II- Um pouco antes

Comecei no ramo de luminosos, como era chamado, em 1985.
Tinha 14 anos e um espaço de 32 metros quadrados. Meu pai sempre foi vendedor de luminosos e agora tinha a própria empresa: Astros Luminosos. Tudo escolhido com esmero, até a perua Kombi 1969 era bonitinha. Tinha uma fachada na porta. Eu comandava tudo no escritório.
Aprendi com meu pai a me defender. Sozinho.
Aprendi a resolver.
Esta era a regra, a cultura, o valor, a missão: RESOLVER.
Num escritório onde cabiam 2 pessoas, ficava difícil não resolver. Não tinha ninguém para colocar a culpa.
Só tinha o Leandro!

Folheava as Páginas Amarelas e via as grandes empresas. Sonhava com tudo aquilo, admirava tudo aquilo. Empresas grandes, anúncios chamativos....Sonhava... Mas não aguentei a pressão. Saí da Astros.

E Voltei.
Voltei 8 ou 9 anos depois e não sabia de nada. Peixe fora d'água. Total.
Mas me incomodava ver aquela falta de profissionalismo. O telefone tocava e a Raquel gritava da janela o nome de quem precisava atender, porque não tinha uma Central com ramais. Depois tinha uma campainha que nunca funcionava, e lá ia a Raquel de novo: Ô Fulaaaaaaaaaano!

Não tinha interfone.
Tocava a campainha e a Raquel deixava tudo, descia aquela escadaria toda pra abrir a porta.

Eu só observava.
A Raquel fazia tudo, ia até ao banco. Ficou sentada 1 dia todo esperando meu pai para entrevistá-la.
Lá para as 17h ele olhou e disse:
- Você ainda está aí?
- Estou!
- Tá preparada para entrar no fogo?
- Estou.
- Contratada!

Há 15 anos que a Raquel está conosco. Viu e vê tudo de perto.
Depois veio a Isabel, irmã da Raquel. Está conosco 13 anos. Só ri. Gargalha, o dia todo. Quem vê não pensa que ela é o pulso firme de uma casa onde não tem mais o pai nem a mãe. Ela conduz com pulso firme. E sempre dando risada.

O contas a pagar ainda era no mimiografo e já existia computador!
Mas nunca houve pretensão. Pretensão de ser a maior, a melhor...não, não....

Este é o grande segredo.
A Astros surgiu como surge o Sol.
Imagino que o Sol , não tem pretensão alguma....Ele apenas cumpre sua missão.

Assim sempre foi a Astros: Cumprir sua missão.
Mas eu pensava um pouquinho diferente.

Tudo muito amador, tudo sem cor...mas com muita responsabilidade. Aprendi com meu pai o que é ter bom caráter. Difícil entender sobre caráter. não se comenta no twitter sobre caráter. Vivemos num mundo onde o bom caráter não tem pretensão de ser presidente. Ele apenas  cumpre sua missão.

O pintor principal , vou chamá-lo de Z. era o mais folgado de todos, e percebi que tinha uma turma que gostava de cocaína, muita cocaína. O V, letrista, empinava pipa na laje.

O que eu poderia fazer? Sem eles nada acontecia....Mas aquilo me incomodava!
Como poderia existir o Z, o X o N e o M, que eram peças fundamentais, inteligentes, mas gostavam de cocaína e tiravam tudo o que conseguíamos? Peças que somem, ferramentas desaparecem, fazer controle é enfrentar o reinado de meia dúzia de profissionais que circulavam pelo pequeno grande mundo da Comunicação Visual.

No almoxarifado eu ficava sonhando. Fazendo planejamento de como tudo seria um dia.
Mas não me ouviam. Não acreditavam em mim. Eu dei motivo...
Mas força me foi dada.
Esperei. E comecei a ver coisas que nunca imaginei que veria.
Os clientes chegavam até nós. Batiam na nossa porta e começamos a nos movimentar.

Foi ao contrário: Não crescemos para ter clientes, começamos a ter clientes para começar crescer, no meio daquela falta de organização, do Z, do N....roubo de material , servicinhos por fora, gente que não tem respeito nem pela própria vida iria ter respeito por mim? Cala a boca!  Deixa ele, dizia meu pai.

Eu era um coitadinho! Mesmo. Tipo dramalhão mexicano.
Mas tudo estava bom. Minha vida havia mudado. Eu tinha uma noiva, eu tinha esperança, eu via tudo o que existe hoje! Eu casei, a plotter ficou vazia, O Alexandre que operava a plotter morreu afogado com 23 anos.

Foi em Dezembro. 23 de dezembro de 1997.
O Alexandre era meu irmão.

Foi o finalzinho daquela etapa.
A Kobe estava chegando.
Engraçado que hoje, quem opera todas as plotters é o tio, apelido de um profissional que está conosco há uns bons anos. Veio de uma empresa famosa que fechou. Porque tantas empresas deste ramo fecham?
Porque não existem cursos que ensinem esta profissão? Tudo no mundo é sinalizado! Alguma coisa tem e errado no segmento.

O tio opera as plotters, inclusive a digital, bem moderna.
O nome do tio é Alexandre.

O Alexandre não chegou a ver a internet, nem teve email para ele, mas o tio tem email! e o email do tio é alexandre@astrosluminosos.com.br


O 1o. Alexandre não teve email, mas a Astros tem o email do tio, que chama Alexandre.



II - A LITTLE BEFORE
I started dealing with luminous - as this range of products was called - in 1985, when I was fourteen, and I had an area of 32 square meters.
My father had always been a salesman of luminous products, and now He had his own company: ASTROS LUMINOSOS ( in English, LUMINOUS STARS).
Everything was chosen with much zeal. By the way, even the 1969 Kombi van was really cute! There was a façade at the door. I was on the command of everything at the Office.
I learned with my father how to deffend myself. By myself.
I learned how to puzzle out.
That was the rule, the culture, the value, the mission: TO SOLVE.
In an Office which fitted just two workers, it was difficult not to solve. There wasn’t anyone to blame.
There was only me: Leandro!
I looked at the Yellow Pages and could see the big companies. I dreamed about all that. I admired all that. Big companies, amazing advertisements....In fact I dreamed...But I couldn’t stand the pressure. And I quit. I left Astros Luminosos.

And I came back.
I was back 8 or 9 years later and I didn’t know anything. I felt myself as a fish out of the river. Completely.
But I was annoyed to see that lack of professionalism. The telephone rang and Raquel screamed from the window the name of the person who should answer it, because there was not a Central Desk with branches installed. And further, there was a doorbell which never worked, and there came Raquel again screaming like crazy...Hello mister so-and-soooooooooooooooooooooo!
There wasn’t an intercom.
When somebody pushed the doorbell Raquel left everything and came downstairs to open the door.
I only watched all that.
Raquel did everything. Also the bank services.
She remained sitting a whole day waiting for my father to interview her.
By 5:00 p.m. he looked at her and asked:
Are you still there?
I am !
Are you prepared to enter the fire?
Yes, I am.
So you are hired, he said!
Raquel is with us for 15 years, now. She saw and she sees everything from very close.
And then Isabel came: Raquel’s sister. She is with us for 13 years. She only laughs. And she laughs all day long. The one who sees her doesn’t have the slightest Idea that she is the strong hand of a house which has neither a father nor a mother anymore. She leads this house with strong hand. And always laughing!
The “Accounts Payable” department still used an old-fashioned copying machine, and the computer already existed!
But there was never any claim from her part. She never showed any tendency of being neither the biggest, nor the best. No, no, no......
This is the big secret. Astros Luminosos raised as the Sun raises.
I guess that the Sun hasn’t any requirement....It Just performs its mission.
Astros Luminosos was always like that: Just performing its mission.
But I thought a little differently.
Everything very amateur, everything without a color...but with much responsibility. I learned with my father what is having a good character. It is difficult how to understand about character. It is not usual to coment about character on the twitter. We live in a world where good character does not intend to become the president. He or she Just performs his or her mission.
The main painter, who now I call him Z, was a deceiver and I noticed he had a group of friends that liked cocaine, much cocaine. Another one, who I call now Z, the man in charge of the letters, used to rear kites from the upper part of the company’s building.
What could I do? Without them, nothing would happen...but that situation really bothered me!
As mister Z, mister X, mister N and mister M could exist, who were fundamental parts for the company, they were intelligent but they liked cocaine and took away everyhing we got. Parts that disappear, tools that you don’t see anymore, making the control is the same as to face the kingdom of half a dozen of professionals that were circulating around the little big world of the Visual Communication.
At the storehouse I kept dreaming. Making plans of how would be everything someday. But nobody listened to me. They did not believe in me. I gave them reasons...But I was given strength.
I waited. And I started seeing things which I had never imagined to see.
The customers came to us. They knocked on our door and we started to move on.
It was on the contrary: We did not grow to have customers, but we started having customers to start growing, in the middle of that lack of organization, having mister Z, mister N .......the robbery of material, little jobs out around, people who do not have respect not even for their own lives... would they have any respect for me?
Shut up! Leave him at that, my father said.
I was a poor man! Indeed. Kind of Mexican big drama.
But everything was good. My life had changed. I had a fiancée, I had hope, I saw everything that exists today! I got married, the plotter machine became empty, Alexandre, the plotter’s operator died drowned at his 23 years old.
It was in December, December 23rd, 1997.
Alexandre was my brother.
It was the very end of that stage.
Kobe was on the screen!
It is funny that today the man in charge of operating the plotters is the “uncle” – the nickname of a professional who is with us for some years. He came from a famous company that shut its doors. Why so many companies of this range of products shut doors?
Why aren’t there courses that teach this profession? Everything in this world is signalized! There is something wrong in this segment.
Uncle operates the plotters, including the digital one, very modern.
Uncle’s name is Alexandre.
My brother Alexandre couldn’t see the internet, not even had an e-mail address for him...but uncle did !!! And his e-mail address is alexandre@astrosluminosos.com.br