From the Editor
Everyone has about a week off at the end of the month in between language class ending and real class starting. Most people are heading south, but I decided I’ve seen enough trees and lakes and mountains. Instead, I’ll be taking a bus north through the Atacama all the way to Arica. I’ll go see some salt flats, the real desert, and a few volcanoes before flying back. Look for some really boring pictures of sand but hopefully some interesting writing. For now though, we’re long overdue on some current pictures. The first three are here in Vina/Valpo, the second two are from back in Cordoba.
The Sounds of Valpo
The music pauses for a brief moment, and my watch beeps midnight.
Chancho! Piedras! Chancho! Piedras!
The crowd gathered at the Baron Marina chants at the lead singer’s request. There’s something about a rock concert held in an outdated shipyard that just seems right, natural. The drumming reverberates deep off the concrete dock and the surface of the ocean, and the cymbals sound like they were just cut from a shipping container. The band clearly enjoys the atmosphere. Nearby, the modern port continues its 24/7 work unloading freight from the Hanjin, no doubt out of Asia. Maybe the crews working on the ships anchored just offshore are watching the show too.
Behind the marina, the Valpo Metro train blasts its horn as it rounds a curve and slowly air-brakes at the station. Dogs and birds scatter as the train unloads and reloads and a loudspeaker announces the schedule. Vendors are ready nearby hawking completos, italianos, and other late night foods that are always 15 minutes of pleasure followed by 4 hours of pain. In the street nearby, performers juggle flaming bowling pins at a red light in hopes of a good tip while a small group dances nearby. It takes a moment to observe the organic rhythm of it all, as people flow from the arriving train which scatters the dogs to the buses followed by the vendors who sell and performers who dance and sing, stopping the bus until the light turns and another bus pulls in to take the people from the next train.
Away from the traffic, a quieter group sits on the sand beach and takes in the night. The waves are small tonight but each one still makes itself heard before fizzling out and dying on the beach, then returning to the water. The ocean is snores but doesn’t sleep. Seagulls gather out on the dark water to float and prune their feathers. Maybe the seagulls can’t comprehend it all. But somewhere far away, a band is playing, a crowd is chanting, cranes are lifting, dogs are barking, trains are rolling, vendors are selling, traffic is flowing, waves are crashing, and watch beeps midnight.
In Brief
On my Chile bucket list was ‘experience a tremor’, since I’ve never felt one before. I didn’t think it would happen so soon though. I was sitting in film class and there was this low, deep boom outside. I looked over at the window, and then there was this vibration hit the room. There was a split second before I realized what was going on, and then it was over as quick as it started. It was the coolest thing. The other guy in the class was from California and our teacher is obviously Chilean, so they thought nothing of it. I couldn’t stop smiling.
Back in Business
Almost exactly one year ago, I started an email conversation with an entrepreneur I had met earlier in November. We came up with the idea of starting a mentorship and discussion group for students interested in starting their own businesses. The group launched in the spring and remained small, but the people who were there felt like they got a lot out of it and really enjoyed the group. A couple of the members graduated and left the area at the end of the year having entrepreneurial success. One moved to Detroit to work on his start-up Paper Feet (unique flip flops made from recycled billboard material); another moved off to open a private practice in psychology. I didn’t have the time or energy to rebuild the group again in the fall.
But even though they moved on from college, people still wanted to take part in the meetings, so last week Foresight Entrepreneurship was reborn from its own ashes. Thanks to the flat world, we can connect on live video between Chile – Atlanta – Detroit – Ann Arbor – Flint. I was ecstatic. The group I helped assemble liked the product enough to restart it themselves almost a year later. Plus, I once again get my weekly dose of entrepreneurial boot, even thousands of miles away from the source.
There are some simple ways to avoid a standard 9-5. Abhi, our advisor, runs a small business connecting old-school muscle car sellers and buyers. Just one connection picks up 2-4 grand, and takes, in total, about two full days’ worth of work. This is how it operates: 1. Abhi gets a phone call from contacts who run car dealerships, or finds a good offer on Craigslist. 2. Talking with the seller and requesting detailed photos and information, Abhi determines whether it’s a good car to sell. 3. Abhi’s partner finds an international buyer whose currency is a favorable exchange on the dollar. 4. Abhi signs a purchase agreement, ships the car, end of story. Abhi and his partner can operate the business wherever they happen to be in the world.
Building something like this is probably the best way to avoid getting stuck in one career in one location, and thereby having your success tied to the success of the people and organizations around you. There was an article I liked in Matador called How Generation Y is Getting Screwed and What You Can Do (http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/2011/01/03/gen-y-getting-screwed-what-you-can-do/). Basically, it says young people are having benefits cut far more heavily than any other sector, face a stacked job market and higher taxes to cover government spending that they will never see. The message is – get out. Now. Go elsewhere in the world and find other ways to make money and do good things. Building a solid mobile or even automated business is a golden ticket. Sounds like fun to me.
- LWT -
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