What mechanical engineers build and do has changed our world in countless ways. It's mechanical engineers - people - whose works surround us. Many of their achievements are well known, others not so much.
I want you to gain a better understanding of this very complex discipline by knowing something about someone who, over the years, has been busy building it.
Joao Matos Junior was born in Brazil in 1983. The fact that he try to follow God's principles might explain his success in his professional journey. But it wasn't his celestial focus that inspired him. Rather it has been very much what Leonardo Da Vinci said long ago. "I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." Joao seems to have understood these entrepreneurial words very well.
With lots of ambition and highly skilled in both, technical and soft skills, Joao never let the lack of a formal degree hold him back in the beginning of his career. Rather, he went after it. From a graduate to a CEO, from an engineer to an entrepreneur, he has been making history going on 20 years now.
Though highly capable of a 21st-century workspace (right brain), Joao also has a strong left-brained impulse to solve problems strategically and accurately. You can imagine how much company clients love this 2-in-1 kit!
Joao worked in several important international companies, ultimately arriving at his most notable achievement, his own industrial project engineering company, which would grow from a group of 4 to a company of 360, in a shockingly short time period of only 4 years.
He recognized his entrepreneurial inclination by taking a look within every time he would make a call and a decision, still as an employee, head of one or another department. We are talking about having an entrepreneurial mindset, which may even have come about naturally for him. (Keep in mind that for most, it is a process of being forged in fire.) He was never, professionally speaking, a one-dimensional engineer. Just like entrepreneurs, he undoubtedly knew that he could live life on his own terms. That is precisely the set of thought processes that differentiated Joao from other engineers he has worked with. Interestingly, some of these very engineers work for Joao today.
Joao had often felt unfulfilled because he was not in a position to make important, strategic decisions for the company. He talks about the business skills that engineers need to be successful entrepreneurs. Although his education didn't necessarily prepare him to be an entrepreneur, he took several post-graduation courses that gave him an excellent "technology-based entrepreneur" background.
Some strengths of engineers can actually become weaknesses when being entrepreneurs. Take intelligence and precision, for instance. Engineers are highly intelligent and can become frustrated when others are not so knowledgeable, while entrepreneurs need to be flexible and patient. Engineers also value precise solutions while entrepreneurs sometimes need to make quick decisions and can't wait for precise solutions.
Nowadays, besides managing Technik - Brazil, Joao has opened up a branch of the company on US soil, Technik - USA. It doesn't stop there! Very much like an entrepreneur, who believes in learning, growing, adapting, and succeeding, Joao also has a book in the works. The book will share with others how anyone can be and become an entrepreneur while still working as an employee, inside a company.
Although entrepreneurial skills encompass a large range of both soft and hard skills, Joao strongly believes that they can all be learned and then developed. Yes, the process is like being forged in fire and fashioned by the same process. Certain strengths must be brought out in order for a successful entrepreneur to be most effective, and prepared for different uses and works.
