WHO SAID IT WAS ABOUT MONEY?

After more than 6 years in such an amazing organization as AIESEC where traveling around the world you have the chance to get to know and interact with Top Leaders from all sectors such as corporate CEOs, presidents from countries, General Secretaries from Multilateral Agencies, Ambassadors, Multiracial Leaders, and many more, you start to find very hard to identify a role model for you and also you start to challenge their contributions trying to make something as significant as they have been doing within their societies.

Back in Manizales, when I was at my 1st year at university, my Creativity Class Teacher was my role model, very proffessional corporate guy, successful, human and diplomatic, then later on in my third year, my Finance Class Teacher amazed me with the logic behind the numbers and how finances mixed with integrity and respect will take you forward in life. Then in my last year of university the President of my country, shocked me with a speech about the 4 Cs, Coherence, Consistence, Competence & Caring. Then when I was living in the Dominican Republic, I met this amazing women from the World Bank, who amazed me with her life story about leadership and how she coming from a very poor family developed herself becoming a color woman in a leadership position in such an institution as the World Bank.

Currently in Rotterdam, actually during my last days in AIESEC International, I had the chance to meet again one of the Supervisory Group member; the Chairman from Microsoft Europe! For sure was one if not the best session one of the best ones I have ever joined in my life. We where in the board room from the office with no agenda, no ppt, no videos, no flip-charts, no papers, just he and us sitting there asking him questions about leadership.

What a shocking moment I had when we start talking about how monopolies are harming the world, how some corporations and its leaders are key responsible for this financial crisis, how ethics are sometimes so diffuse in corporate and government sectors where personal interests are the ones driving economies despite the common well form the people around. Listening him talking about "Solidarity Globalization", the importance to get the truly inclusion from Africa in the world economic map, how to take the European Union to the next level, how to improve Education to ensure competitiveness for next generations, and some other hot topics definitively amazed me! There we were, me and my colleagues sharing this amazing thoughts with such an important corporate figure but a the same time someone very open, sincere and no pretentious at all. This is the kind of people youth need to be in contact with! This is just an example of someone who on his duties includes participation in spaces such as AIESEC to make sure his impact cross the borders from the company he works for and how with just a simple 90 minutes chat, 22 people from 16 countries can learn tons of experiences!