So, what about me… what made me do a blog post and get into this?! The main reason was a challenge that my mentor Josh Bentley, from the mentor and coaching program at SAP, proposed at me by tagging me in #BIF post. This program is a great thing that SAP provides to all employees.  I was introduced to the mentor/mentee portal as part of a program called “Catalyst” where you have a lot of content that helps leverage your development and advancement. I think that being mentored is an awesome part of the SAP Catalyst ecosystem but also something everyone should try and take advantage of when they can. This new knowledge for sure will help bringing another opportunities and also help in the current ones. This only became reality thanks to Sabrina Ferwagner and Jose Araujo , that have given me this opportunity. Also I’m taking this opportunity to nominate them to #BIF, as they are two people that significantly impact my career.

So now that you know how I met Josh Bentley, I can present myself. My name is Joao Lopes, I’m based in Lisbon (Portugal). My time is spent mainly between two topics, software development & architecture and weightlifting/bodybuilding (chicken and rice guy). Two different topics that in the end relate. Hardware and software are for computer science as the recipes and ingredients are for bodybuilding. I always practiced sports all my life, since swimming, motocross, snowboard, karate. That always helped me focus on other tasks like studying/working. Also, thru the years it taught me to resilience and discipline. There was always a balance in my life between sports and work/study and most of the things that I learned in sports I could also apply in my professional life.

Showing a bit of Portugal

And how did I get here? I’ve studied computer & electrical engineering and focused on computer science during my master’s degree program. After completing my master’s degree I joined SAP. I always like sports; I was a swimmer from 3 till 16 years old. In between I also did motocross and snowboarding (which gave me a lot of injuries). From 16 years old, I’ve decided that I wanted a better body and started at the nearest gym of my school. This taste led me into something more that is called bodybuilding.

Also showing a bit of me

Now that you got a glance at the shell, what is inside?! I don’t have any special personal or professional life dream, but I always seek to improve and be at my best, not being the best. That is what lead me where I am today, the way I was raised. Persistence, focus and know what you want. Like an orange you have juice… some have more, others have less. Independent of that of what I have, I try to give it all. The rest will come with that.

Now do you see why I took this challenge. What lies between you and success is opportunities, so seize every opportunity that you have.

From this image you can also guess some things that I like