I just got here

It was 2015 and I was researching coaching programs . I wanted to develop myself in an activity that would allow me to be closer to people. I wanted both my time and my experience to be put at their service. I wanted to contribute decisively to their well-being. It was then that, during my research for schools, I came across Way Beyond.

I vividly remember the moment when, after exploring the corners of the site, I landed on the team page. The simplicity of the words and the depth of the writing in the brief descriptions of each of the team members held my attention and my heart. It is at that moment that I fix my gaze on the colorful, smiling, relaxed silhouettes and think to myself: "one day I want to be here, on this page, and be part of this team".

7 years after this "love at first sight", and after much has changed and matured in my life, the time has come when I feel ready for change. And as it takes two to tango, Way Beyond also decides it is time to grow the team. For the first time in its history, it abandons its usual practice of recruiting based on recommendations and references by advertising the open position on LinkedIn. It is in this synchronicity that I gain visibility of the opportunity and jump in.

To help create innovative learning contexts and support business development. This was the challenge they were launching to a profile that allied the taste for people with the creativity and capacity needed to challenge the status-quo. I saw in this business card a way to capitalize on what I brought with me in my luggage. And, on the way, I could still take advantage of the opportunity to develop myself in the area I was so curious about and in which Way Beyond is an undeniable reference. An area that I saw gaining more and more expression in the market and within organizations: coaching.

That in itself would be a useful and enjoyable 2-in-1, but it didn't stop there. To this I could add one more thing that I really wanted. In order to be able to free myself without a burden at the "end" of my daughters' school hours, I saw the possibility of working reduced hours as the best of both worlds, and, curiously, Way Beyond was also looking for someone to whom this premise would interest.

I've been here for 9 months now, the length of a gestation, like the one I'm living in myself again as I write. I realize and recognize that there is a before and after I joined Way Beyond. What was left behind I remember as a climb to the peak of a mountain. The hard trial of life in which, in order to become great, in our eyes, we so often feel small. What came after is like a dive into the ocean. The liberation to be able to be the person I want to be, living my doubts serenely knowing that "finding your way is halfway to where you want to go.

Today, at Way Beyond, I dedicate myself to Culture and Innovation, with Communication assuming a prominent role. In the design that exists for the project and in my own, I find willingness, vision, desire for change and acceptance of the exploration and creation of new possibilities. And while I feel encouraged to imagine, to propose and to challenge, I also find resistance. And, sometimes, scarcity. Of time, resources, appetite, and scale. I don't see it as a hindrance or a reason that demoralizes or derails my will to contribute. Rather, I see it as a trail that is blazed and where I deposit ideas - mine and ours, to remind us of the seeds we have been sowing on the ground and where it will make sense to return.

The purpose I found at Way Beyond is the most honest there is. And the people who think, feel, and shape it are also in its image: they are open and sensitive, welcoming, receptive, available, and live a constant desire to improve, learn, and evolve. Perhaps this is why I feel I am being sculpted by colleagues and mentors who help me polish the contours of my way of being. Some trimming and tinkering are needed, from time to time, if we are to be more wisely and fully with ourselves, with others, and in the world.

Thank you to those little faces that in 2015 beckoned me, even without knowing it, to join them. And to the others that I have met in the meantime and have shown me how this is a company-school, that teaches us to be better people. I thank everyone who invites me in and makes me feel at home, without exception.

Many cultures are way behind in their concern for people's well-being. As well as the belief that it is by giving up a portion of the profits, in favor of sustainability, that work gains more meaning and significance. We, fortunately, are the Way Beyond and, also for this and in this, we have set the pace and are way beyond.