In Colombia you do not have to give your 120%? - a propo Independence Day

I found the previous video one day - randomly - on Facebook.

As anything that is about Colombia, i went on to see what it was all about. Nice video, as usual, nice to hear foreigners praising your land, your culture. 

Yet, there was a comment by one of the foreigners that absolutely called my attention: "In comparison with Europe, Colombia is much less stressful, you are not expected to give your 120% (...)"

I let it sink, even if it stayed in my head for couple of days. Until today, 20.07 ... Colombia`s remarkable Independence Day, where all the people swim in the pride of being colombian (including myself) .. today is a good day however to talk about this 120% ...

Before I go on, I want to clarify that having lived in Europe I (kind of) know what this person tries to express and by no means this post intends to challenge him or his perception. Perception is reality. Period. What I really would like to decode is what it means "not giving the 120%". As colombian, is this actually something to praise? If yes, from which angle?

What does it mean not to give the 120%?

The first thing that came to my mind was "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" - in german ("Anecdote to the Decline of the Work Ethic" - english translation). It is a famous short story by Heinrich Böll that I actually learned at school and I never, ever will forget (I graduated from a german school, in my home city, Barranquilla). The story is about an encounter between an enterprising tourist and a small fisherman, in which the tourist suggests how the fisherman can improve his life. It was written for a May Day programme on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in 1963, and is considered one of the best stories written by Heinrich Böll. And hell it is.

The Tale of the fisherman and the Tourist: A tourist looks on a most idyllic picture: a fisherman dozing in the sun in his rowing boat that he has pulled out of the waves which come rolling up the sandy beach. The tourist's camera clicks and the fisherman wakes. The tourist asks: “The weather is great and there's plenty of fish, so why are you lying around instead of going out and catching more?”

The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!” The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!”

Thanks to my job at Endeavor for the past 4 years there is a term that has become part of my lexicon: THINK BIG. When I reflect on the 120% thing and the short story of Böll, I can´t help recalling of the term. 

I think as Colombians we are "lazy" to think big, many times.  To think big does not mean "stopping spending time sitting at the beachside dozing" as the fisherman in the previous story does. The two things are not mutually exclusive. This "trade-off" scenario is WAY OVERRATED, please! One thing is valuing and living the PRESENT and another one is excusing ourselves for not giving the extra mile in a nation where so many things need to be done: this is an emerging economy folks! lots of stuff needs to be still created and forward thinking, big thinking is fundamental to that.

I am proud to be colombian NOT BECAUSE OF THE SUPERFICIAL elements that you read in newspapers or over social networks: "WE ARE ONE OF THE HAPPIEST NATIONS IN THE WORLD". What does that mean?  What`s happiness actually? What`s the underlying structure from which we self-portrait ourseves as happy? 

I am proud to be colombian because I feel like the butterfly that struggles to squeeze its body through the tiny hole of the cocoon (read the story) and this excersice made me strong. Anf I feel lucky to be citizen in this environment, because it makes me better and enables me to give my 120% while changing a reality. 

I am proud to be colombian because there is a new generation of citizens raising, a new generation that is waking up and that repulses curruption, crime, hate, envy, injustice and is creating concrete initiatives to create a fair society for all. We are a generation that EMBRACES VULNERABILITY, BUT ALSO KNOWS THAT ITS VULNERABILITY IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE, OF IMPROVEMENT, OF CREATIVITY, OF BELONGING, as Brene Brown says.

I am proud to be colombian, because many of our efforts are starting to show results, because clear numbers make us be part of the  CIVETS, given our reasonably sophisticated financial systems, controlled inflation, and a soaring young population.

I am proud to be colombian because back in the 1800s there was a group of patriots corageous enough to raise their voices and proclaim this nation as independent. They dared to CHANGE.

I am proud to be colombian because we are WHOLE-HEARTED, and let ourselves be seen.

I am proud to be colombian because we KNOW how to freaking give our 120%, and if not all of us do that, there is hell a big part of us that is doing it. Without cliches, withour paradigms, without lame excuses.

Happy independence day.

Wayra Week Colombia 2011

It`s slowly getting late to write this post!

Last week I had the chance to represent Endeavor as a jury of Wayra Colombia. 

To explain what Wayra is, I will invite you to read this post of Martin Varsavsky (I could not explain better the program, so I`ll leverage of that!) and of course the Wayra Web Site - in spanish.

"Wayra is a program that will support the creation of high-tech IT companies in Latin America and Spain. Basically, Wayra is a business incubator, although it wants to be more than that and calls itself a business “accelerator”. (Future) entrepreneurs can submit their projects, even if they’re only at an idea stage, and the 30 teams with the most promising ideas will be given the opportunity to present in front of a jury which will then narrow the selection down to 10 projects (this occurs on a country level). The first three countries are Colombia, Mexico and Spain, and the goal is to have this initiative running in eight countries by the end of this year. This will bring the number of supported projects to 80 by the end of 2011."

I learned too much, from the participant entrepreneurs obviously but also from the jury, which were key executives from Telefonica and other local experts of the IT industry...  e-commerce, "freemium businessmodels", M2M, mobile apps, e-Health, were not very touched terms (by me!!!) ... and the most revealing - Power Point is dead, PREZI rules (well, this I knew before, it truly rules)! And well, I also got even more exited recalling that from this class on the new BABSON MBA curriculum will have a strong Technology component! The new Babson M.B.A. focuses on three elements: preparing students to be entrepreneurial leaders, teaching them to be leaders in a collaborative workgroup, and helping students understand the role of technology in today's business landscape. 

But as sensitive as I am, what moved me the most was the Final Ceremony, where the top 10 projects for Colombia were announced. On statement that called my attention was: "I many times believed that happiness was not for me" - said by one of the winning Entrepreneurs. Wow! You could see people speechless, because the strong emotion did not allow them to speak. There was an Entrepreneur that simply said that now his daughter could be born in Colombia, since now he does not have to go to the States to try to get funding and realize his dream there (many of them do have the Silicon Valley dream). Many of them recalled in their thank-you speeches all the nights whithout sleep, all the sacrifices that had to be made. 

It might sound like the romatic "cliches" of being an entrepreneur, but I loved them. That plays a fundamental part: loving what you do and finding joy and pride in what you have achieved, and being GENUINE about sharing it.  Thumbs up for TELEFONICA and WAYRA!