David & Goliath

Do you remember when David went to King Saul saying that he could defeat the beast? The courage on running towards Goliath when everyone else was so afraid of him. Courage is something that you need to work on during your life. The levels of courage rises up at the same pace as the level of the difficulties that we encounter in our path. And David was used to defeat Lions and bears with his sling...

What is success? Having millions? Owning a big house, sports cars, a private jet, or paradise islands? Winning many Olympic medals? Holding championship titles?   For a long time, I deeply believed that happiness was at the end. When I reach my goals. I based my life on that.   "Tomorrow I’ll be happy," was what I thought.   Because of this way of viewing the world, I would wake up trembling, nerv...

It’s not the "12 Rules for Life” by Jordan Peterson but 5 little ones which are very easy to remember but, at the same time, very tough to implement. The 5-steps are: 1.      Setting goals 2.      Finding obstacles and fall down. 3.      Analyzing the roots of the problem which you encounter in. 4.      Create a bunch of solutions for those problems. 5.      Implement those solutions and moving fo...

Where was the most decorated Brazilian woman in Olympic history born? Like Jesus, in a very humble place: in a favela on the outskirts of the great Brazilian city, São Paulo, on May 8th, 1998.   She and her seven siblings were raised by their single mother, Rosa. Yes, raised in the poverty of a favela.   From an early age, Rebeca's natural and exceptional talent for gymnastics was recognized.   He...

I launched this podcast to help you face whatever challenges life is throwing at you right now. But above all so that I can find the strength to achieve the giant that stood in front of me I also do this to believe in faith again. That all this will be useful to become more humble, stronger and more determined. I'm doing the same thing Kobe did, after losing the NBA Finals and getting back on his...

David and Goliath is nothing more than a story in which the Davids of this world are confronted by Giants. And by giants I mean, armies, England National Teams, bullying school mates, terrible misfortunes. Everything you can imagine as terrifying!! And when confronted by these enormous opponents, should I play by the rules of the game? Should I give up, run away or face him? Should I submit to fat...

I like public speaking. It's one of my passions. When I started, I made tons of mistakes. I said many "ums," made lots of grammatical errors. My stage posture was anything but correct. I had no vocal variety and sometimes lacked projection. In other words, I wasn’t loud enough. That was two years ago. What did I do to improve? Well, the first thing was not to give up. Then I started watching speec...

Last Monday, at the end of the day, I was watching a news program that I have loved for a long time: 60 Minutes. It’s a program that is essentially a storyteller. And what fantastic stories it has! In that episode, they talked about a medical scientist, a neurosurgeon who, through a non-invasive technique, “cured,” or rather, stopped the progression of Parkinson's disease. All this through the use...

Have you ever noticed that the wealthiest people in the world are excellent communicators? In the Netflix documentary about Donald Trump, it was said that many of his clients came in with a preconceived idea, and after talking with Trump, they ended up buying what he wanted them to buy. Okay, you can say he's manipulative. Let me give you another example. Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin...

Here is the one the most beautiful myths about love and trust. Not only love and trust but other lessons on we can take to our dally lifes.  Are you confindent in you?  Is your faith bigger than anything else? Do you trust your talents and gifts? Orpheus played the lyre and was an excellent poet. Whenever he played and sang, nature and people were captivated by his music. It was his superpower. He...

"Do to others what you want them to do to you.” Jesus said. How is this possible? Well, this was put into practice by Diane Foley. And who is Diane Foley? She is the mother of James Foley. James Foley was killed by ISIS in 2014, decapitated, with the video filmed and posted on YouTube. The terrorist who killed, or was involved in the murder of James Foley, was known within the terrorist group as “...

I love listening to podcasts (who would've thought that!!!). One of the podcasts I listen to is called "Bit of Optimism" by Simon Sinek. I was looking through the episodes and was drawn to the latest one titled "Moral Courage with Diane Foley, mother of executed journalist James Foley." I was so wowed by what I heard that the next day I went to YouTube to see if I could find more about this woman....

In today's episode, I spoke with a businessperson from the region who had a lot of success in the heavy truck and automobile mechanics field. However, in 2012, with the Portuguese public debt crisis, he had to close and file for bankruptcy. As he told me during our conversation, "I went from being great, to being despised in the blink of an eye." Today, I will talk about the anguish he suffered du...

A few days ago, I watched a trailer for a film about the life of Jesus Christ. It was specifically about Jesus being brought before a Roman authority of the time (I'm not sure if it was Pontius Pilate) because He was preaching throughout Galilee. Jesus was taken by one of the Roman guards to this Roman authority (let's say). In the trailer, this guard was a tall, muscular fellow, the type of guard...

People judge us by where we come from, by our appearance, by our age, by our religion. They dislike us for the work we do; they dislike us for what they have heard about the work we do. They dislike us for real and legitimate reasons—mistakes we have made, positions we have taken—and for completely fabricated reasons. They project their own insecurities, their own problems onto us. They attribute...

Wine is made from grape must, which undergoes a natural fermentation process through the action of yeasts that transform the sugar present in the grape into alcohol and carbon dioxide. When there's no more sugar in the liquid, the yeasts die and the fermentation ends. So the grape came into this world to either be eaten or to be turned into wine. If it's eaten, well, its mission on earth is over....

Many times, if not always, the plans we draw up are not the plans that God wants for our lives.  That's what happened to Isabel. That's what happened to me. No, I don't have cancer, but life also threw me a curveball. Most likely, I have more than 6 months of life left, although nothing is certain. If you listened to episode 10 of my podcast, you'll hear my story from when I was born until today....

Since January of this year, we've been constantly talking about people who have contributed to making the world a better place. Even if it was their own world... Almost all of these heroes, whom I deeply admire, started from the place where they were born and raised. In the last episode, we talked about a King. King David, and today I'm going to talk about another king. Not a king with the royal t...

There's a story of Buddha where a huge number of disciples were meditating, seeking spiritual enlightenment. It only happened with one, who when he discovered what it was to be an enlightened being, began to laugh. The disciple whom no one gave anything for. The same thing happened with today's hero. I mean, he's the reference hero of this podcast. Our young David. Who became the King of all Israe...

In today's episode, I'll tell a story of a 17-year-old Brazilian girl who understood the true meaning of success in life. To reach this conclusion, she had to go through a very painful process that she has not yet finished. It seems it's always like this: we have to "kill" ourselves to reach the treasure. In this girl's case, she literally had to "kill" herself to discover that true happiness lies...

I'm tired. I was away from Madeira Island last weekend, so I didn't have time to prepare today's episode like I usually do. However, I have this commitment to you, so I made this episode, although shorter than usual. So, I removed the part from the episode "My Story" about why I'm doing this, why I'm making this podcast and create this new one. Making this podcast has also given me strength to ove...

In the first episode, I said I would talk to you about stories of people who overcame great and enormous challenges in their lives  and, as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book "facing enormous, overwhelming adversities, produces greatness and beauty." For me, these people are heroes. If it were not for them, I would not be doing this podcast today. Today, I'm going to talk about someone who, althou...

Easter B.C. was meant to celebrate the liberation of the people of Israel from the clutches of Pharaoh by Moses. So at this time of year it was customary among the Jewish people to sacrifice a lamb. In the Christian religion, Easter is celebrated to remember the death of Jesus. The death of the "Lamb who came to save the World." And it is Him that we will talk about today in this episode: Jesus Ch...

I know a guy that us these principles into his life. Well start to use… He does not call the 5-step process but he’s facing reality, continues to dream and continues to have big determination. Not the reality his faced for the last 46 years, but the one his now facing in his life, right now. His name is… me! I really want to share my story with you, today, in this episode. I hope by the end of it,...

Carlos worked for 25 years in an mortuary of one the hospital in Portugal. One of his duties was to bring the dead body’s and place them in the freezer, waiting for the family to say they final Fairwell or waiting for authorization to place in a coffin for his funeral. In subconscious level of the mind, the depression and hurt would start to appear, without him noticing. A couple months later we w...