Random quick thoughts before travel

In which the author has no time. And he likes it.

On friday I will go to São Paulo, to stay 2 days with Anna, and then on sunday I am finally going to meet my new city, Oslo. I am still not decided about taking the camera (nor if I want to take the digital or the mechanic). In fact, I am running around so much that it seems very probable I won't think of anything besides the basic.

I still have to finish 3 sessions for the conference, borrow some warm clothes from my uncle, dicover how to tie a tie, get a travel bag with another and so much more. My college's final paper didn't move on this week. What I know is that I should arrive at the airport near 14h of monday, get the train to the city center and then people will be there to pick me up for a great start of this fast-paced quick adventure. Man, I am nervous now.

Hello, cold feeling in my belly.

You may think I am complaining, but you couldn't be more wrong. It's great to feel not secure again, to explore a whole new reality, to discover how fragile our assumptions can be, to have the ingenuity of an amatur again. Life is full of colorful possibilities again.

Thanks a lot, world.

The Economy of Free

I was reading the Wired mazine, more precisily an article called Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, which explains why is possible to "sell" things for free (from razor blades to flight tickets) and I came across a very interesting example from Brazil:

On a busy corner in São Paulo, Brazil, street vendors pitch the latest "tecnobrega" CDs, including one by a hot band called Banda Calypso. Like CDs from most street vendors, these did not come from a record label. But neither are they illicit. They came directly from the band. Calypso distributes masters of its CDs and CD liner art to street vendor networks in towns it plans to tour, with full agreement that the vendors will copy the CDs, sell them, and keep all the money. That's OK, because selling discs isn't Calypso's main source of income. The band is really in the performance business — and business is good. Traveling from town to town this way, preceded by a wave of supercheap CDs, Calypso has filled its shows and paid for a private jet.

I wasn't aware of that, this is really smart. You can't stop piracy, so rely on it. Free sample is an old marketing trick, but the way Wired is discribing, it will come soon a kind of free sample 2.0 wave.

By the way, Wired is totally for free to read on the internet. And I remember when I made a subscription and cancelled secounds after - because the fine print said that price was not for people in Latin America -, they sent me anyway one Wired issue. The result? Everytime I come across a paperstand, I ask "is there a magazine called Wired?" (which I usually hear "What?" in answer).

AIESEC Norway of the world, UNITE!

In which the author presents his new team (even if he doesn't know them too).

Today is sunday.

When I mean "today" I want to say "the day I wrote this", because I am aware you may read this anytime of the week - and the web traffic is particularly low on sundays, so it's very probably you are reading this anytime but sunday. Well, let's leave that be and accept the "sunday" thing. So:

Today is sunday.

And exactly the next sunday I will be bording to Norway. It will be a short stay, I will go on 23/march and I will be back 31/march. The idea is to go there for 3 things:

- Participate in the long term strategic meeting - I don't know much about it, but the idea is to set a long term plan for AIESEC Norway. In this meeting, the current executive board of AIESEC Norway, the elected AIESEC Norway's executive board (me, included) and the presidents of the norwegian local committees.

- Facilitate in one Norwegian national conference named UNITE - I will be one of the facilitators in Unite, a conference mainly for transition of local committees executive boards. This will be great to get to know AIESEC Norway and its members.

- Meet my team :D - about them, I don't know much, but here are the guys:


Sonam Arora
Role: President
Nationality: Indian
Age: 21

The impression I have is that Sonam is an amazing person, cheerful and nice - as lots of indians I have met before, I need to say. We could say Indians should be the true holders of the "world's happiness title" instead of Brazilians, but maybe Brazilians are more party-oriented, while Indians look like happy-oriented.

Sveinung Årseth
Role: Projects Director
Nationality: Norwegian
Age: 23

Sveinung is the person in this team I know the least. Mostly what I know is that his girlfriend is taller than he (don't ask how I know it).

Ida Linn Måløy
Role: External Relations and Communication Director
Nacionality: Norwegian
Age: 22

Looking the emails we exchanged, I can say that Ida is not "closed" (as in "cold") as the classic scandinavian image we have (or I have) - she is not even blonde. She is the ones who answers emails fast and I think she will be a funny person to work with.

Camilla Gullberg
Role: Corporate Relations Director
Nationality: Norwegian
Age: 22

Besides having the most common name in AIESEC Norway, in the beginning I tought Camilla was a little closed (finally meeting my scandinavian stereotype). Then, I couldn't be more wrong - again, she is not even blonde. It's the only person from AIESEC Norway that is on my MSN (maybe in Norway it's not much of a trend to use it?) and we have very funny talks about anything. She seems to be the action type person: she buys the things, organize stuff and run around like crazy. Perfect for selling, eh?

Alexandra Velescu
Role: Exchange Director
Nationality: Romanian
Age: 21

She is as Sveinung: a mistery to me. But this is very comprehensible, because she joined the team just some days ago (she was elected in 2nd round). I met just 3 Romanians in my life and they were completly different from each other, so I really don't know what to expect. But what I do expect, by what I read on her application, is that she is good in what she does.

And, of course, the last one: me.

Sérgio "Jota" Schüler
Role: Talent Management Director
Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 26

Well, I know myself pretty well, but I know this international experience will bring up a new me in some misterious way. Let's see what happens.

Welcome to my house

In which the author presents himself, where he will be going and much more (well, not so much).

Hello, my name is Sérgio (full name: Sérgio Henrique Schüler), but some people call me Jota. I am Brazilian (don't mind the bad English spelling and grammar though) and also I am an AIESECer - which means I work in an international organizational called AIESEC (and I am proud of that). My field of work is dealing with talent management and development (or human resources if you are not aware of the current trends) and I am also proud of that. Yeah, I am proud of many things as you can see, but I also regreat sometimes - but let's not enter this subject now (maybe on other posts).

This blog is a "revival" of my last blog, which was called "Jovem Líder" (exactly "Young Leader" in Portuguese). I decided to switch into English not to embarass myself on how bad my grammar is in this language or for English teachers to use my mistakes as bad cases in classes, but because I am going to work in Norway and, as in an international organization, we use English as the official language. So, now, all AIESECers can (and I hope they may) read my blog, as well as any other English speaking person who is interested in the topics covered here.

Ah, yeah, the topics covered here will be mainly about leadership, talent managament, education and international experience, but I am an human-being and I will tend to share any other random thought also (so I expect you to share your 2 cents too, by using the comments place in each post).

So, welcome to the house, if you are reading this, you are at the entrance.

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