Two generations, two paths, one same question
In the final episode of Gerações Cast season 4, we sat down with two guests who seem like opposites. Marcos is a product director, 46 years old, with 32 years on the payroll — he started as an office boy in 1993 and today leads a nearly 130-year-old brand. Giovana is 24, a digital influencer, owner of her own social media agency, who left her corporate job at the end of last year to build what she calls her empire.
The topic is trending: is it really worth leaving a stable job? But the conversation quickly showed that this is the wrong question.
There's no right or wrong — there's a season
The most lucid line of the night came from Giovana: "it depends on each person's season." She held a stable job when she needed to, after losing her father, when her mother said it was time to work. She worked Monday to Saturday, cried over not having time to record content, and only flipped the switch when she had clarity about where she wanted to go.
Marcos, on the other side of the table, doesn't defend just one chair. At 46, he already talks about life purpose — no longer corporate purpose — and dreams of working with gastronomy. The difference isn't who's right. It's the life stage, the profile, and what each person is willing to face.
The corporate surname is a trap
One of the strongest points of the episode: the corporate world teaches you to have a surname. You become "the Caloi person," "the Natura person." The entrepreneur, by contrast, is their own surname — Giovana is who she is.
There's a certain glamour in the corporate world, and that's the big trap: leaning on it.
International travel, clothing budgets, a car at your disposal, suppliers who lived on your phone. When the bond ends — through layoff or retirement — all of it disappears at once. We discussed the story, lived by many, of someone who kept getting dressed every day to sit at the Starbucks across from their old office, not knowing what to do with their life. These are the so-called golden handcuffs: comfortable, but binding.
Who plants for the future and who plants for the short term
There's a subtlety in how Giovana works that reveals the essential difference between the two worlds: she signs brand contracts every three months, not one-off posts. That's predictability, relationship, building. She's running the marathon, not the sprint.
The corporate world, on the other hand, is increasingly liquid. The CEO's chair in Brazil lasts 2 to 3 years; directors follow short cycles; decisions are made to secure that year's bonus. The executive, with a guaranteed salary at month's end, lives a comfort the entrepreneur lacks — but pays the price of often planting only for the present.
Be the entrepreneur of your own life — even in a corporate job
Ageism exists and will keep existing. Each generation arrives with more poise, more ease, more drive. That's why even those who love corporate life need to develop an entrepreneurial streak: because at some point comfort ends and the expiration date arrives.
Being the entrepreneur of your own life means organizing yourself, seeking knowledge on your own, reading, staying current — something corporate routine rarely demands and even atrophies. And above all, it means starting to work on your dreams during, not after. As a mentor to executives, I hear many say they want to leave the corporate world. The first question is always: and what's your dream? What comes next? Those who can't answer aren't ready for the leap.
Self-knowledge, experimentation, and authenticity
Three tools ran through the whole conversation:
- **Self-knowledge** measures your odds of success. If you depend entirely on others, you'll get frustrated as an entrepreneur.
- **Experimentation** prevents the blind leap. Use the startup mindset: test fast, fail fast, before betting everything.
- **Authenticity** helps on both paths. Those who do everything others want are conditioned — but the rebel, who does the opposite of what's expected, is too. Seek your truth, not your reaction to others.
And the future? Maybe hybrid, maybe not
More entrepreneurs will emerge, but corporations won't disappear — someone will have to feed the quarter, the forecast, the result. The big question is who the corporate professionals will be in generations as entrepreneurial as Giovana's. The hybrid path, working for a company while keeping a side business, is already reality for many. But the transition won't be that fast: the weight of family support and cultural choices is still enormous.
The advice that stays
We closed with Luísa's pizza — the segment where we ask for a piece of advice worth keeping:
Start small, with what you have. It's never too late. Don't let fear be the outcome of your purpose. Have clarity, have courage, and remember that life is made of cycles.
Be a corporate employee, be an entrepreneur, be a teacher or a civil servant. What matters is that it's your choice — and that you're well, doing it with love.