When I decided to start a business in Ireland, I didn’t imagine the size of the challenge I was about to face. It wasn’t just about opening a company.
It was about rebuilding myself in a place where nothing belonged to me—not the language, not the culture, not the way of thinking.
Starting a business outside your country is an experience that teaches you more about humanity than about business. In the beginning, I believed that all it took was a good idea and hard work.
Then I understood that the real difference lay in something much simpler—and much more difficult: understanding people. I learned that each culture has its own rhythm, its own codes, and, above all, its own fears.
And that leading international teams requires empathy before strategy. When you come from abroad, you need to prove twice as much, not just competence, but intention. That’s how we built SEDA College: not by selling courses, but trust.
There were times when I thought about giving up. The bureaucracy seemed insurmountable, the costs high, the cultural differences immense.
But it was there that I realized the strength of a value I carry to this day: resilience is the universal language of entrepreneurs. No matter where you are — Ireland, Brazil, or any other country — those who remain are those who understand that falling is part of the process.
The international experience also showed me that thinking globally isn’t about speaking fluent English or opening a branch abroad.
It’s about adopting a mindset open to the new, to mistakes, and to constant learning. It’s about recognizing that a good leader isn’t the one who has all the answers, but the one who knows how to listen to different questions.
Today, when I look at SEDA’s trajectory and the hundreds of stories that have crossed our path, I see that the greatest learning didn’t come from financial results, but from people.
From each student who crossed the world to change their life, from each employee who believed in the purpose, from each mistake that forced us to mature.
Building a global company from a country that wasn’t my own taught me that borders aren’t lines on a map — they’re tests of vision, empathy, and persistence. And those who learn to overcome them never see the world the same way again.
