Vai que Dá! - Joaquim Castanheira

Brightness in the eyes is essential for any entrepreneur, but is it enough? What makes a passionate idea originate a high-value business and differ from a great illusion? Joaquim Castanheira explains it in his book "It Will Work".

What would lead a stable million-dollar business to close its doors and launch itself into a new market? Here you will know how learning with mistakes can change your business life forever!

If you like success stories, you're in the right place! Learn from these 10 accounts that passion, knowledge, and a sense of opportunity go hand in hand.

Got interested to change your mindset and learn with some big business names about company's culture and the right behaviors? Follow us in this summary!

About the book "Vai que Dá!"

The book "Vai que Dá!", "It will work" in a free translation to English, written by Joaquim Castanheira, was published in 2014 and has prefaces written by Beto Sicupira and Jorge Paulo Lemann.

It tells the story of 10 entrepreneurs who decided to undertake and created high impact businesses with innovative solutions. Showing their behavior and the company's culture with practical examples.

Its trajectories and main features are revealed by the author and commented by mentors of Endeavor, a global non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs, which accompanied them.

About the author Joaquim Castanheira

Joaquim Castanheira was a journalist and worked in magazines such as IstoÉ, Dinheiro and Revista Exame. He was recognized for his excellent work as a copywriter, editor, and reporter, working mainly with economic journalism. At the end of his life, he devoted himself to book production and editing.

Joaquim's choice to be the organizer of the 10 stories in the book was made by Endeavor Brazil. This organization has supported more than 100 entrepreneurs whose businesses have revenues of more than $4 billion.

To whom is this book indicated?

For individuals who wish to undertake or have already kicked off. If you are inspired or curious about reports of triumphs, don't waste your time and start reading as soon as possible.

There is no better way to learn about success if not with who is successful! And here you will have the opportunity to read a plenty of successful cases.

Main ideas of the book "Vai que Dá!"

• The 10 companies covered in the book are: Arizona, Acesso Digital, Prepara Group, Prática, Sirtec, Tecsis, Uatt? , Casa do Construtor, Clearsale e ToLife;
• How different entrepreneurial profiles led them to success;
• Practical examples of how to separate challenges from opportunities;
• Practical examples of how to get investors and how to sell your idea to your own employees;
• How the company's culture influences the results obtained in relation to the sector of activity.

So, are you ready to learn the lessons that would help you to turn your big dream into a successful venture?

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Overview: Arizona

In this chapter of the book "It Will Work", the author Joaquim Castanheira talks about Arizona, which is a company that operates in cross-media production services (prepress phase) and integrated marketing technology solutions. The company run by brothers Alexandre and Marcus Hadade began its career as a printing company.

The lesson given by the brothers along their path is that passion combined with knowledge generates growth. Both always observe that the market is constantly changing and do not have fear change.

The brothers decided to close the doors of their own printing company that earned a turnover of $20 million after identifying an opportunity in the cross-media production market. They closed the press and opened a new business, raising capital and resources through partnerships.

The lessons given by them are:

• Don't get carried away by passion, a common mistake for novice entrepreneurs;
• Prefer the financial loss for quality maintenance, so as not to lose its credibility, because this loss is irrecoverable;
• "Sell what you don't have and fit in where it doesn't fit," they say. That is, never say no to customers;
• "Don't build a team in your image and likeness. Diversity is harder to manage but produces better results".

Overview: Acesso Digital

The company led by Diego Torres Martins was opened when he was only 22 years old. It leads the digitization and document management segment in Brazil, with major clients such as Itaú and TAM. Its revenues exceeded $40 million in 2013 and the goal is to reach $1 billion in 2020.

With such an ambitious goal, Diego bet on the culture of happiness to motivate and stimulate his collaborators. The company was on the Best Companies to Work For list.

The office follows the model of companies like Google and Facebook. With few walls, managers sit side by side with their employees who can even play video games or sleep during work hours.

Members do not have many privileges, not even fixed parking spaces, and work only on good things, two of them even have bosses.

However, the demand for results and the achievement of bold goals is high, which does not allow freedom to become accommodation.

Diego preferred to break the fixed and traditional management model, betting on each employee's personal balance and individuality. He says:

"We are human with people and hard with bad results."

Overview: Prepara Group

At this point of the book "It Will Work", Castanheira shoes the Prepara Group, which was founded in 2004 by Rogério Gabriel. It offers a vocational and language courses generating revenues of R$270 million. The group was born a year after the bankruptcy of Rogério's previous business.

For Rogério, optimism and self-confidence are essential for an entrepreneur.

In addition, learning from frustrations is critical, as "troublemakers" teach you how to make fast, high-impact decisions. With the bankruptcy of Precision, his first business, the entrepreneur learned that it is essential to keep an eye on the scenario and not just on operations.

"Never stop looking outside the company and watching the trends."

Rogério makes three recommendations for entrepreneurs:

• The affective and emotional sides must be balanced;
• "Persist, but do not insist";
• If the venture becomes unviable, close it, do not let it agonize to death.

We have learned that identifying opportunities, knowing how to scale your business, lowering costs, streamlining operations, and never losing focus on the customer and their needs drive us to success.

Finally, do not forget to value human capital. Be honest with your employees and partners, especially during tough times.

Overview: Prática

In 1991, the brothers André and Luiz Eduardo Rezende founded Prática, which produces energy-efficient baking equipment. With revenues of $111 million in 2013 and growth of 25% per year, the company is an example of overcoming.

Andrew believes the success of a business comes from following his intuition along with continuous study and improvement. After all, we must acknowledge our victories, but without settling into a comfort zone.

André, while a born leader, has a long history of the unsuccessful business. As a result, he gained expertise with each failure and learned what to do, what not to do, and how to adapt without ever giving up.

For Luiz Eduardo:

"If you are going into a business, don't go shyly. Head in."

This statement demonstrates how entrepreneurship makes room for error but not for insecurity.

Choosing the business model and where to expand comes from talking to customers because listening to their needs and suggestions is essential. They adopted the "One Stop Shop" model: the customer meets all their needs from the same supplier.

Overview: Sirtec

Here the author Joaquim Castanheira says that the will to change the world is often born of personal deprivation.

This is the case with Sirtec and its founder Darci Schneid. The lack of electricity in the rural area where he lived inspired him to establish the company. Sirtec implements electrification projects in rural areas, in addition to building public and private networks and offering maintenance services to utilities.

The motivation to undertake was born and is maintained by the desire to bring development to people and generate well-being. With a clear purpose, persistent assertiveness and appreciation of human capital, Darci created a company with a high growth rate in an extremely competitive sector.

"Every entrepreneur needs to be clear about their long-term goals. The road there will not be taken in a straight line, but you cannot lose sight of them."

The company has grown far from the eyes of major players in the industry. Thus, they only met Sirtec when it already had the strength to face them. To do this, they used the strategy of focusing on customers with large needs and few resources.

Darci believes that without innovation there is no progress, and reinvests much of the capital in the company itself which today has over 1350 employees.

To ensure the growth of his business, the entrepreneur leads a spartan lifestyle. This means taking little for yourself and trying to identify which investments in the company are really needed and which ones are superfluous.

Finally, companies should always keep an eye on the macroeconomic scenario so that potential impacts on the business can be assessed and anticipated without causing major losses.

Overview: Tecsis

Optimistic Bento Koike founder of Tecsis has been on the verge of bankruptcy many times, always seeking to rebuild his business and make it stronger. His company has revenues of over R$600 billion per year and operates in the wind turbine sector.

The company that was once mentioned by The Economist as one of the "global heroes" of entrepreneurship, already had a $250 million debt and other majors crises.

Koike believes that diversity is an important asset, that engineering must be combined with creativity to make innovation a reality, and that high quality is essential, but flexibility must be combined.

The fatal mistake of Koike and his partners in their first company was to believe that only a high level of technical knowledge and little management knowledge would be enough. They did not go and the company went bankrupt, but the entrepreneur did not give up the dream of being his own boss.

Koike jotted down 4 teachings, so as not to make the same mistakes as him:

1. Clearly define responsibilities;
2. Align the team's aspirations with the company's objectives;
3. Don't be afraid to expose yourself to the market;
4. Don't get rid of the problem. This is the easy way. Try to solve it, because that is the virtuous way.

A valuable lesson is: In the face of crises keep your faith and focus on the possibilities and solutions that the future may offer. This prevents the present problems from shaking the business.

Overview: Uatt?

In the book "It Will Work", it is shown that the company founded by Rafael Biasotto, Uatt? , makes more than $100 million a year with the sale of its colorful gifts.

The entrepreneur establishes what is a priority for the business and what can be done in front of the resources possessed, after all, every entrepreneur is a juggler!

Some lessons taught by him are:

• Do not be afraid to look for new customers and suppliers, bet on the hard face;
• Behave like an elite athlete who resists pain and exceed limits to achieve his goals;
• Combine creativity with hard work;
• Think about how to scale the business;
• If you identify a personal weakness that disrupts the business, hire someone who is better than you at it;
• Bet on constant innovation, so you will always be ahead of those who try to copy you.

Overview: Casa do Construtor

The author Joaquim Castanheira explains that Casa do Construtor belongs to partners Expedito Eloel Arena and Altino Cristofoletti junior. The chain of stores spreads across 26 states is a result of how complementary differences lead to success. This success is proven by the annual revenues of $130 million.

To grow, they invested in simplifying and innovating common processes in the construction industry and investing in increasing store credibility. This generated financially bad results, but it ensured the strength of the business.

One of the factors that slowed the growth of the franchise chain was taking a more restrained stance at the beginning rather than taking more risks.

Another factor, common to other entrepreneurs, is the need to never stop studying. To ensure continued learning, they created a corporate university to train specialists needed for operations.

They have the ambitious goal of achieving a turnover of R$1 billion by 2020. For this, they are always looking for news in the sector and encourage their employees to grow, never losing their focus.

"We transform an individual dream into a collective dream. This is the essential competence of the entrepreneur."

Overview: Clearsale

Pedro Chiamulera created a leading company in the e-commerce fraud detection industry, with revenues of over R$540 million in 2013.

The entrepreneur who has participated in two Olympics compares the entrepreneur's life to that of an athlete:

"Both the athlete and the entrepreneur live with demands, goals, overcoming and the need to motivate themselves."

Pedro set a purpose and learned to identify not only the needs of customers but to understand what would be the best solution to the problem, even if it was expensive and bold. More than that, he learned how valuable people and talents are and should be preserved.

One of the lessons mentioned is the importance of winning strong customers. This creates more credibility, even though the profit margin is not so interesting at first.

Overview: Tolife

Tolife, a company founded by Leonardo Lima de Carvalho, offers technological solutions for healthcare.

As Leonardo says:

"Entrepreneurship is a game of mistakes and hits."

And both are valuable. One should not focus so much on risk, in the book he says that If at the time of creating Tolife he considered all the risks, he would never have built the company.

Leonardo seeks innovative solutions and partnerships to reduce costs but understands that entrepreneurship involves both financial and emotional costs.

He also realized that he should not only offer solutions that would solve customer problems and end the relationship with the company but solutions that would generate recurring revenue.

For him, a corporate division is more interesting because too much autonomy is dangerous.

The most valuable lesson is learning the keyword for entrepreneurs: resilience.

What do other authors say about it?

In "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", the author Peter Ferdinand Drucker defends the theory that creativity and innovation are not acts of genius, but a study, search and planning that requires discipline to follow systematic steps. He believes that t o innovate requires discipline to apply the right techniques.

In "Traction", Gino Wickman explores how successful entrepreneurs have an attractive and well-defined vision for their business. In addition, they know how to communicate this message to employees. From this, a guideline is created to be followed by everyone within the organization.

Facundo Guerra, in "Entrepreneurship for Subversives", tells what led him to leave the corporate world and become an entrepreneur, creating more than 10 successful entertainment businesses, including bars and concert halls.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

This book is a great source of inspiration for anyone by showing that challenges exist to overcome and generate positive future results.

For both personal and professional life, the following lessons apply:

• Value people and remember that diversity is an advantage;
• Never stop studying
• Don't be afraid to take risks because mistakes generate valuable experiences and successes make you richer.
• Insist, persist and do not give up, but do not let passion blind you or comforting paralyze you.

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To find out more about the stories of these companies and their entrepreneurs, buy the full book by clicking in the image below (available only in Portuguese):