Driving Performance by Connecting People with Their Inner Purpose

Fabian Sampayo, our first guest from Nestor’s freshly interview series is the Process Improvement Supervisor at Mercado Libre and the author of the book “Antidote for your disconnection: Activate your inner power and connect with your life”. Mercado Libre is Latin America’s leading e-commerce technology company, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fabian Sampayo has a diploma in both Industrial Engineering and Coaching and Psychology. He sees himself as a passionate person who wants to create a globally connected community through emotions. He dreams of building a world with enough abundance so that everyone can focus on finding meaning in their life.

His values are Love – Love to serve, Freedom- Freedom to live, and Kaizen- Kaizen to improve. These three elements are omnipresent in his books. Fabian Sampayo is also a mountain lover so this is the reason you will find a lot of videos inside his latest book, “Antidote for your disconnection: Activate your inner power and connect with your life”.

If you find Fabian’s work and beliefs inspiring, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or Facebook.

I believe our role as a leader is to help our teams shine. If you truly develop the talent of your team you will then impact the results of your company. First, empower people, and the result would be a consequence of having that mindset.

— Fabian Sampayo

What is the source of inspiration for your book, and how did you come to this idea?

I was inspired by a personal situation when I suffered from burnout and started to ask myself: How do I get out of this? I started researching the meaning of purpose in life and realized that we are here in this world to serve others.

From that point, I connected the dots of past experiences finding that Excellence is something you do at every level of your life. It is not just about delivering 100% in your job, but rather delivering the best of you with your partner, family, friends, and your community.

What is this book about, and what do you want to share with the world?

It is about a millennial who graduates and finds that working a lot is a way to develop himself, so he makes a successful career in multinational companies forgetting everything else. After 8 years he becomes aware that life is not just about working, it is about developing every dimension of life. So this is the moment he asks himself a question: What is my purpose?

The book is a story in which you have to build your own story through questions and starting new kinds of conversations to get connected with your life at every level. During the reading, you will find an antidote (formula) based on two principles and 5 habits that will help you keep ON with your LIFE.

What are the most meaningful insights you would like your readers to learn and put into practice after reading your book? You can name and explain three of them.

Basically, finding your purpose is finding something you can serve at an excellent level to anyone else. We usually think that happiness is only about having a successful professional life, but this is just one part. So I would like to recall three things that remind the power of this book:

• Excellence is a habit, it is not just about doing it one time, it is about doing it every day. You have to define what this means to you in every dimension of your life: work, love, family, and your community. This is the starting point to make a meaningful change.
• It is OK to fail and apply the lessons learned. It is not OK to repeat the same mistake, that is being negligent. So when you fail, just ask yourself: what have I learned from that? If you repeat it you will start living by trying and refine, try and refine, try and refine. It is not about trying and failing.
• 5 habits that change your life: Ask, Observe, Decide, Listen and Reflect. Through these habits, you can develop a growth mindset in your life.

Do you think your book is more relevant today than maybe 10 or 50 years ago, let’s say?

I think it is more relevant today because we live in a burnout society. According to Byung-Chul Han, we are part of a world influenced by the massive use of technology that is producing disorders like depression, anxiety, and stress that drive us to an exhaustion point. In the last 20 years, this problem started to get bigger, and now is the time to tackle this.

How are the book and your writing passion compatible with your current profession?

I am an Industrial Engineer and love to improve things. I realized that the best way to do it is through talent development. So if I help people to connect with themselves, I will generate a new capacity to deliver the best performance.

That performance drives better results in engagement and so the company will keep a growing financial trend over the years. Writing helps me a lot to simplify my ideas and share stories that empower my teams to go to the moon.

Instead of conclusion:

I want to thank my wife Sumara, my sisters Sandra, Erika, and Cindy, and my parents Ernesto, Lilia, and Asibys for giving me the most powerful meaning in life: LOVE.

— Fabian Sampayo