Never Give up

When asked about his most remarkable memory, Marco Aurelio Filho does not even think to answer: it was the trip to the Republic of Congo that he did years ago. He and a colleague were working on a water well implementation project in a poverty-stricken village seven hours away from big cities; a route that could only be done by traveling on dirt roads. In the scorching sun, Marco finished drinking water in the pet bottle he carried with him, crumpled it and threw it in the trash; only to notice the group of boys who approached asking for the bottle. "There's no water," he said, somewhat bewildered, but the boys insisted. They wanted the kneaded bottle to make a soccer ball. They grabbed the object with the triumph of one who wins a brand new Nike, and they played right there in that makeshift field of dirt and soot.

Marco is a mechatronics engineer for training, but he dedicates his life to social actions that help as many people as possible. On the trip to the Congo, he touched on a water treatment project with ozone, which resulted in the implementation of 3000 wells across the country. It helped develop software capable of doing all the control necessary to kill microorganisms in the water, he says, as if it were not a big deal. She did this while she was in her fourth year of college.

"People should not feel impeded from doing something because of their age," he says. "I was 19 and talking to giant companies. I suffered prejudice for that; some people would look at me and say that I was not old enough to do the project. And I was like, 'OK, let's go to the next one.' " In fact, the young age does not seem to have been a barrier: to the eight years, Marco set up his first computer; at twelve, started developing software and working with basic programming. His father, a traditional valedictorian, took burned pieces of the computers from the hospital where he worked and took his son to play. From his good-bye to hard drives, processors and motherboards. Not to mention the ability to create your own games rather than settle for ordinary kids' video games.

At the age of sixteen, he took a breath to know the world. He moved to Saranac Lake in the United States, where he attended high school and took the impetus to take two important certifications in the area of ​​technology. He was the only foreigner in the city of five thousand. During the engineering school, which preferred to study in Brazil, he participated in projects in Heineken and Ambev in the area of ​​industrial automation, while colleagues competed for much more modest internship vacancies. And never, in any of these places, did he think to settle down. He had an entrepreneurial spirit; not those who preach the vocation because they think they are handsome, but of those who can turn their backs on Heineken and Ambev to start their own business.

The first business she called her was a game developer. It lasted about a year and until it thrived, but it did not satisfy their longing to impact the world around. "I did not help anyone with that," he admits. She closed the doors to open a second company, Solid-SIS, and went with her to Congo. Around the same time, no less impressive projects were part of its portfolio: an application to eradicate the ebola in West Africa; a psychiatry software at Harvard; an intelligent algorithm in Kansas City; a pre-shipment medical screening software in Sydney, capable of identifying risk conditions for passengers about to embark. A lot of this before even hanging the engineer's diploma on the wall.

In his fourth year of college, he sold Solid-SIS and moved to Brooklyn, New York. The parents did not approve, but nothing they said would change Marco's mind. They feared for their future outside. Marco shared this anxiety, but had a creative plan to get his destiny out of the hands of chance: it was in every computer school he found on the map and left post-its with his contact and address to his LinkedIn. And is not it worked? He began working as a freelancer for a healthcare company and, three months later, traveled with the CEO to Las Vegas to assist him in a project. Another three months and was hired as chief technology officer, a position he held for nearly four years.

By irony or challenge of destiny, he married a Brazilian while living in the United States. A long distance relationship greatly increased his comings and goings around the world: he in New York; her, in Piracicaba. Eventually he left NY, but eventually distanced himself further: He found a home in Vancouver, Canada, where he worked on a social networking project for people with chronic illnesses. He stayed for a year, and when he returned to Brazil, once again on dubious routes of destiny, he eventually divorced.

"When I was in pre-III, the teacher asked everyone to draw their biggest dream. All my friends drew video games and other toys, but I drew myself, adult, with a baby on my side. Being a father is the greatest dream of my life, "says Marco. In the midst of so many heroic achievements, it is hard to believe that there is still something he has not achieved. He then goes on to talk about his career: "To work with me, you have to be proactive. I give all the tools so that the person can do what he needs, but he has to go after. I was raised like this. I never won things easily, I had to win things, you know? "

Marco Aurélio Filho is today the name of someone who has done very, very much, but who continues to speak with amazing modesty about each of his deeds. He is founder of the TecnoBio company, allied to BioGrupo, and continues to work on projects around the world. During the day, he heads the office in Curitiba; At dawn, he attends Skype meetings with clients in Australia. Before we say good-bye, he tells me, "Whatever is done with love ends up rewarding. I love what I do, I would not change for anything. The people who are with me see the love I have for what I do. I work and I'm happy. "