Monavie

For my Internship class I have been assigned to write a 20 page research paper on a topic of my choosing.  Although my declared major is International Relations, I am still very undecided as to if I want to go into government or business.  I've also recently flirted with the idea of being an entrepreneur in the future.  A lot of reflection led me to write an research paper analyzing the difficulties that entrepreneurs face in the Brazilian job market.  It basically gave me a good excuse to interview and talk with people who already had started up their own businesses.  As I spread the word of my interview, I got a first response back from a mission friend willing to do an interview with me.  He had however, a catch.  In return for the interview I was to listen to his speel on some of his Monavie products.   The Monavie company for which he works, is basically a multi-level company where locals create teams and try to sell certain products to friends and family (Avon is a good example)  And so Anders and I went to the Monavie headquarters in São Paulo and heard the presentation.  What they offer, is several health products revolving around the highly nutritional Brazilian fruit of Açai.  I was actually pretty impressed with the quality of the product, however I have to admit I was pretty cautious as to joining a team to sell it.  I was more intrigued by the process in which they shipped and stored the Açai fruit (involves some future plans that Anders and I have for setting up a business)  In the end I was able to interview one of the top sellers in the company about his experience with starting his own business.  The main thing I got away from the interview is that starting your own business is hard, but worth the experience.  Like they say, it's hard to get rich in moula working for others!