Worse than making mistakes is persisting in the mistake
“Worse than making mistakes is persisting in mistakes” and “being lucky takes a lot of work” are two maxims that Arnaldo Costa Figueiredo has taken very seriously throughout his professional career.
Vice-president of Mota-Engil, he crossed paths with AESE, in Porto, in 1993, and completed the PADE – Senior Management Program for Companies.
Apart from the successes he has accumulated, being recognized by his peers as “a well-trained, reliable, serious and upright person” is one of his main achievements.
What are the main milestones in your professional career, which contributed to reaching the position in which you are?
Fortunately, a lot has gone well, in the 33 years that I have been in the Group, which naturally contributed to getting where I am, being Vice-President, from 2008 to the present. But having to highlight some, I would highlight the fact that he accepted the invitation in 1988, to be a director of the company Paviterra, in Angola, of which at the time Mota & C.ª was a shareholder together with the Angolan state, as well as the success in the internationalization of the Group, having been the person appointed for the first time, in 1993, with this responsibility, a responsibility that I assumed directly, for 15 years.
What were your main achievements?
My entire professional career is full of achievements, some bigger, some smaller, but the greatest of all, without any doubt, is to reach this age being considered by all my peers a well-trained, reliable, serious and upright person.
What are the main lessons that make you the leader you are today?
We have to be prepared so that in life not everything goes well, there are many things that, despite being well thought out, go less well, the fundamental thing is that there are more things going well than going wrong. Worse than making mistakes is persisting in the mistake. Life teaches us that without effort nothing can be achieved and although luck also plays an important role, as has been said by many people, “it takes a lot of work to be lucky”. It is important to have decision-making capacity, it is better to have a less good decision than not to decide, and very important too, motivated teams yield more, contributing to this the constant search for justice and internal equity.
Professionally, how do you see yourself in 5 years?
Given my age (65 years old), the most likely thing is that in 5 years I will have a calmer life, or even be retired. However, as I currently feel very good in health and with a lot of desire and pleasure to work, I hope to continue for many more years, even if in non-executive roles.
