Diogo, a Great Loss for the World

It’s a really sad day when a great friend dies. It’s even sadder when he was one of the driving forces for innovation, entrepreneurship and social change in the world. He died yesterday at 43 years old and at this age he did much more than many people do in their whole lifetimes.

Diogo Vasconcelos was a great man. He always tried to push things forward, establish the connections, facilitate the interchanges. I had the good fortunate of meeting him while I was living in the UK and we became friends ever since. But my inspiration from him comes from way before.

I always had the entrepreneurship bug. At 11 I produced and published a small newspaper in order to earn some pocket cash to buy what I wanted and my parents couldn’t give me. When that wasn’t enought I started working “for real” at 15. But I always had the bug with me to start my own company. At the end  of the 90s Diogo was one of the people behind a new entrepreneurial magazine called “Ideias & Negócios”. They had a campaign on “Fire yourself now” that really lifted my spirits and I read their guides on how to create a company lots of times. At 30 I finally made it and created my own company and haven’t looked back since. So I have to thank Diogo for that.

Then I went to live in the UK in 2006. In 2008 a brief exchange on Twitter led us to meet for lunch in London. Diogo wasn’t a stuck-up guy. He was pretty famous back then and a lot of people with that status would scoff at but he always find time for everyone no matter what. At that first lunch he incited me to create what became UXLx in 2009.

We met many more times after that. He was always available, always willing to lend a hand, introduced me to a lot of people. But most of all, he inspired me and everyone else. He sponsored numerous events about entrepreneurship and social change and his enthusiasm was contagious. He could have accomplished much more if life had let him.

Diogo, you will be sorely missed. Thank you for the inspiration and the drive.