Commencement: Where I will be going next

1) Almost 2 years ago, Winter

Location: Cafeteria of King's of Western University, London, Ontario.

"I think I have found out my passion. Renewable energy, especially in recycling, because if you recycle things right, not only that you can turn them into renewable energy, you also reduce waste." I looked at him with excitement.

My friend finished his udon soup, looked up, and said:" Don't. Smells bad."

Here I am sitting in the office of a recycling company, waving away the flies in front of my nose and thinking: yea, he was quite right about the smelly part."

2) 3 months ago

Location: Peru

It was still dark outside since we left our tent at 4 a.m. for the rainbow mountain hike. It was a cold and snowy day. David, our tour guide and I were chatting and leading the walk. Our driver and my best friend Summer, who was travelling with me were walking silently behind us.

"So what's your plan for the future?" asked David.

"humm... that's a good question haha I wished I had the answer. However, my passion is in..." I explained David how I like renewable energy, my thoughts about recycling.

Then I told him what just happened yesterday: "there is a company that I really liked in Brazil. They are doing exactly what I am passionate about. I have already emailed the CEO and hoping I can work with them. He just replied me yesterday and said yes!! So I think if we worked out a plan and I matched with the company pretty well, I might stay in Brazil for some years."

I said with uncertainty at the end because it was the first time me really hearing myself saying this. However, David did not notice that and we moved on to other topic.

Later on, David and the driver started to talk. Summer and I were walking side by side. She started the conversation by asking quitely in Chinese: "So, if that company worked out, is it true that you will stay in Brazil for several years?"

I knew, she was listening.

3) 2 weeks ago

Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil

I did not realize how stressful I felt in the past days until this moment.

Until I talked to my roommate till 2 a.m. while I normally go to bed around 11 pm.

Until the next day, I ate 2 cheese bread, 1 coxinha (Brazilian street food, basically fried bread), plus my lunch and still want to go to a restaurant. (people who knows me know that I normally only eat 2 meals per day and with a low-carb diet)

Until sitting in the restaurant, I finished the whole in-house pita bread starter (one of those thick pita bread and with a size like a mini pizza) and the entire plate of cheese ravioli.

I knew I need to do something about myself but how? and what?

Later that day, I received a message from Anny, who knew me for over 12 years. She's like my sister. She invited me for a call. Hallelujah...

4) the Call

"I have been feeling very stressful lately but I don't want to talk to you about it, because I already knew what you would say." I told Anny directly.

She laughed and replied: "what, tell me about it"

"I think, I might need to stay in Brazil for some time..."

"What?? No! come back!"

I laughed and complained "That's exactly why I don't want to talk to you you see??!"

However, I went on to explain the situation that I am facing. How much I liked the company, why I liked the company and why I think it fit me but how I miss home, how I have language barriers here, how I don't want to stay in Brazil and how I will need to live under a limited salary if I stay.

After Anny listened to me, in a serious tone she said: "Linda, by the YEARS that I have known you, I know, you will stick with the company until the world collapses or until you need to live on the street or something.

So, I think what you need now is first figure out your personal finance plan and work out an exit plan in case this did not work out the way you wanted."

I smiled on this side of the phone. That's my Anny.

The Anny who tucked a world map with a line saying: The World is Yours into my luggages before I left Ivey, and told me: "I think that map fits you well." The Anny who kept complaining how she missed me but also told me: "Go explore the world and I will always be there for you." The Anny who always tells me that she's my No.1 fans.

After the call, I went to the balcony of my house. Sao Paulo had been raining all day that day but now, the rain has stopped and the air was refreshing. All the clouds have cleared up that you could even see stars in the sky.

Anny texted me after the call and said:" Man, it was so nice to talk to you. Remember, we always got each other.

I replied:" You know, the sky of Sao Paulo never look so pretty to me."

5) Three weeks ago

Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil

After the MBA skill seminar, I approached the logistic professor and told her that I am currently volunteering for a recycling company. Therefore, reverse logistic is our main business activity. Since I am not good at logistics at all, I wonder if I could ask her some questions in another time.

Therefore, a week after, I am now in the meeting room of my exchanged school, with my logistic professor, Roger, the CEO and founder of my company, and another professor who is specialized in reverse logistic.

My professor had doubts about whether our workers now were the most suitable people to hire if we want to scale up our business. Therefore, Roger started to passionately describe why he decided to hire marginalized people.

If you ever had a chance to know Roger and if you happened to have read the book, Catcher in the Rye, you would have thought the role, catcher in the rye describes Roger perfectly. Roger was the catcher in the rye of many of the workers here.

The company, YouGreen, is composed of people like old people, people who were garbage pickers, people who are refugees in Brazil, and people who made a wrong turn in life and went to jail before. All these people were the least preferable choice in the labor market but Roger, has his own criteria.

Roger taught them how to read, how to do finance, taught them what it means to be productive, and etc. Now, he has already planned to give English and French classes to the company. Roger gave them a chance to prove themselves, to prove that as long as you gave them an opportunity, a bit of trust, and a bit of patient, they can be just as good as anybody else.

6) YouGreen

There are lots of cooperatives in Brazil, in the field of recycling. It basically an alliance of a group of garbage pickers. If you join a cooperative, to make sure it is fair for everyone, you have to work for certain hours, you must return your garbages to this organization and etc. rather than working like a "freelancing" or "Uber-style" garbage picker.

There are only a few big cooperatives in Brazil that are legal. Hundreds of them are illegal due to the bureaucratic costs for legalization. They exist because of the demand of the market. Brazil has a very incomplete and immature garbage collection system, not to mentioned a recycling system.

YouGreen is also a cooperative, however,

YouGreen is the only cooperative in Brazil who deals with big international clients like Hilton, like Cushman & Wakefield (a big real east company), like Nestle and etc.

YouGreen is the only cooperative that can persuade these companies to pay for us to recycle for them (in Brazil, it is just too easy to throw away garbages illegally without punishment, therefore, it was not easy to persuade people that they should pay to dispose their garbages)

YouGreen is the only cooperative that not only helps their clients to recycle, but also helps the clients to reduce the amount of total garbages that need to go into landfill, sometimes, from 30-50% to 5%.

YouGreen is the only cooperative that provide clients with insights into their garbage stats, what materials they consumed and what carbon footprints they made.

YouGreen is probably the most efficient cooperative.

YouGreen is probably the cleanest "garbage factory"(check my previous article for the reference) in Brazil though flies are hard to avoid.

YouGreen is probably the most ambitious cooperative because our goal is to become someone like the Mondragon Corporation in Spain, the largest cooperative in Spain that employed 74,335 people by 2015.

If you asked me, how YouGreen achieved all these. As a business student, my point of view is that we have a very unique business model, the reasoning behind the business model is very simple to tell but it is not easy to do.

I'd like to compare us to WestJet. We all have studied that case before and the secret of WestJet is no secret anymore. Many other companies also tried to intimate but none of them succeed.

Same story with YouGreen. Our secret is education.

On one hand, we educate our workers so that they know how to work efficiently and they report things that can make the process more efficient. On the other hand, we educate our customers, so that they know how to throw garbages correctly to reduce the total amount of garbages and our workload.

At the same time, we have a unique pricing model and a salary model to accompany our education so that our clients have financial incentives to accept our education and our workers have financial incentives to work together.

Then you have factors like Roger's personality, the workers that we hire and etc. as the necessary species to this recipe.

I see YouGreen's business model like one of those Grandma's dishes, not-hard-to-find ingredients, simples steps but no one else can replicate the authentic taste.

When the morning light shines down on the factory

7) Challenges

So, that's the company that I have decided to join, the company that kept me in Brazil.

Because I am the company in the company who came from a business background, my current role is to help the company to prepare a business plan. Therefore, I am basically like a family doctor in the company that needs to look into every aspect of the company.

In the past month, I have been estimating the total potential market size for the company. I also started to look at the financial side of the company, doing cost analysis, profitability analysis, cash flow analysis to see where went wrong with our profit margin and how we can identify and target our ideal customers more accurately.

I will also look at the predictions that our previous CFO made and see where we should invest first when we receive investment. Then I plan to do calculate the NPV for the new investment.

Roger gave me full autonomy in my job. I told him every week what I plan to do. And he has probably realized that I need encouragement. Therefore, he really gives me that. Every meeting of us ends with he telling me what a great job I did and I did not know how to reply lol

I chose this company, because it fits my environmental passion,

I chose this company, because Roger appreciate my personality and working style,

I chose this company, because it is a platform that I know for sure, will not try to limit my potentials but will try to maximize it,

I chose this company, because I believe in its potential and I am willing to grow with it;

I hesitated, because I am not sure if I could manage my money well and really live under budget like I have never done before,

I hesitated, because I could not speak the local language, I am scared that I could not fit inside the company,

I hesitated, because my mother and friends want me to stay close and I miss them so much as well,

I hesitated, because I felt so so foreign in Brazil,

I hesitated, because we all know, joining a startup (thought a cooperative is not really a regular startup) is a gamble.

The other day, Cynthia, my friend in Brazil told me that: "Linda, you need to be prepare, in the next 3 or 4 years, your peers might be working for big-name fancy companies, getting promoted and good salaries, buying their parents gifts while you might still be a nobody and cannot buy your parents the things that they like. That's the sacrifice."

I sighed.

I know.

8) the End.

It is always good to end on 8 because 8 is the lucky number in China that means money haha.

Today, as I am finishing this article in, is the graduation day back home in Ivey.

Well, I guess that's it. Everyone is on their own now.

I really want to congratulate everyone and really, good luck for everything. Like how the song goes, no matter what you chose for your life and for the future

"I hope you get everything you want and that you chose

I hope that it's the realest thing that you ever know

Hope you get the pretty girls, that's pretty and everything,

Million dollar cribs having million dollar dreams"

Just be very careful of what you wish for, because you will get it at some point of your life! but whatever that you want, "I hope, you learn to make it on your own."

For me, I have decided to follow my passion, gamble the next couple years for the future. I think I made a good bet, but, we will see. I thank my friends and family who gave me the courage to make this decision, who accept my passion, my personality and my possible failure.

I will keep you guys posted and Ivey Alumni, stay in touch.

-- June 8th, 2019 @ Lençois, Brazil (see the picture below)

"This is the only desert that I knew in my life. Desert to me is always full of water, full of wind and full of energy."

I thought for a moment and replied :" This is the third desert that I have been to. The first one was in Jordan. Exactly what I imaged a desert would be. Brown, dry and beautiful.

The second one was in Atacama, Chile. There was lots of stones. I did not believe it was a desert until I am here.

After seeing this desert, now I know, even every desert is different. Every desert has its own look, its own temper and its own charisma."