Mario Gomes learned entrepreneurship at an early age in Brazil, but it鈥檚 in Squamish that he has found his greatest opportunities and success.
As he showed me the model home for his latest venture, a 65-unit condo building in downtown Squamish that sold out in 90 minutes, he revealed the secret he has learned after years of struggle.
鈥淥nce you succeed, most people will say, 鈥楬e is really lucky,鈥欌�� Gomes, 42, remarked in an interview at the sales centre for ParkHouse. 鈥淧eople just assume things, that you are lucky because you never struggled in life and you made it. We all have struggled. It鈥檚 how we came out of it.鈥�
The key, he said, is the meaning we give to life-defining moments. And attitude is everything.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a lack of resource, it鈥檚 a lack of resourcefulness,鈥� said Gomes. 鈥淲e make excuses: no time, no money, don鈥檛 have know-how鈥� but if you are resourceful and creative enough, you will find the time, you will find the money, you will find people with the know-how.聽
鈥淏ut to do that, you need to believe in yourself,鈥� he stressed.聽
Gomes came from an entrepreneurial family in Brazil. His grandmother owned a fashion shop in a hotel where for several hours each day, live models posed in the store windows.聽
His father, a civil engineer by trade, was a developer for 20 years before branching out into other businesses, even importing mountain bikes to Brazil. His mother, meanwhile, ran a clothing store.
To teach Gomes about business, his father gave him a job selling real estate, but in Brazil that was a bureaucratic nightmare involving hours of waiting in lines to fill out perplexing forms. 鈥淢y father wanted me to have to ask a lot of questions and not just hear 鈥榥o鈥� for an answer. You had to ask again and again to get the answers.鈥�
Gomes built up resilience and tenacity. His father, he explained, was his first mentor.
But it was also his father鈥檚 struggles later that taught him the toughest lessons of life and led him to learn how to support the entire family through his own business acumen.
After studying at a high school in Australia, Gomes knew how to speak English, which proved a valuable skill when the family of six decided to emigrate. They had intended to go to Australia, but years into the process switched to Canada based on an ad they saw in a Brazilian newspaper.
Three months later, paperwork in hand, they were bound for Edmonton, a city with a huge mall and low taxes, they were told. They had never been to Canada, and they were excited.
When they found out Edmonton was one of the coldest cities in Canada, they switched plans and chose Vancouver. Their introduction to the country was from an inexpensive hotel on Robson Street. Even then, two decades ago, they were shocked by the real estate prices but eventually bought a house in Coquitlam.
Gomes, who had an IT degree, intended to work in the Vancouver tech industry after helping his father get established.
鈥淚 think my father figured if he could do well in Brazil, he could do really well in a first world country,鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut within two to three years we were here, he was pretty much bankrupt. We had lost pretty much all our life savings. We went through some dark times.鈥�
His father, almost 60 with a wife and four children, lost confidence and sank into a depression that lasted years. Mario, as the eldest, had to support the family.
鈥淚 had to become an entrepreneur,鈥� he said. 鈥淧sychologically, it was a really hard time for me as well鈥�. I didn鈥檛 know if he would be able to work again. I didn鈥檛 know if there would be an end.鈥�
Gomes learned important lessons quickly, including finding mentors to help him succeed. While he started working in IT, he helped his mother open a clothing store, but his mother became ill with cancer right away and so Gomes and his wife, Ananda, took over the shop.聽
With advice from mentors, they launched an activewear fashion company, Vata Brasil. Their company was featured in international magazines including Shape and had its own runway show created with a Cirque du Soleil choreographer at Toronto Fashion Week.
Vata Brasil was so successful that Gomes and his wife started jet-setting to meetings around the globe. When she was pregnant with their second daughter, they questioned their lifestyle and decided to move to Squamish for a quieter life raising their children. Both former competitive freedivers, the active lifestyle here suited them.
鈥淪ome people said there wasn鈥檛 enough opportunity in Squamish, that I had to go back to Vancouver, but I had enough experience in life to not believe what everyone says,鈥� Gomes said.
Since arriving, there has been no shortage of business ventures here. With partners, he launched The Valkyries townhouses, StartUp Squamish business incubator, ParkHouse Condominiums and is currently, as president of Kristall Turm North America, bringing an adventure ropes course to Squamish.
But for all his successes, Gomes never forgets the challenges. His father became successful again before dying of cancer, but the early times in Canada for his family were trying.
Gomes wishes people would speak more frankly about their lows as well as their highs.
鈥淎ll of us, pretty much all of us, have experienced hard things in life, but it鈥檚 still a taboo to share tough things in life鈥�. The secret of life is when you have those life-defining moments, it鈥檚 about the meaning you give to those moments and what you choose to do that defines your destiny.鈥�
Gomes said you can define yourself as a victim, or you can move forward and succeed. His own choice was clear.
