We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alejandro Garcia-Lemos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alejandro, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I don’t think it has to be framed as a short vacation, I heard the term “workation” where you are vacationing and working when and as need it. You have to enjoy your time— especially when you are still young— as much as possible. Now is when you have the energy and the time and hopefully resources to do it plentifully.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an immigrant visual artist, so early in my career I realized that it would be a challenge to have the lifestyle I wanted working only as an artist. I decided to make a second career of languages. So, at 30 years old I decided to pursue a masters degree and later on start my own language interpreting company, specializing in the health and judicial sectors and I have been working for almost 25 years that field which has provided me and my husband—as well as probably more than a hundred people—with jobs as Spanish interpreters and translators. In the meantime, I was able to keep involved in the arts, producing art and traveling on a regular basis.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I am originally from Bogotá, Colombia. During the late 80s and early 90s, Colombia was a place where life was unthinkable, especially for a gay man like me. We were in the midst of drug trafficking and living in terror was a daily matter. I decided to migrate. In 1990, I came to the US on a tourist visa and had to return to Colombia against my will six months later. Then, my goal was was going to Europe, but I could not find viable ways to do so. Then, after much searching I realized that Canada was a more possible option for me and I applied for a permanent residence in Montreal, which would take about six moths to be granted. In the meantime I moved to Washington DC to improve my English but six months later I got a letter denying my Canadian residency, so I have to entirely change my plans to stay the US. As a result of that I applied for a student visa and took me almost 10 years to obtain my green card, part of that process was starting my own language company to prove my abilities. In those days, gay marriage was beyond imaginable. I finally became a US citizen about ten years ago. That whole process was lengthy and difficult, but I think it shows my resilience.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

About 10 years ago the company going tough a difficult moment and we were employing about 12 people at the time. I knew I could get the money for payroll but it would be two weeks too late. I did not know what to do. I ran to the car dealership and sold my car. That covered payroll for two more weeks until we ere back in track. Now when I think about it, I think it was funny.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.garcialemos.me
• Instagram: garcialemosart
• Other: www.comunicar.us www.palmettoluna.org

Image Credits
Alejandro García Lemos