[Music]
so I’m here today to talk about how to
rethink life I’m a writer and for my
first four books I decided to make them
as available as possible people can
download them for free
we have it in several languages people
can use it as they wish in their
companies in their colleges but for my
fifth book I wanted to do something
different I decided to give a gift to
myself
I turned 30 and I decided to write a
biography that only I could read and my
whole point was that I wanted to be able
to deconstruct my life I didn’t want to
be worried about pleasing people or
trying to explain things so that people
would understand it I needed a
permission to dissect everything I had
lived through and find my innermost
truth and what I’m sharing with you
today is some of the things that it took
me 30 years to realize and some may be
quite simple but they were my guide in
my life
so I hope you’re gonna have to resonate
some things with your life as well when
I was a small kid my biggest gift my
biggest treasure was that I was very
good in mathematics so everyone was so
amazed when the little kid would come in
and would be so good with numbers but
I’ve always loved many other things as
well I loved advertising I loved people
I loved teaching over anything else and
then I had those friends that didn’t
necessarily go well in math and it was
so interesting because they felt like
they didn’t fit because somehow we have
this hierarchy of intelligences right
which is just in people’s mind but
people will value logical mathematical
intelligence more than other types of
intelligence so I won’t see my friends
suffering some of the most brilliant
people I’ve had in my life like my
sister and I would think whoa I’m so
lucky I’m good in math because that way
I feel like I belong that way I don’t
have to worry about this but is it
really a treasure to be good in what
people values most or is it a prison
because it turns out that even though I
liked advertisement and people and all
these other things I didn’t
cross my mind that I could become a
teacher or that I could become a
psychologist or that I could become an
advertiser I’ve always fought that I had
to do engineering and in the end 30
years after I do a mix up all these
things but I realized that for many many
years I was guiding my decisions much
more based on what people were value
then when what I was valuing here’s the
second thing
thank you I’m gonna talk to you about
references so I love finding inspiring
people I mean Ted is all about it and I
love when people inspire me I love when
people come to me and they want they
want to tell me what to do and they want
to give me some feedback I love it and
when I was a small kid and even until
today my biggest Idol was Walt Disney
like I think it’s amazing what he
created but here’s the danger even
though of course it serves me well to
use him as my motivation to use him as
my inspiration when people become big
legends many times they become big myths
and many times the things you’re hearing
about it’s just really an idea it’s not
a person anymore right so I mean what is
name well well he died before I was born
I never got to meet him in person I
don’t know what he used to think every
day or how he used to feel in his heart
every day I’ll never get to know right
there’s no problem about that the
problem is when we start comparing
legendary references to people interact
with and we get upset that these people
are not like them it’s the problem so I
had this big dream since I was a kid to
do a company with thousands and
thousands of employees and to do an IPO
but then I would look in my house and my
dad is this amazing guy who worked
really hard but he worked in a
multinational he wasn’t an intrapreneur
or a business guy so I realized that I
had this very distorted ways of thinking
of success and Happiness because I was
expecting unreal things as life would
show you some error irony after doing
many of my dreams after going to MIT
there was my dream after working with
some of my bigger idols after getting
Mentors there were the
my most wanted to meet I was able to see
from very close the good the bed ugly
and how everything is just real there is
no legendary references there is no such
thing and after everything I lived in my
life I decided that I wanted my sister
as a co-founder and we wanted to hire my
dad so it’s so funny how sometimes the
success and Happiness is just right next
to you but you’re distorting success and
Happiness for some crazy thing you have
in your mind now let’s talk about change
change is really hard we all know it but
no one makes it even harder then we’re
always waiting for a big story that will
validate our change so if we go for a
big tragedy or if you go to a big
miracle then it’s fine
then that’s okay the person is not a
crazy person just changing that okay the
person can change because that person
went for something so big so
transformative it’s great if you got to
go through some through some
transformative situation but I think
it’s so complicated if one day you just
get up and wanna be better you don’t
need to look for a story or validation
if you’re a big big businessman and
you’re tough because you’ve always
fought that you need to be tough then
you need to be serious and one day you
say you know it’s enough it’s been
accumulating my whole life I wanna be
more soft I wanna laugh more I wanna be
less serious then people don’t do it you
know why because they keep thinking but
no but people are gonna think I’m worse
than because I need to keep these masks
on or their eyes they’re gonna connect
that I used to be big because of this
and now I’m not big so they think too
much
so forget keeping the masks on if you’ve
got to a conclusion that you need to
change and it’s time to change just
change don’t wait for the beautiful
story that will finally give you
permission to change here’s something
interesting about my life I’ve always
been very proud to be thinking so fast
in my mind like I’ve been always a very
crazy present mental person right that
I’m thinking I’m thinking I’m thinking
but the mind creates their own truths
that many times a little messed up
for example I’ve always wanted to
believe and I always preach it to the
whole world that we are completely
responsible for what we do with our
lives like we’re total protagonists of
our lives I think
I was I’m one of the biggest advocate of
this idea but in order to be an advocate
of that idea I needed to leave it myself
and in order to leave it myself every
time something super small would show me
that is not really like that there are
some point in your life that is not 100
percent up to you I would try to find a
story that no it was me it was my
responsibility that did this crazy thing
that is not my responsibility
so I had this panic of turning into a
victim and what’s the problem with that
is that let’s say something simple like
a broken relationship so you didn’t I
didn’t get along with someone there is a
broken relationship it takes two people
to have a broken relationship but every
time I have a broken relationship I
would think it’s a hundred percent of my
fault and I wanted to go back and I
wanted to think what did I do
so even though it’s great to be
self-aware and to be self responsible
sometimes it can be a crazy thing that
just turns into a bigger victim right
I had this inability to see the dark
side of people and I mean when I say
dark here I don’t mean that people
deliberately plan something bad I just
mean that unconsciously some people have
some mechanism like some people maybe
many a bit manipulative to get what they
want to get their agendas and they don’t
even know this it’s just the way they
play the game the way they see life but
if you don’t see this then it’s even
easier for people to play with it and
you become a bigger victim and very
aligned with that like I have this
ability to see a good side of everything
and I’ve always found this is amazing
I mean it’s great I can see that bright
things in everywhere but this brought me
what I believe is the biggest challenge
of my life which is the inability to
have hard conversations because every
single time that I realize okay this is
not that fair we need to sit down when I
need to talk I sit down and I have this
objective of being completely
transparent of what I’m not happy with
but then I can only talk about the
things that I’m happy with so I’m there
to try to change something and I end up
saying I’m so grateful for some things
and it doesn’t work so this is do my
biggest challenging life I’m still
working on it but I realized that the
worst side effect of being able to see a
very colorful life is the ability to
have hard conversations and this is true
with everything every amazing skill
amazing ten intention will always bring
a side effect to it even a simple thing
like I’m very intense every time for me
the only thing I think about is where I
am right now is with whom I am right now
this sounds great
great I am totally devoted to today but
that means that if today is an amazing
day a day that I spend with 10 people
the next day and with 10 under people
and then I completely disappear so there
is always the side effects so what do
you do you try to have perfect skills no
you try to be aware of the side effects
and pick the skills that are true to
yourself instead of just trying to
please people because any skill will
have a side effect this is important and
this took me a long time to to learn
fascination with stories we are all
fascinated with stories and not only
authors journalists right there’s people
who actually work with fiction but all
of us when you post a picture on
Instagram and you write the caption to
the picture we’re all storytelling we’re
all story making and here’s what happens
we’re constantly editing cutting out
pieces putting things together even
unconsciously because like I have a
company that I started six years ago if
I have ten minutes talk about it there’s
just so much other I can fit I could I
add it I put some things later on and
here’s the danger usually you’re
responding to how people resonate with
the story you told them so for example
seven years ago I decided to launch my
first book and I’m a computer scientist
so I didn’t help any strategy to sell
the books I was living in Silicon Valley
social media was growing I had this idea
that by the time no one had it which was
to do a full ebook completely free very
nicely done and put it for free on the
web this went completely viral in Brazil
millions and millions and millions of
downloads it was a big success and since
the beginning since when I started
working on it I knew it will be a big
success it was the first time someone
was doing it I had poured my heart into
it like there was nothing else that I
was selling so it was purely free and
even the way I saw the project who
everyone would participate voluntarily
it made it become bigger because they
saw how much I believed in it so since
the beginning I was saying to people
it’s gonna be more than a million down
you see and those numbers for 2011 were
insane right anyways when I started
telling my story because I started
giving I started giving a lot of talks I
realized that and this is unconscious
right now I know but I would sound too
arrogant if I would tell people I knew
from the beginning they don’t get a
million downloads so somehow I cut that
off and I will do these cute things of
saying you know I put the link in my
website and then I went back to my life
which is true and then when I went to
check the counter
I couldn’t believe there was like a
hundred thousand downloads it’s much
more than I ever expected
maybe my mom spent just a whole week
clicking maybe that’s it
so I used to tell those things yeah
people would laugh he told resonates but
you know what it’s not true I knew there
would be millions of them and not I knew
I felt I felt it could be bigger than
that my mom did not even click once
but sometimes we edit to belong we edit
to make sure that we can belong and you
know people do it unconsciously I’m not
even saying about overvaluing or only
the value because I think in the end
things even out I think the biggest
danger in belittling to belong is that
when you belittle to belong what happens
is that you also belittle everyone that
helps you along the way and this is
super dangerous because you may be doing
that unconsciously
but for them it may be a total wrong way
of getting grateful gratitude to them
and the second danger is mixing up
stories like I’ve always fought that
look I’m very strong I’m almost a robot
so I can take everything I’m not a robot
okay so I’m never gonna be dramatic
about anything so I had this big dream
of like working with some people and I
would always do the same way like I
knock on the door I talk about my dreams
and of course they like it because I
have this shine in my eyes so every time
it worked well and – once I did it the
person liked it we started like I was
part of a founding team with that person
but I had this crazy expectations like I
was 22 I thought it would be 24/7 doing
the company this person was older more
successful had than many other companies
had sold so many companies it was a
different stage of his life so I’m not
blaming
that my expectations were met but the
thing is dead three years later when I
had another company in Brazil I realized
when the story was completely changed
because some younger guy knocked on my
door then I had this very big hole to
view because everything that I didn’t
get from the previous relationship I
wanted to do to this new guy so this guy
traveled the whole world with me I was
there 24 hours for him
and by the way he’s an amazing guy he
became my co-founder but when you mix up
stories this is messed up like every
story is a different story if something
was weird or not exactly how you
expected okay
make peace with that and then start
blank because if you mix up stories you
can end up getting gratitude and empathy
really wrong and now I’m gonna go for
some quick fiery things that all go
together and this took me a long while
to realize as well the only way to
really have control is to surrender
because the only way you can think your
heaven control is in your mind but your
mind creates their own illusions and the
finger having control they create
distractions they create all the swings
so you believe you’re in control but the
only way to really be a protagonist is
if you become a witness if you accept
things that may happen but at least
whatever that happens you use the
biggest freedom you have which is you
decide what is the meaning that that
thing has this is the most fundamental
freedom that we have and affirm it’s the
most beautiful freedom that we have and
for me the only way to really be a good
strategist
is the one is the is the person that can
let serendipity happen because if you
are a big strategist you’re gonna look
at the resources you have you’re gonna
look at the puzzle that is possible
right now if you let serendipity happen
along with strategy you may be able to
find pieces that you didn’t even imagine
you may be able to see that even the
strategic puzzle was just part of a much
much bigger puzzle and there is even a
way to be persistent by destroying when
needed let me explain it better of
course all the people who are go-getters
they want to persist
but sometimes the fire of passion blinds
them because we are when we are too
patient we tried doing more things we’re
gonna make some mistakes along the way
but we convinced ourselves that the
mistakes are not mistakes I I need to
try it again but mistake is data if you
made a mistake great change it a little
bit also because the only way to really
unlock part of a new potential is to
create a blank canvas the only thing
with full potential is a complete blank
canvas so the more things you put on top
of the things you want to do the less
potential you have so sometimes you can
use fire to build it not only to destroy
one last thing I want to share with you
I always thought that we if we get
something that is a big gift we only get
one chance to turn that gift into an
achievement so I told you in the
beginning the big gift was mathematics
even in the eyes of everyone and then I
had this big dream of going to MIT there
are some steps that I can take from
being good in mathematics as a small kid
to being MIT and people there are good
strategies they would say ok so maybe
you can do an exchange program earlier
on so you can know how the u.s. works
maybe you can go to an American high
school so you can already prepare for
the exams you want to make sure that
your parents understand that you’re
gonna leave home soon because that’s not
that normal in Brazil and maybe you can
go to a special training so you become
the best mathematician before maybe you
can get gold medals on the way this may
be the best strategy right so it turns
out that I did it all the opposite all
the opposite like my parents like they
expected me to live with them and then
get married and then buy the house next
door and I couldn’t really change that
idea until I was 18 I went to a
Brazilian high school I didn’t even know
how to apply to MIT until like a couple
of months before and even like on the
math side my parents wanted me to be
well-rounded like they wanted me to live
life so I ended up doing exactly the
path that I could do and in the end I
got in as well because it was my story
and what’s yours it’s really worse you
don’t need to worry about trying to be
someone else to get it so to end this
when I think about rethinking in my life
I
to invite you to write also a biography
of your life just to yourself because
the biggest lesson of it all is that
we’re all sculptures but sculptures of
ourselves but it turns out that we have
a masterpiece inside us but if we let
expectations from other people and
opinions from other people cloud up our
minds then we don’t get to see their
masterpiece it’s never gonna be a
masterpiece so if you go and try to do
the biography for life maybe you can get
closer to finding that masterpiece in you thank you so much
so I’m here today to talk about how to
rethink life I’m a writer and for my
first four books I decided to make them
as available as possible people can
download them for free
we have it in several languages people
can use it as they wish in their
companies in their colleges but for my
fifth book I wanted to do something
different I decided to give a gift to
myself
I turned 30 and I decided to write a
biography that only I could read and my
whole point was that I wanted to be able
to deconstruct my life I didn’t want to
be worried about pleasing people or
trying to explain things so that people
would understand it I needed a
permission to dissect everything I had
lived through and find my innermost
truth and what I’m sharing with you
today is some of the things that it took
me 30 years to realize and some may be
quite simple but they were my guide in
my life
so I hope you’re gonna have to resonate
some things with your life as well when
I was a small kid my biggest gift my
biggest treasure was that I was very
good in mathematics so everyone was so
amazed when the little kid would come in
and would be so good with numbers but
I’ve always loved many other things as
well I loved advertising I loved people
I loved teaching over anything else and
then I had those friends that didn’t
necessarily go well in math and it was
so interesting because they felt like
they didn’t fit because somehow we have
this hierarchy of intelligences right
which is just in people’s mind but
people will value logical mathematical
intelligence more than other types of
intelligence so I won’t see my friends
suffering some of the most brilliant
people I’ve had in my life like my
sister and I would think whoa I’m so
lucky I’m good in math because that way
I feel like I belong that way I don’t
have to worry about this but is it
really a treasure to be good in what
people values most or is it a prison
because it turns out that even though I
liked advertisement and people and all
these other things I didn’t
cross my mind that I could become a
teacher or that I could become a
psychologist or that I could become an
advertiser I’ve always fought that I had
to do engineering and in the end 30
years after I do a mix up all these
things but I realized that for many many
years I was guiding my decisions much
more based on what people were value
then when what I was valuing here’s the
second thing
thank you I’m gonna talk to you about
references so I love finding inspiring
people I mean Ted is all about it and I
love when people inspire me I love when
people come to me and they want they
want to tell me what to do and they want
to give me some feedback I love it and
when I was a small kid and even until
today my biggest Idol was Walt Disney
like I think it’s amazing what he
created but here’s the danger even
though of course it serves me well to
use him as my motivation to use him as
my inspiration when people become big
legends many times they become big myths
and many times the things you’re hearing
about it’s just really an idea it’s not
a person anymore right so I mean what is
name well well he died before I was born
I never got to meet him in person I
don’t know what he used to think every
day or how he used to feel in his heart
every day I’ll never get to know right
there’s no problem about that the
problem is when we start comparing
legendary references to people interact
with and we get upset that these people
are not like them it’s the problem so I
had this big dream since I was a kid to
do a company with thousands and
thousands of employees and to do an IPO
but then I would look in my house and my
dad is this amazing guy who worked
really hard but he worked in a
multinational he wasn’t an intrapreneur
or a business guy so I realized that I
had this very distorted ways of thinking
of success and Happiness because I was
expecting unreal things as life would
show you some error irony after doing
many of my dreams after going to MIT
there was my dream after working with
some of my bigger idols after getting
Mentors there were the
my most wanted to meet I was able to see
from very close the good the bed ugly
and how everything is just real there is
no legendary references there is no such
thing and after everything I lived in my
life I decided that I wanted my sister
as a co-founder and we wanted to hire my
dad so it’s so funny how sometimes the
success and Happiness is just right next
to you but you’re distorting success and
Happiness for some crazy thing you have
in your mind now let’s talk about change
change is really hard we all know it but
no one makes it even harder then we’re
always waiting for a big story that will
validate our change so if we go for a
big tragedy or if you go to a big
miracle then it’s fine
then that’s okay the person is not a
crazy person just changing that okay the
person can change because that person
went for something so big so
transformative it’s great if you got to
go through some through some
transformative situation but I think
it’s so complicated if one day you just
get up and wanna be better you don’t
need to look for a story or validation
if you’re a big big businessman and
you’re tough because you’ve always
fought that you need to be tough then
you need to be serious and one day you
say you know it’s enough it’s been
accumulating my whole life I wanna be
more soft I wanna laugh more I wanna be
less serious then people don’t do it you
know why because they keep thinking but
no but people are gonna think I’m worse
than because I need to keep these masks
on or their eyes they’re gonna connect
that I used to be big because of this
and now I’m not big so they think too
much
so forget keeping the masks on if you’ve
got to a conclusion that you need to
change and it’s time to change just
change don’t wait for the beautiful
story that will finally give you
permission to change here’s something
interesting about my life I’ve always
been very proud to be thinking so fast
in my mind like I’ve been always a very
crazy present mental person right that
I’m thinking I’m thinking I’m thinking
but the mind creates their own truths
that many times a little messed up
for example I’ve always wanted to
believe and I always preach it to the
whole world that we are completely
responsible for what we do with our
lives like we’re total protagonists of
our lives I think
I was I’m one of the biggest advocate of
this idea but in order to be an advocate
of that idea I needed to leave it myself
and in order to leave it myself every
time something super small would show me
that is not really like that there are
some point in your life that is not 100
percent up to you I would try to find a
story that no it was me it was my
responsibility that did this crazy thing
that is not my responsibility
so I had this panic of turning into a
victim and what’s the problem with that
is that let’s say something simple like
a broken relationship so you didn’t I
didn’t get along with someone there is a
broken relationship it takes two people
to have a broken relationship but every
time I have a broken relationship I
would think it’s a hundred percent of my
fault and I wanted to go back and I
wanted to think what did I do
so even though it’s great to be
self-aware and to be self responsible
sometimes it can be a crazy thing that
just turns into a bigger victim right
I had this inability to see the dark
side of people and I mean when I say
dark here I don’t mean that people
deliberately plan something bad I just
mean that unconsciously some people have
some mechanism like some people maybe
many a bit manipulative to get what they
want to get their agendas and they don’t
even know this it’s just the way they
play the game the way they see life but
if you don’t see this then it’s even
easier for people to play with it and
you become a bigger victim and very
aligned with that like I have this
ability to see a good side of everything
and I’ve always found this is amazing
I mean it’s great I can see that bright
things in everywhere but this brought me
what I believe is the biggest challenge
of my life which is the inability to
have hard conversations because every
single time that I realize okay this is
not that fair we need to sit down when I
need to talk I sit down and I have this
objective of being completely
transparent of what I’m not happy with
but then I can only talk about the
things that I’m happy with so I’m there
to try to change something and I end up
saying I’m so grateful for some things
and it doesn’t work so this is do my
biggest challenging life I’m still
working on it but I realized that the
worst side effect of being able to see a
very colorful life is the ability to
have hard conversations and this is true
with everything every amazing skill
amazing ten intention will always bring
a side effect to it even a simple thing
like I’m very intense every time for me
the only thing I think about is where I
am right now is with whom I am right now
this sounds great
great I am totally devoted to today but
that means that if today is an amazing
day a day that I spend with 10 people
the next day and with 10 under people
and then I completely disappear so there
is always the side effects so what do
you do you try to have perfect skills no
you try to be aware of the side effects
and pick the skills that are true to
yourself instead of just trying to
please people because any skill will
have a side effect this is important and
this took me a long time to to learn
fascination with stories we are all
fascinated with stories and not only
authors journalists right there’s people
who actually work with fiction but all
of us when you post a picture on
Instagram and you write the caption to
the picture we’re all storytelling we’re
all story making and here’s what happens
we’re constantly editing cutting out
pieces putting things together even
unconsciously because like I have a
company that I started six years ago if
I have ten minutes talk about it there’s
just so much other I can fit I could I
add it I put some things later on and
here’s the danger usually you’re
responding to how people resonate with
the story you told them so for example
seven years ago I decided to launch my
first book and I’m a computer scientist
so I didn’t help any strategy to sell
the books I was living in Silicon Valley
social media was growing I had this idea
that by the time no one had it which was
to do a full ebook completely free very
nicely done and put it for free on the
web this went completely viral in Brazil
millions and millions and millions of
downloads it was a big success and since
the beginning since when I started
working on it I knew it will be a big
success it was the first time someone
was doing it I had poured my heart into
it like there was nothing else that I
was selling so it was purely free and
even the way I saw the project who
everyone would participate voluntarily
it made it become bigger because they
saw how much I believed in it so since
the beginning I was saying to people
it’s gonna be more than a million down
you see and those numbers for 2011 were
insane right anyways when I started
telling my story because I started
giving I started giving a lot of talks I
realized that and this is unconscious
right now I know but I would sound too
arrogant if I would tell people I knew
from the beginning they don’t get a
million downloads so somehow I cut that
off and I will do these cute things of
saying you know I put the link in my
website and then I went back to my life
which is true and then when I went to
check the counter
I couldn’t believe there was like a
hundred thousand downloads it’s much
more than I ever expected
maybe my mom spent just a whole week
clicking maybe that’s it
so I used to tell those things yeah
people would laugh he told resonates but
you know what it’s not true I knew there
would be millions of them and not I knew
I felt I felt it could be bigger than
that my mom did not even click once
but sometimes we edit to belong we edit
to make sure that we can belong and you
know people do it unconsciously I’m not
even saying about overvaluing or only
the value because I think in the end
things even out I think the biggest
danger in belittling to belong is that
when you belittle to belong what happens
is that you also belittle everyone that
helps you along the way and this is
super dangerous because you may be doing
that unconsciously
but for them it may be a total wrong way
of getting grateful gratitude to them
and the second danger is mixing up
stories like I’ve always fought that
look I’m very strong I’m almost a robot
so I can take everything I’m not a robot
okay so I’m never gonna be dramatic
about anything so I had this big dream
of like working with some people and I
would always do the same way like I
knock on the door I talk about my dreams
and of course they like it because I
have this shine in my eyes so every time
it worked well and – once I did it the
person liked it we started like I was
part of a founding team with that person
but I had this crazy expectations like I
was 22 I thought it would be 24/7 doing
the company this person was older more
successful had than many other companies
had sold so many companies it was a
different stage of his life so I’m not
blaming
that my expectations were met but the
thing is dead three years later when I
had another company in Brazil I realized
when the story was completely changed
because some younger guy knocked on my
door then I had this very big hole to
view because everything that I didn’t
get from the previous relationship I
wanted to do to this new guy so this guy
traveled the whole world with me I was
there 24 hours for him
and by the way he’s an amazing guy he
became my co-founder but when you mix up
stories this is messed up like every
story is a different story if something
was weird or not exactly how you
expected okay
make peace with that and then start
blank because if you mix up stories you
can end up getting gratitude and empathy
really wrong and now I’m gonna go for
some quick fiery things that all go
together and this took me a long while
to realize as well the only way to
really have control is to surrender
because the only way you can think your
heaven control is in your mind but your
mind creates their own illusions and the
finger having control they create
distractions they create all the swings
so you believe you’re in control but the
only way to really be a protagonist is
if you become a witness if you accept
things that may happen but at least
whatever that happens you use the
biggest freedom you have which is you
decide what is the meaning that that
thing has this is the most fundamental
freedom that we have and affirm it’s the
most beautiful freedom that we have and
for me the only way to really be a good
strategist
is the one is the is the person that can
let serendipity happen because if you
are a big strategist you’re gonna look
at the resources you have you’re gonna
look at the puzzle that is possible
right now if you let serendipity happen
along with strategy you may be able to
find pieces that you didn’t even imagine
you may be able to see that even the
strategic puzzle was just part of a much
much bigger puzzle and there is even a
way to be persistent by destroying when
needed let me explain it better of
course all the people who are go-getters
they want to persist
but sometimes the fire of passion blinds
them because we are when we are too
patient we tried doing more things we’re
gonna make some mistakes along the way
but we convinced ourselves that the
mistakes are not mistakes I I need to
try it again but mistake is data if you
made a mistake great change it a little
bit also because the only way to really
unlock part of a new potential is to
create a blank canvas the only thing
with full potential is a complete blank
canvas so the more things you put on top
of the things you want to do the less
potential you have so sometimes you can
use fire to build it not only to destroy
one last thing I want to share with you
I always thought that we if we get
something that is a big gift we only get
one chance to turn that gift into an
achievement so I told you in the
beginning the big gift was mathematics
even in the eyes of everyone and then I
had this big dream of going to MIT there
are some steps that I can take from
being good in mathematics as a small kid
to being MIT and people there are good
strategies they would say ok so maybe
you can do an exchange program earlier
on so you can know how the u.s. works
maybe you can go to an American high
school so you can already prepare for
the exams you want to make sure that
your parents understand that you’re
gonna leave home soon because that’s not
that normal in Brazil and maybe you can
go to a special training so you become
the best mathematician before maybe you
can get gold medals on the way this may
be the best strategy right so it turns
out that I did it all the opposite all
the opposite like my parents like they
expected me to live with them and then
get married and then buy the house next
door and I couldn’t really change that
idea until I was 18 I went to a
Brazilian high school I didn’t even know
how to apply to MIT until like a couple
of months before and even like on the
math side my parents wanted me to be
well-rounded like they wanted me to live
life so I ended up doing exactly the
path that I could do and in the end I
got in as well because it was my story
and what’s yours it’s really worse you
don’t need to worry about trying to be
someone else to get it so to end this
when I think about rethinking in my life
I
to invite you to write also a biography
of your life just to yourself because
the biggest lesson of it all is that
we’re all sculptures but sculptures of
ourselves but it turns out that we have
a masterpiece inside us but if we let
expectations from other people and
opinions from other people cloud up our
minds then we don’t get to see their
masterpiece it’s never gonna be a
masterpiece so if you go and try to do
the biography for life maybe you can get
closer to finding that masterpiece in you thank you so much
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