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Hi everyone. Welcome to the 5 Minutes podcast, a super special podcast. Here is Ricardo Vargas, and I'm recording this from my hometown in Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, in my former office. And if you look here, you will see the Enciclopedia. For those who do not know, this is a paper encyclopedia. And this was the full knowledge and full source of knowledge I used to have when I was a teenager or a young adult to learn. And I decided to record this because this weekend was a super special weekend for me. We celebrated 25 years of the Project Management Institute, Minas Gerais chapter here in Brazil, and I had the opportunity to be one of the founders 25 years ago. And of course, on top of this, I would say it is very relevant for my celebration. This brought me to three learnings I want to share with all of you about that journey, and I'm not thinking about just celebrating the past; that's amazing. But to look at what is ahead, to look what is ahead. And the first thing, it's super, super important to remember and to remember, as I said, not only to celebrate, but to understand. When you are in a situation right now, it's super important that you understand what brought you there. And this brings me to one learning.
Look, I know many people in the Project Management universe. You know, PMI is part of my life, but I had one learning that I saw during the celebration of the life of Jim Schneider and David Frame at the PMI conference in LA this year. And this was, of course, not only to celebrate their life but also to remember what many, many individuals did for the profession that brought the profession to where it is today. And why. It is because there was a case. I have worked with David Frame for many years in many opportunities, but I didn't know that he was one of the responsible for correcting the PMP exam when it was released as a volunteer, and he started receiving the paper exams to correct them manually many, many years ago. And then it reached a point that his house was full of boxes of candidates. Because the credential was growing, the interest for the credential was growing. And he said, look, it's impossible. And then PMI said, you know, we need to find another way. And this was one of the key bricks that brought, for example, the PMP to reach millions, the Project Management to grow. It's super important because, you know, when we see where we are today, we should never, ever think that it is only oh, it's because I have superpowers to do that.
And, you know, this project was successful because I exist. This is a fallacy. This does not exist. 25 years ago, we built a seed together with the brilliant Antonio José, Márcio Tibo, Gilberto Valle, and Professor Darci Prado. We did the first step of that seed, but if it was not for the hundreds of other volunteers, hundreds of other professionals that put water, that cultivate, that trim, that organizes during these 25 years, it's very, very easy for people to think that it was only one person. It was on this myth that we have today that, for example, very respectfully, that we think, okay, everything that is happening in Tesla or in SpaceX is just because Elon Musk did that. No, this is not true. There are thousands of people there. There are thousands of people. And everyone takes this and moves the needle a little bit further, a little bit further, a little bit further to reach. I had the opportunity to work and contribute with six CEOs and presidents of PMI, dozens of board members, and thousands of volunteers. And this brought to me who I am today. And it's super important. And this drives me to the second. That is probably one of my biggest concerns is immediacy. Immediacy is a poison.
People think that the steps are so simplistic. Oh, PMI, just create an exam. And then it became a million. No, this does not happen. It happens only in some minds. It's not. It's not. And this is super important because, for example, when we see volunteers, when we see people getting engaged with the profession of project management, you know, they want to be a trainee, a junior project manager, and next year they want to be, you know, responsible for a nuclear power plant. It does not happen this way. It does not happen this way. It's a journey with so many steps that we need to realize. It's a combined effort of many people, project managers. They do not have superpowers or project managers. They have the ability to work with different people to deliver. You don't build a building because you are a great project manager. You build a building because you have a lot of excellent resources, excellent suppliers, and excellent people working with you day to day to build that result. So, if we are celebrating 25 years, it's a celebration of every single one on this journey, every single one. And when I was there this weekend, and I was fortunate to meet the volunteers and probably I'm right, I have never met a single of them, the young volunteers creating, and if I met them, it was once and, you know, now they built a conference and such a relevant conference that discuss crisis management, that discuss the impact of AI, the impact of technology, new rule of the new process for the project management office.
You know, and they were the young generation that will drive PMI and PMI Minas Gerais to the next 25 years because I will probably not be here in 25 more years. Who will probably be leading PMI was not even born. Or maybe it was, I would say, the four-month-old boy who came to see me with his parents. There are volunteers, and they said, oh, this is the new generation of project managers. And he should never lose the perspective that everything we are collecting today, from the good and from the bad is part of this every single step on the journey, every single step. And in my case, after 25 years, one thing that has always been in my mind, and I spent probably these two days there, is to express gratitude. Because if I am who I am today, if I'm able to pay my bills today, if I was able to raise my kids, it's because of that. So never, ever forget this. See you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast. Thank you.
