I did it! (?)

I did it. It took me a lot of time. I’ve been working even in unexpected days, such as December 25th, December 31st and January 1st on this. I’ve got in touch with many people – really many people. I’ve managed to get other people to join me in this journey. And the bottom line is: I am applying for AIESEC International.

When I started my term as ER Manager I really thought that I would be just leaving AIESEC. I thought that the time to leave the organization has come. But, I was just living the wrong experience. The final evaluation of my National Board term is that... I wasn’t anymore connected to this organization. To the ideals and the people that work towards those ideals... I wasn’t just connected anymore. But I had the great opportunity to get in love again with what I was doing... to work for a region, to make an entire continent to growth... to get connected with some of the most impressive and wonderful people that I’ve met in my life. All done... my motivation was back.

But during this time for the application some incredible things happened to me. It was a great moment. The first of it was to have some people pushing me to apply. It sounds a bit cliché but considering my President of AIESEC in Brazil application, I was really happy that people were supporting me on that. I had friends, co-workers, colleagues and even people that didn’t know me much... supporting me on that. It was amazing. I felt reconnected with my first steps in AIESEC, more specifically with the time that I was applying for National Director in Brazil. I was young, very motivated... and there were a lot of people supporting me on that.

And something else also surprised me. I feel like I am successfully coming back to be the old and good Tulio that I was for a big while. I am getting reconnected with some magic people in my life that I wasn’t for a long time – some people from my city, from the city that I lived for a long time before moving for my city... some of the most important people that passed through my life. Isn’t it amazing?

Another thing that really made me happy, I was pushing some crazy dudes to apply with me. And they just did it. It makes me sooo happy! But not because “I did them apply” (I not even feel like that) but because I know that they’re the best people to be driving this organization in their regions... and that’s why I am in AIESEC – because I believe that we have these great people and they should be working managing this organization globally.

So... it’s all good. I am very happy... most of the things that I was expecting to happen, seems to be happening: great people applying for all the positions (chances for having a great team ahead), people helping me with anything I needed, motivation up. It’s all set. Now, it’s just about hardworking more and more until the elections.

In the end this post is to tell you that, definitely our tasks were split for this job. I got the more operational one: write the application, the design and these less relevant aspects of the application process. And you all were responsible for the more strategic part of it: supporting me, giving inputs, feedbacks, wishing me all the best. Therefore, I should rephrase the beginning. I didn’t do it... we did it! And... nothing else to say but:

The power of the simple things...

My grandmother once told me about a philosopher that had a theory that the world is just the things that you can see in front of you. It means that immediately after you start staring at something else all things behind you, for example, doesn’t exist anymore. It can be viewed as a very selfish theory, but I tried to get the best of it to understand that our world is really small.

In my life I always believed on the power of the simple things – the things that you can do in your world. It has a lot to deal with many things that happened in my life and the experiences that I had. Some of the most interesting, I can also invite you to enjoy. Those happened when I was seeing some true stories in movies.
The ones that carved me a stamp were: “Patch Adams”, “Music Within”, “Civil Action” and the last one and that inspired me to write this post “Freedom Writers”. And not being a real story, the classic “Pay It Forward”. Well, if I keep saying names of movies, as a completely addicted person... I could use more than one blog.

What does people did was basically stare at their world and do not accept the reality that they had in front of them. And for that, they didn’t use of a very wide and complex set of things, but simple and impactful things: intelligence, creativity, persistence, great will...

When I was running for the national directory of AIESEC in Brazil I wanted to tell this for the people. “Dudes! We don’t have to come up with complex things... let’s make it simple and ensure results.” To do not look like it was a too crazy theory, I looked forward some “endorsement”. And I found it. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci – the most brilliant person that that ever passed through Earth for me... and “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein the person that the rest of the Earth recognized as the most brilliant one... :D

Those things always inspired me. In all of my actions I have in mind to always achieve the biggest impact with the simplest actions. And I really don’t like some people’s behaviour that doesn’t believe in this power. When it is for the negative perspective, it is easier for people to see how simple things can be impactful: shooting another person. With one bullet, one weapon and one will many people in this world ruined their lives and the ones of so many other people.

So, we come back to one of the principle that I also always take with... the Spider-Man principle :D “Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.” And it makes the whole sense because the power of doing simple things can be extremely powerful.

And how the hell does it impacts my life? All the times when I get to know these stories – through movies, books, conversations, whatever... I get so anxious about my future. Will I be able to do the great things that I want to do for the world? Which are going to be the simple things that I will be able to do to impact positively the others life? How big will be my range? Will I give up of all in a short while?

Those questions makes me reflect a lot about my future. But also and more importantly they make me reflect about the present. It’s like a checklist of my duties regarding the simple and powerful things. Am I smiling enough? Am I getting to know the people’s name? How many chocolates did I gave for people with no specific reason this month? How many emails did I sent for old friends just to tell how I am doing and how them how is it going? How many smiles am I being able to put in the others’ face? How many times did I offer some people to cook for them this month? How often am I using the words: "thank you" and "please"?

How would you be your checklist? By the certainness that it wouldn’t be composed by: “How many advanced math solutions did I developed in my life?” “The cure for how many diseases did I find this year?” “How many life changing movies did I produced in this month?”

I hope people are going to be kept doing great things. Like Einstein did with the E = MC2 or Leonardo da Vinci did when he created the first drafts of the helicopter, the hot air balloon, Mona Lisa... all around 500 years ago. But as much as I want people to keep doing this, I want them to keep smiling, giving free chocolates, hugging each other... saying: “I love you”.

Well, I feel happy after all to have those feeling to start 2009. I hope with my simple actions I will keep people cheered up for the long road :D

As well, I hope this post is making it somehow.

Trailer of the movie: "The freedom writers"