Ending up in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, or ‘slums,’ wasn’t the Saturday morning I had planned for after moving to Brazil. As I artfully dodged human feces, watched crack addicts stumble aimlessly down the streets, and attracted a little too much attention as the only white guy around, I was abruptly pulled into safety by a street vendor named Francisco. What could have been a life-threatening situation soon became a life-changing one that inspired my future career.

Francisco taught me many lessons that day… the first of which was that I shouldn’t be walking around favelas alone. But more importantly he taught me the power of small business to a community and how entrepreneurship can change the lives of those in poverty.

Before I go too deep, though, let me tell the story about how I ended up in a favela in the first place.

Early career at a Fortune 500… not my cup of tea

I spent the first two years of my career in a Fortune 500 company. It didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t cut out for big company life.

One of the challenges in working for a mega corporation is that your career trajectory is largely out of your control. Promotions and raises are in the hands of management often two or three layers above you. In my case, I had been hired for a very specific role - Quality Engineering - with a predefined career path:

1. Start as an intro level engineer
2. Spend 12-24 months in a rotational training program
3. Get promoted to Engineer II
4. Every two-ish years get promoted again (hopefully…)
5. Rinse and repeat for the course of my career.

The other major challenge is that big companies tend to be slow moving, hierarchical, & follow rigidly defined processes. I like action and being ‘in the trenches,’ where no two days are the same.

Looking back, I learned a great deal from the processes the company had implemented even though I couldn’t stand them. Statistical process control, team management, standard operating procedures, and documenting EVERYTHING have all come in handy throughout my career.

I found very quickly though that I wanted to try other roles and explore interests outside of engineering and microbiology work.

‘Adam, you’re wrong.’

One thing I didn’t suffer from at 22 was a lack of bravado. I felt I had mastered the necessary skills (retrospectively this is laughable - I wasn’t even close) and was on track to graduate early from my leadership program.

Working in a manufacturing plant made me feel that my colleagues and I were the most important part of the company. My logic was this: without the people to make the ‘stuff’ there wasn’t any stuff to be sold. Without stuff to be sold there’s no business. Pretty straight forward.

That all changed in a short conversation with a senior marketing executive.

Colleagues from corporate HQ often came into the plant to discuss new products they wanted to manufacture. These colleagues were usually teams of people spanning various departments including sales, marketing, operations, quality, etc.

One day I eavesdropped on one of these conversations. They were discussing how manufacturing is just one small part of the overall business machine. Manufacturing was my life! I was pissed and interrupted them. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “How can you say that? We work three shifts a day, including overnights, to make the stuff YOU sell. Without US this company would be nothing.”

Senior exec: “Adam, you’re wrong. This is a marketing company, not a manufacturing company.”

Me: “Huh?”

Senior exec: “If we could find someone else to make our stuff cheaper/better/faster, we’d do it. The reason we’re able to sell our products for a premium isn’t because of our manufacturing, it’s because of our brand. Sales and marketing are the reason we’re so successful.”

Me: ::crawls back to my cube with my tail between my legs::

My entire world was flipped upside down in the span of 45 seconds.

Two suitcases and a plane ticket - moving to Brazil at 23 years old

I reflected on that conversation for weeks and decided I needed to make a career change. I wanted to experience new aspects of business and learn about the other functions of the company. Finance, strategy, and sales were particularly intriguing.

I expressed interest to my boss about these desires as well as wanting to live and work internationally. Unfortunately, exploring these options were nearly impossible to make happen for a young engineer - it would’ve taken years before any of these were a possibility.

So I started looking for job opportunities outside of the company. I thought a smaller organization would be more fast paced and would provide an environment for me to be closer to my colleagues in other departments and the ability to explore my curiosities.

Coincidentally a family friend had ties to a small manufacturing company in Brazil that was looking for someone with my skill set. After a short conversation with the hiring manager (Hi, Carol!) I took a week off work to fly to Brazil, interview with the company, and get a feel for what it would be like to live in Rio.

I immediately fell in love with the city and culture. The people of Rio (Cariocas, in Portuguese) are fun, warm, and very appreciative of their beautiful beaches. My future coworkers were impressive and the work aligned with my skills. Even the thought of struggling to learn Portuguese appealed to me.

When I came back to the U.S. and told my boss I was leaving the company she told me she wasn’t surprised. HQ made a heartfelt effort to keep me but the call of Brazil was too hard to ignore.

I sold all of my belongings, packed two suitcases, took a month off, and moved to Rio.

The bus to nowhere

Rio’s public transit consisted of subways, taxis, and buses. Work was about 45 minutes from my apartment, depending on the method of transportation. Subways and taxis were either too slow or too expensive, which often left me taking the bus.

One weekend I had to go into work on a Saturday morning. I boarded my bus as usual, but didn’t realize the route changed on weekends and this one wouldn’t stop at my normal location.

I was several stops past my usual one before I realized what was happening. So I got off the bus and found myself in a favela named Jacarezinho - not knowing it was one of the most drug-ridden favelas in Rio.

I guessed I was about a 20-minute walk from my typical stop so I decided to set out on foot in the general direction of my office.

After about 10 minutes of walking I was scared shitless. I had no idea where I was going. My phone didn’t have GPS and it was clear I did NOT fit in at all.

I called my boss and frantically attempted to explain where I was. As she listened to my terrible explanation (“Uh, I see some concrete houses and a dirt road”) a street vendor walked over to me and asked what was going on. I put Carol on the phone with him and he told her exactly where I was.

He handed the phone back to me and Carol said, “DON’T MOVE. I’m coming to get you.”

The street vendor pulled me aside and welcomed me to sit down at his makeshift corner store. My gut told me I was safe with him - maybe it was the pictures of his family hung on his cart, his smiling face, or his willingness to help my boss figure out where I was.

The 20 minute conversation that defined my career

My savior's name was Francisco. We talked (well, I listened… my spoken Portuguese wasn’t very good at that point). Over the course of the next 20 minutes Francisco opened my eyes to a world of business and social change previously unknown to me.

First, Francisco taught me the importance of community. More than ever, he said, his community needed to come together to help one another overcome the challenges of poverty, crime, and corruption. Favelas in Rio are notorious for challenges like these, but Francisco was confident that it just takes a few concerned citizens to make a difference.

It was clear that he felt empowered to change his community for the better as a small business owner. He wanted to elevate his own life, the lives of his family members, and the lives of people around him.

This was the first time I realized that business and entrepreneurship can make a tremendous difference in a community. I didn’t think much about it then, but I later felt emboldened to become entrepreneurial in both thought and action.

Francisco showed me pictures of his wife, children, and grandchildren. They had all grown up in the favela, gone on to do great things, and he was immensely proud.

His family were doctors, teachers, and business people. They refused to let their upbringing in a favela determine their future. This was another revelation to me - individuals can make of themselves anything they choose, even coming from terrible circumstances.

Just as my boss arrived, Francisco left me with his final lesson - the importance of being proud of your work and in control of your own destiny. For owning a small food stand that wasn’t any bigger than an ice cream truck, Francisco took pride in his business and the service he provided to those who bought his goods.

His pride and sense of meaning in his work resonated deeply with me, as these were feelings I’d been yearning for in my career prior to moving to Brazil.

Carol pulled up - happy to see I was alive and unscathed. We went to work that Saturday but I couldn’t get my mind off that morning, knowing my psyche had been permanently changed.

Seven years later - my life sans Francisco

Meeting Francisco forever changed the trajectory of my career. As I reflect on the importance of my time in that favela I’ve come to the conclusion that I fell in love with business that day. Not because business can make someone fabulously rich, but because business can make the world a fabulously better place.

After returning to the U.S. my ultimate goal was to start my own company. I often thought about the lessons Francisco taught me and felt compelled to serve my community, help my fellow man, and be in control of my own destiny.

Seven years later and I’ve done exactly those things. It’s been a wild and remarkable ride - culminating in a career in the water industry where I’m proud of my work and also make a significant difference in communities around the globe.

And it all started with getting lost and finding - or rather, being found by - Francisco.

If you enjoyed reading this you might also like to learn about a secret I learned to speak any new language… FAST.

Big thanks to Charlie Bleecker, Doc Ayomide, and Hal Morris for the help in finalizing this one!