It depends on you

I was more than pleased to be selected last year as part of the 2018 Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI). YLAI is a program of the Untied States Department of State to train, improve and expand business and entrepreneurship skills. During this program I was placed in Denver, Colorado for 4 weeks where I was going to learn from a company like mine; with this I was going to be able to learn best practices and exchange knowledge.

I was placed in a coffee company, Whittier Café. It was an amazing experience, I got to know a lot of talented people, specially Millete, the owner. She has a huge heart and she share that love for people through work and coffee. I was able to learn form inclusion and social impact, which I believe we all need to have in our business.

Getting to know everyone in Whittier Café was great, but the opportunity I had to connect with different people and other business in coffee around Denver was beyond my expectations. I learned from big, small and social companies; everyone with different process, quality standards, customers, prices and methods. But that was the most interesting part of my YLAI experience, getting so much knowledge from different perspectives.

Me being able to learn from everyone was because of one thing that I noticed, not only in coffee business, but in Denver in general: openness to share their knowledge. Entrepreneurs and business people in Denver believe in something: if you grow, I grow. Having a friendly competition and sharing knowledge, innovation, research, best practice and everything they know with each other is key in their growing process.

I was blown away because of that. In most parts of Latin America, sharing knowledge with new entrepreneurs of even your strongest competitor is unheard. But this is a city where sharing knowledge to develop all together is a strong belief, and that is why they are growing so fast as a city. New entrepreneurs, companies, business people and investors are looking at Denver and some of them are even moving there to start a new life.

I won’t be amaze if in a few years Denver is the new Silicon Valley, not just because of their potential but for the community they are creating. This was one of the best experiences I had in my life; being in Denver was the spark I needed not only to grow better my company but to start knew projects, alliances and business. The most important thing about this experience, even more than the business, is that I found a second home not only for the friends I made but for the excellent quality of life you can have in Denver.

For sure, I wouldn’t have this opportunity if I didn’t decide I wanted to make that trip one of the best experiences of my life. We need to be grateful for the opportunities we have and work hard to make the best our of them. If I didn’t decide I wanted to visit more companies, interview different owners and meet new entrepreneurs dead sure I wouldn’t have so many new projects going on now. Always do you best, don’t create relationships because you want or need something, hear to people they have something to say. The experience you create wherever you are, depends on you.

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