Milliseconds of Inspiration That Can Propel Your Dreams

In this series, professionals thank those who helped them reach where they are today. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #ThankYourMentor and @mention your mentor when sharing.

It’s always gratifying to remember the person who inspired you, helped you discover your dreams or accompanied you during the most difficult times. Sometimes it’s a teacher, a relative or a friend, and that makes us forever grateful to them. Other times, it’s not just one person who inspires you, but a whole group of people who think differently and show you that there is another way to do things.

For me, that group of people was Endeavor. More than twelve years ago, when we founded Globant, we knew that we wanted to make an impact in the world, to challenge the status quo, and make a difference on how to conduct a business.

We were a small start up, just 4 friends with a dream, and when you are so small, your dreams sometimes can seem pretty far off. But we always thought big and as we built our company during those first years, we came across Endeavor, an NGO that sought to promote the high-impact entrepreneurship movements worldwide. At that moment, we saw that we shared the same passion, so we reached out to them, and in 2005 we were selected Endeavor Entrepreneurs. This turned out to be a key moment in our history.

They helped us get inspired, and it wasn’t just by giving us access to new mentors and do more networking. They enabled us to get our “milliseconds of inspiration” that would help us propel our dreams.

Opposed to what people think about inspiration, it is not a long process: it can come just from small phrases or even words you hear in conversations. So in order to get those milliseconds of inspiration, you need to be in the right place and surrounded by the right people to improve the probabilities for that to happen. You need to be part of a bigger ecosystem, because this kind of inspiring moments are not isolated processes. A bigger ecosystem is nurtured with the right people and mentors and it will help foster these interactions. Once you are in this ecosystem, inspiration can come in many different ways. It could be a specific help when you are in a difficult moment, or a conversation on the fireplace with an industry expert.

Endeavor gave us access to that ecosystem, and they also taught us a very important lesson: promoting entrepreneurs is not only about making a business become more successful. It is also about contributing to the development of countries and communities, and always give back.

Today, seven years after we were selected Endeavor Entrepreneurs, we like to say that we are still part of the same movement. We are part of the board of Endeavor Argentina, and together we help young entrepreneurs get to the next level. In many developing countries, there are a lot of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial energy, and these ecosystems have started to gain momentum. Some just got it right, others have the right attitude but still need to work on their focus in order to make their businesses global and successful, and others are looking for inspiration after a failure. So we continue to coach, prepare, train, and mentor them as much as possible.

In essence, we are part of a multiplying effect with the potential of changing a country. We encourage other entrepreneurs to get their milliseconds of inspirations, so that they can propel their dreams and create more global success stories just as we have. It’s time to help others to dream big, to think differently, and to prepare for the future.