face of adversity; a year where I realized that I can’t always have everything under control and that sometimes this can be a good thing; a year where I realized that, when I need to, I can’t count on many of the people that I thought I could count on; a year where I realized that everything that I did in the past can be worth nothing when I want to make a new jump; a year where I learnt about living with less and rationalizing even more all my consumptions. These were all bad but necessary things. I grew a lot and went well beyond what I believed were my limits. I was down sometimes, but all of this allowed me to realize that life is not only good moments, but it’s in fact a mix of the good and the bad that makes us evolve. Lesson? Bad moments will forever exist, but the mission of each one of us is to guarantee that the good moments greatly exceed the bad ones!
- GetSocial: the company where I spent eight of my best months on a professional and personal level. I had the opportunity to work with an awesome team where I learnt a lot with each one of them. I had the opportunity to enter in a project to think from the root in a highly technological product. I believed that the mix of so much talent with a market opportunity would be successful. For several reasons, this success didn’t arrive in the way we all wished, and in the middle of the ride I saw myself out of the boat. Now that I’m out, I continue supporting their success because I believe that a team like that has everything they need to build something really good. Go João Romão, Nuno Rochinha, António Gorgulho & Gonçalo Espinha! And, of course, the rest of the old team Pedro Moura, João Gomes, Miguel Veríssimo, Salomão Antunes, Sam Hopkins, Isabelle Alexandra Ferreira
- Startup Lisboa: it gave me the opportunity to work on behalf of more than 80 startups, a completely different experience. From finding the best partnerships that bring direct benefits and help startups a lot, matching these startups with the best mentors from all business and specialization areas that we find in Portugal, and even “evangelizing” Startup Lisboa through colleges and events, this has been a really satisfying experience. In less than five months it allowed me to organize a big event like Startup Lisboa Takeoff, being featured in promo videos about us that will show up in every TAP airplane soon, receiving very important people such as the European Parliament President Martin Schulz, showing Startup Lisboa to people from everywhere, from French entrepreneurs to school kids from Azores, having a great weekend with the team in my hometown and experiencing moments that can only happen between family as it happened during our Christmas dinner. Because Startup Lisboa is indeed a big family and only those inside it, every day, can realize its true meaning. It has been extraordinarily good to feel that I can contribute to the success of so many startups, and I promise that I will continue here for some time! Cc: João Vasconcelos, Ana Santiago, Marta Miraldes, Bruno Gomes, Jorge Rodrigues, Maria Folque Guimarães and each startup at Startup Lisboa
- After all of this, what is the surprise? Well, if I finished 2014 working on behalf of more than 80 startups, I kick off 2015 launching my own startup! I joined Rafa, André and Rodolfo to build the best wine subscription service — it has the name of O MEU COPO, the website is www.omeucopo.pt and it’s already selling! More than simple bottles of wine, the goal here is also to help anyone to understand more about wines. Who has never went to a supermarket and felt lost between so many bottles on the shelves? Who has never wanted to experiment with new wines but didn’t have enough knowledge to risk buying something different? It’s here that we want to play. Our monthly subscription includes, in addition to the two bottles of wine, a brief description card of those wines that allows you to know everything about them in a really easy and fun way, and also access to videos of the proof of those wines, tips, etc. Everything is specially curated by Rodolfo Tristão, the official sommelier of O MEU COPO and well-known portuguese wine expert, and delivered to your house. O MEU COPO is also the launch ramp for many small producers throughout Portugal that produce great wines but don’t have the necessary means to make them known. And after all, the goal will always be to surprise, with special wines for special moments! Visit our website at www.omeucopo.pt, give a like on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/omeucopo and order now one of our packs. And of course, I’m waiting for all your feedback!
- Of course, at the end of one more year I must thank all my family for always being there when I need them, even far way! ☺ Cc: Mãe Isabel, Pai Manuel, Miguel, Luke (always the best dog! ☺), Mariana, Joana, Tia Lurdes, Tio Roberto, Tia Dadinha, Zé Luís and Avó Alice! And to the friends that prove, year after year, that they are also always there! Cc: Pedro Carvalho, Filipe Grilo, José Silva Oliveira, Ana Montenegro, Francisco Montenegro
2014 was an intense year, good and bad, but mainly a surprising one. Surprises were constant and raised meaning of living to unknown levels. But I’m proud of everything that happened, and eager for a 2015 that will be even better!
My wish? The same as every year: NEVER forget that life is too short to live other people’s dreams, and NEVER do what I don’t want to do. Everything else will come in the process.
Manuel Forjaz also left us in 2014. But we left also a big legacy and the best quote that we can adopt for the new year: “Never distract yourself from life.” Let’s do it — let’s celebrate each of the 365 days of 2015 and never lose the true “life” that Manuel was referring to. I’ll do so.
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