Ed Rodrigues is CEO of Swapy Network, a blockchain company with the mission to universalize the access to credit.

The first time I heard of Silicon Valley was through a magazine, a Forbes Magazine featuring the Google guys. I was in early college, studying business administration in Brazil. I used to think that Silicon Valley was a mythical place, where the most intelligent people transformed ideas into billion dollars companies that changed the world. But as an average Latin American guy, without much money or important relatives, I would never be part of that group of people.

I was wrong. Not about Silicon Valley. It is indeed a magical place. There is here a sense of optimism. The believe that nothing is impossible and that, no matter where you are from, you can create something big and change the world. I was wrong about what I believed were my limitations to make it: Lack of money and Lack of contacts.

My first big opportunity to come to Silicon Valley happened when I applied and was accepted at Draper University, the 7 weeks entrepreneurship program created by Billionaire investor Tim Draper.

One could say in retrospect that he was lucky to have found such a great mentor. But It would be hypocritical for me to say that, after all, I wrote in my application that “Luck is when preparation finds opportunity”.

Maybe that is what called the attention of Draper U´s selection committee, or the fact that the whole application was about what I had learned with my first failure as a startup founder. My entire class was full of underdogs fighting for their dreams.

There was the African entrepreneur who wanted to create a VC seed fund to invest in the next generation of African companies.

There was the Venezuelan guy who fled his home country when he was young because of Chavism, and was trying to make into Silicon Valley.

There was the Muslin girl who wanted to promote entrepreneurship in her home land.

There was the American guy from the East coast who was told he would never make it because he had a disability.

And there was me, the Brazilian guy who wanted to make credit cheaper and universally accessible so people could have access to their dreams.

I made it to Silicon Valley, and after the Draper University course I was one of 4 out of 35 who got funding from Tim Draper himself.

That´s how we got started in Silicon Valley.

And from all those VC funds, angels and accelerators, there was one organization which we admired the most and wanted to do business with: Singularity University. We identified with its mission of solving humanity´s greatest problems using technology. We wanted to be part of that family.

We applied for its acceleration program and, unfortunately, we were not accepted.

Yes, the rejection hurt. But we moved on.

We almost went bankrupt and me and my co-founders stayed 6 months without getting salaries. We pivoted, and raised a little more money. We pivoted again, and raised even more money at a higher valuation. We were finalists of competitions and applied to exhibit in conferences like Exponential Finance and SU Global Summit. There, we made friends, found partners and investors and called the attention of the SU Labs crew, who invited us to apply again.

In our cover letter for the SU acceleration we said: “Here is what we learned in the past two years: We pivoted, learned from our mistakes, got more people who believed in our dream and now we are about to grow exponentially.”

This time, we got accepted and now we are part of the SU family.

And just in our cohort, there were people who wanted to save the forests, fix healthcare, create sustainable cities, decentralize the food production, find life in other planets and there was us, who wanted to fix credit around the world. Each one of us had a different dream. But what united us was the belief in the exponential technologies and that the biggest problems in the world can be solved.

In our last day together I said to the Singularity University Staff that places like Draper University and SU are a proof that the American Dream is still alive in places like Silicon Valley. The American Dream is the idea that anyone from anywhere can come to America and make it happen.

This video by Youtuber John Green is a good reflection on what is the American Dream is and if it is still alive today.

I do not know if it is still alive in all of the USA but here, in Silicon Valley, it sure is. After all, living legends like Elon Musk started out here eating ramen and sleeping on a couch. I came here with money for one meal a day and a maxed out credit card.

If you have a dream and a passion to solve a problem, you can make it too. Believe me. If this guy did it, you can do it too: