Luis A. Lopez is the CEO of Honoris United Universities, a pan-African higher education network.
Building a career: To me, progression or advancement is a matter of having a mentorship fabric in your DNA and in the organizations you engage with. As a result, I have benefitted from strong mentoring throughout my career in financial services, healthcare and education. This was met or balanced with preparation, risk-taking and execution from my side. In education, in professional life, in entrepreneurship, a guiding, steadying, or experiential voice or voices are important. Take note of those voices around you. They are rooting for your success.
On making it in life: ‘Making it’ sounds like a balance sheet exercise. I look at this as a matter of continuous development, not as a big bang moment or element. Curiosity, learning, commitment and enjoyment all come into that development. Sometimes simply as a job to make ends meet, other times as a dream job, and yet at other times as dealing with tough personal situations that you carry with you into productive activity. Living in the present and being ready for what may be next is also very important.
Biggest loss: Having previously over-invested my loyalty in institutional success resulted in some loss for me. This is a common situation that many people find themselves in with seemingly no straightforward solutions. My take away from that experience has been ensuring that I provide a better balance in professional and personal commitment for myself.
On losing money: I have found that thinking that others respect your monetary priorities or that they have the same level of economic alignment as you can be wishful thinking at times. One should not make financial decisions based on what others do because money is personal. Therefore, only you can know what financial decisions serve you best. A major lesson for me has been that, even in those situations where you are in control and in a good place financially, be ready for a loss as much as a gain. Always be ready!
Saving method: There are three ways that I save money. Firstly, I save through payroll contributions. I also use the rate of return and compounding. Overtime, I have discovered that holding unto cash as a sole means is not a solution in the long term.
Biggest milestone: The ability to have worked with leading higher education institutions, from Latin America to Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, contributing to their sustainability and to student success, is my most notable and fulfilling achievement. Particularly, I recall one transformational project, in Mexico, Central America, which was important for the level of complexity and the strategic impact. This project would take the enrollment to almost 200,000 students, among many campuses, sites, programs, use of technology, covering traditional and working adult students in high school, undergraduate and post-graduate. I discovered that success is a matter of a strong plan, urgency in the execution, data-backed decision-making, amongst a broad team of operators and functional experts that are agile and non-hierarchical.
If I could start all over again: I wouldn’t change a thing. Yes, there are minor punctual items that would change, but these would be anecdotal rather than existential. I believe in learning from mistakes, rather than dwelling on them or allowing them to define your future. The best thing any of us can do differently is to try our best not to repeat the same missteps.
Entrepreneurship vs Employment: I don’t see this as necessarily a choice. It’s more to do with what you need. On one hand, employment can provide strong and methodical learning, applicable for a lifetime. On the other, entrepreneurship can create wealth via current income, and can accelerate decision-making and stakeholder management. The important thing is to understand that employment is extremely just as valuable and can very often be an important part of an entrepreneur’s professional evolution.