Invincibelle Profile
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. The Beginning
What brought you to this country?
Originally, I am from Colombia. I used to live in the capital Bogotá, Colombia. Presently, I live in San Jose.
I graduated as an Industrial Engineer. Since then, I have had several specializations in marketing, credit management. In my career, I started working in software and technology, project management etc. From there, I grew to be in VP positions; I had the opportunity to work in the role of a CIO and CEO of banks and insurance companies. I worked for the government as well. I had more than 20 years of experience before coming here.
The reason we came to this country was that in my country we had security problems. The militants were kidnapping important people to get points to negotiate with the government. So, people employed on high level in my country, started having some security problems. We decided to move to another country. My husband was working for Cisco at that moment, and I was working for this Spanish group. We were scared, especially for my kids. We couldn’t let them go to any place alone. Cisco had an opportunity here and offered something interesting in the education area to my husband and as my husband used to be professor at the university, we decided to move here.
What problems did you face when you got here?
The first problem was that I did not have any friends. I miss that part about my home country. I had nothing to do and nobody to contact. So, I needed to figure out as to what to do. I had to make myself again and that is what I did. The first thing I did was to start studying a little bit. I went to the University to see what they commonly did here and to make some contacts to help me. I took some classes – English classes to improve my English, and then I went to other Universities and took some courses in marketing and business development. I started trying to learn how businesses here in the US are moving. Especially in the area of VC funding and raising capital
I had believed that the American culture was very similar to our culture and I discovered that it was not. And I learnt that Americans are more closed as people. They don’t open their houses or their hearts to everybody as we do. I found that Americans were more reserved. They separate the environment of the work from their personal life. So it is not easy to make close friends.
Not even in your neighborhood it is easy to make friends I have been living in my neighborhood for 3 years and I have never met my neighbors. People here consider they cannot be intrusive in your life. It is a cultural thing. It is not because they don’t want to help you, but they consider that if they go and bother you, you are going to be uncomfortable and be interrupted. It is not the case in my country.
What were some of the things you learnt on the way?
—-This new life gave me an opportunity to improve my English and forced me to do something new. So it was great. I think it was a best thing to do. After doing all the courses I had the idea of helping my country and the companies in my country with all the knowledge I was acquiring here. So I started a new business.
—-The Business Culture is also different. Americans, I learnt, they don’t have time for personal relationship in business. And we, Latinos, need that time. That is part of my job. I am trying to help my companies to understand this culture. To make them aware of cultural differences or else they are going to be rejected. For example, I am helping them to understand time management, to be concise in their ideas and to show first the benefits of doing business with us.
. The Transition
What challenges did you face in the transition to get to where you are today?
The way that I started was by offering my service for free. I needed a place at that time to interact with other people. But I had two problems.
— I was just getting my work visa at that moment, so I was not really allowed to work.
— And the other thing was nobody knew me.
So I needed to look for a place to work and to let them know that I have valuable things to offer. What I did was may be good for every woman in this field in this country. I went to a place where I wanted to work and offered my services for free at the beginning. Just to let them know and work as a volunteer. This country has this very important thing that we don’t have in Latin America. Here to volunteer is normal. Everybody offers time for free. It is part of getting new businesses. It is part of the culture. That is a good way to start getting experience locally and put it in your resume.
To start a new business without contacts was very hard. I was close to quit 3- 4 times but if you really believe in what you are doing you have to stay. You have to look for the right way to do it. The first 3 years were very hard.
If given an opportunity, what would you have done differently?
I think the things I really miss are the personal relationships. May be I needed to look for those relations. May be you needed to connect more than the professional part. You left your family; you left everything over there and came here. You need to be connected with other kind of relationships. Not only business, but personal also, so that you are more integrated and more quickly adjusted. May be you needed to go to the schools of your children and involve with other moms, so that you will have friends in your neighborhood. Because I focus all my business, my relations are all business relations. Now I have friends with my clients.
What kept you inspired to do better?
Personally, What I really want is to see my children succeed in this place, be happy and contribute some way to build a better world. My daughter is now in Stanford. And my son is in UC – Santa Barbara. They are going to be people that add some value to this world. I really believe that. I believe that we came here to show the world that we can do better. I think they are doing a great job. My daughter Stephanie, she is very smart and she is doing political science. Now she is involved in the problems in Africa. I am really very happy to see her helping other countries as well. She is working with former advisors of the white house. And my son Samuel, he is studying theatre, and he is trying to change the way the theatre is seen. They keep me inspired.
. The Present
What are your current personal & professional pursuits?
Professionally, I want to put Latin America on the technology map of this country. We are the neighbors of United States of America. Mexico and all other Latin America are connected with United States. And we have very smart people and we have very good workers and nobody sees us as a partners. We in Latin America, have very good Universities, very good and hard working people. Why we don’t have a place? So my personal goal is to show that.
Personally, we need to save enough money to retire in this country. It is going to be very hard. Yes. To save a penny here is very hard, especially in Silicon Valley. I am trying to buy a house. I can’t because houses that I like are not affordable for me. I want to retire under my roof…not very wealthy but I need to afford the housing and food for the rest of my life.
What are your hobbies? How do you relax? Are you able to manage work life balance?
I have many ideas. Every moment I have ideas for my clients or for my business or for everything. So I think I work more than I want. Now I am looking for a house, so my hobby is looking for a house, I go to every web site in this world to look for a place to live. I have spent a lot of hours on this.
I like to play golf. In my country I used to play. But I really don’t play much now. But I love the walk and I love the scenery. It is a nice way to relax.
I love to dance. But opportunity to dance here is not very common. So I don’t really dance much here. I love to listen to music and watch movies. And because my son is in the theatre, he teaches me a lot about classical movies, special movies and independent movies. I love to travel. I wish to learn about other cultures and different places. I would love to go to India, Russia, China, and Japan. The farthest place I have been is Israel. So there are 100 countries I need to visit.
What is next in your life?
The next few years I need to scale my business, and hire more people so I can be more relaxed. I need some room for my husband and me. And stay in contact with my children to support them if they need us.
What resources at Invicibelle.com do you think would help women who wish to come to this country?
You can put in your web site many things. There are many practical things that you need when you come to a new country. You can put how to build your credit history for example – I think it is very important for people to have credit history to exist in this country. It would be helpful if you put in the things that they need to know, for example, how to buy a house, how to rent a house, how to get your driver license, etc.
You also can have in the web site contact information of people willing to help with their profile.
. The Guidance
From your vast experience, what is your message for women who wish to either move to this country or are already here?
To come to a new country is a new opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Be always positive and ask for help. There are many good people outside willing to help you and now you can use www.invincibelle.com a source of information
What should a multicultural woman do to grow as a leader?
The first thing, you need to believe in yourself. You are as intelligent, as smart, as hard worker, as everybody else.
Secondly you need to hear the people that are working with you. You want to be a leader, you need to understand every point of view and try to look for the best solution for everybody.
To be a leader, you need to work hard. Harder than everybody else . They need to believe that you really did your homework and you are more prepared to take the lead.
You need to lead by an example. You need to be the person to look up to. You need to look for better solutions.The most important thing as in a role as a leader is to serve and help every person in your team.
You need to be constant, you need to be in track, patient and perseverant, and you get what you really want.
I believe for a multicultural woman is easier to do this role because she understands different cultures and is more open to learn and hear.
Every woman has to keep up with one or more roles – a mother, a wife, a professional. What advice you have for multicultural women who need to keep a healthy balance between these roles?
I work for my family. So my priority is my family, it is the only thing that I have forever. Then comes my work. Take advantage of this new opportunity to share with you family all the new experiences you have everyday and talk to your kids to see what they are learning.
I don’t worry much about the housework. This is not my priority. It is good to have a nice house.
But the important thing is time for kids and for your people. If you have time for talking with you kids, you avoid many other problems like drugs and bad friends and company. It doesn’t make any sense if you have a successful job and problems in your family.
