About Me

Want to know more about me? Ok, let's go!

Hello, my name is Marco and I'm 31.

I was born in Lisbon, Portugal and always lived here.

I'm married with my beautiful wife (Sofia) and we have a wonderful son (Pedro).

I'm a Christian who seeks to live accordingly to God's commandments. Like Jesus said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27 - Standard Revisited Edition). That's it!

More about me... I have a degree in Management and I met my wife in a pilgrimage to Israel while I was studying.

I worked for more than 7 years in the management consulting business for one of the world's biggest consulting firms. But the truth is that I wasn't very satisfied or fulfilled.

So I decided to try something else...

I started to work in the real estate business starting my own company. But this didn't work either. Although it was a great learning experience, I was in an unknown world where everyone seemed to be trying to cheat and nothing was clear. Not for me...

So, I returned to the same consulting firm. They were great and took me back and I started to work hard. But... as the time went by I started to feel that need of change again.

I prayed that the Lord would give me another job. A job that make me jump out of bed every morning with desire to go to work. And out of nothing a proposal was presented to me. It seemed like a good opportunity so I took it.

I can't say that I regret leaving my old job, since I wasn't happy...

but I sure regret accepting that proposal. Why? I'll tell you...

You see, I was hired to lead the consulting department of a small company. After two months and a half of constant interferences in the work I was trying to do, my boss decided that I had no more time.

So he said something like: "Man, I changed my mind. You got to go!"

And this is the same guy who tells everybody that the first six months in any workplace is just enough to know where the bathroom is (talk about consistency!).

I can't say I was disturbed by that event since I also wasn't liking the way things were going. I could see we wouldn't be working together for long. Still I was surprised by the timing. I didn't even had time to know where the bathroom was...

So God fooled me? Not a chance. Keep reading...

After that, I decided to take some time off the consulting world to rethink my life and my future. I wasn't going to make the same mistake I did the first time something went wrong.

Here I was without a job and without the will to start another one...

At least not in the same area. I knew I would feel miserable.

During this time, I've been able to do some stuff I always wanted but never had time, like enjoying my five-year-old son as he keeps growing and helping the persons around me more effectively. During this precious time I was able to take care of some family businesses that needed my time and attention.

When I was ready to start looking for a job...

life stroke again...

Due to some personal circumstances (family matters), I was "forced" to stay at home. But this is a long story that doesn't matter that much...

The reality was that I had to find something to do while I was in this situation, unable to take a full time job and having to provide for my family.

So I dedicated some time analyzing business opportunities in order to start a business doing something I really loved and was home-based. It was hard. "What should I do?".

I always have a million ideas in my head and the hardest part is choosing one and commit myself to it...

In the meantime...

Some friends from Peru came to Lisbon and, since I had some free time, I was volunteered to show them the city.

When I started I began to realize that, although I knew some things about the city and some interesting places to visit, it was all a bit disorganized in my head.

You know what I mean? Like, where do we go first? Or, what does this statue represent? Or, how to spend a fantastic afternoon visiting the city? That kind of stuff...

In the end I think they were very satisfied because they were able to know the city and some of its main attractions. But we left so much to see... Mainly, because there's so much to see...

After their departure I decided to know my city more deeply, so that next time I had to show the city to someone, I would do a much better job.

So, I started to take some pictures, walk through the city, go personally to the places I liked, discover new ones, talk to the people, read about the city and its fantastic history, and so on.

Note that,

at the time I had no intention of building a website.

I was just gathering knowledge because I was interested in the city and wanted to know more about it.

So, how did the website start?

While I was searching for business opportunities, I stumbled across SBI. SBI stands for Site Build It! and basically helps you to turn any hobby, passion or skill into a viable online business. You probably don't even imagine that almost any topic allows you to make money by building a website. I didn't either...

So I decided to check it out.  I was so impressed about what I found that I wrote a page just to let you know what I think of it.

With the Site Build It in my head I thought I had to grab this opportunity. But... "what should I write about?", I wondered. Then it came to me. "Of course, I'm going to write about Lisbon. I'm already here and I've been studying it for a while. And what I still don't know I can easily find out".

That is how this website came to be. Crazy, right?

What am I going to do next?

First, I will continue to work on this website so that it becomes more and more a greater help to all its visitors. Of course, this task can never be considered completely finished since more information needs to be added everyday.

Anyway, when I think it is ok, I'll start another one, but this time in my native language (Portuguese).

That other site shall deal with new themes more related with my educational and professional skills. I'll keep you informed.

Until then, feel free to contact me if you want to know more about me or if you have any suggestion about this site.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt.