YLAI San Diego
This story was written on November 2016, at the end of my YLAI Fellowship
I am very fond of being in this program called YLAI (Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative), sponsored by the US Department of State. It has expanded my horizons when it comes to being a better person, a better friend, a better man, a better entrepreneur.
It enhanced our skills in regards to being a successful leader in management, strategy, networking, etc. We were in Dallas, Texas for one week where we learned a lot from the city itself. We got in touch with a lot of entrepreneurs, politicians and leaders like Nina Vaca and Jeff McElfresh, president of DIRECTV Latin America. We also got in touch with representatives of the government like the mayor of Dallas and former CEO of Pizza Hut, Mike Rawlings.
We are 250 entrepreneurs from 36 different countries and currently spread among 21 cities within the US. I took the lucky cookie to come to San Diego, an awesome city that is for real a marvelous town! The food is great, environment is nice, atmosphere is very good and the entrepreneurial conditions are outrageous! I could learn from a set of meetings that San Diego is definitely a good city to invest in for various reasons like geographical, economical, human resources and logistics. It is close to the boarder of Mexico and linked with the Pacific Ocean, that is, the gates to Asia and Oceania. It is a safe city, and with an awesome public transportation system, San Diego is perfect for this YLAI program to commute and generate benefits towards jobs development, tax for the city and better opportunities for the people.
I am definitely willing to open a branch of my company here and I am already working out business opportunities. I believe that an entrepreneur is a synonym for a change maker, not only a moneymaker, moreover I am definitely willing to improve the world.
We have 12 YLAI Fellows here in San Diego! There are entrepreneurs from Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Venezuela and Uruguay. In addition, we bonded with 8 Russians that are here on another exchange program.
For me, Thiago Lopes, 26, Brazilian, it has been an once-in-a-lifetime experience; it is something I had never ever gone through before. I have an English school back in Brazil called American Insight that we are looking forward to franchising and going online. We also look forward to putting into practice our disruptive mindset. Therefore, I was located in a placement called Connect English Language Institute that follows the same values I follow as a company. I have been marveled by this connection because I am even able to have them as our partners!
To sum up, we will be heading to Washington DC on November 7th, to have a taste of the Election Day in the Capital and have the big summit with relevant global entrepreneurs and leaders.
I am extremely anxious for it and when I think of this program, I feel blessed. I would also like to thank the US Government and San Diego Diplomacy Council for this opportunity.
