August 8, 2010

After 38 years begging in the streets

I spent last week teaching at INALDE Business School in Bogotá and Medellín, invited by Professor Fabio Novoa and the Alumni Association. Apart from having the chance of meeting more than 300 professionals in different executive programs of the school, I came back to my summer quarters in Miami with a moving story. It has to do with this scarf:

Besides the sessions at INALDE, I participated as well in an event organized by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After my conference, someone from the audience came to give me a scarf with my name written on it. He was Reinaldo Niño, and entrepeneur with an inspirig story.

Reinaldo has spent 38 years begging in the streets of Bogotá, but the course of his life changed dramatically -and for the best- when he happened to stumble with a bag filled with cotton. He decided to divided the cotton in two pieces and sell them as two scarfs. And that was the begining of his company, Manos Doradas, that today employs people from the streets:

Let me introduce to you Reinaldo and his story:



Definitely, we need thousands of Reinaldos to change the world. And we should never excuse ourselves by aiming low, when is so much to be done...

I leave you with Between the lines, from Sara Bareilles, to think about it:

1 comment:

  1. Alucinante Alvaro, lo que no te pase a tí... La historia de Reinaldo es digna de escuchar.

    Un abrazo Phoenix!!!

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