Ana Vilhete’s story has receipts for the inspiration she offers to others
By Kurt Beyers
Ana Vilhete has a London business with offices in London, the Netherlands, the United States and, most recently, South Africa.
Alium Consultancy, which Ana founded in London in 2020, now grosses more than £10 million a year — roughly $13.4 million. She also has a London law firm with seven attorneys working under her. She is an entrepreneur, investor, a volunteer and an inspirational speaker.
And now, she is bringing her business and her story to America.
In her mid-30s, she is by any measure a success, and her story begins with virtually nothing in an inner-city slum in Luanda, Angola. She was born in the middle of that country’s 27-year civil war.
She lived without hot water until she was 13. She is dyslexic.
So, when she says the heart of her message as an inspirational speaker is, “If I can do it, anyone can do it,” she has the credentials.
“I think I have a great story to share of resilience and tenacity,” she said, “and I want to share my story, to inspire people. If I am able to be an inspiration to someone, I would love that. That is the legacy I want to leave behind.”
The bare-bones outline of her personal story goes from Angola to another inner-city slum in Lisbon, Portugal, when she was 4. She speaks Portuguese because for a couple of centuries Angola was a Portuguese colony and it became a necessary language for the native peoples.
That move resulted from a bullet. One night when the shooting was particularly bad, her mother took her into her bed and in the morning found a spent bullet in Ana’s cot.
From Lisbon, her story goes to London at age 16. Ana herself initiated that move.
“It was October 2003. I went home one day and I told my mom I wanted to leave Portugal. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to achieve any of my goals. I didn’t know what my goals were, but I didn’t think I was going to become the person I needed to be there, and I didn’t know who I wanted to be, but I just felt limited.”
All the girls she knew in Lisbon, her friends, were “getting ready to get pregnant, and I wanted more.”
London at first was little better. Her parents were in poverty-level janitorial work, and family members helped, but housing was a constant concern. A year in they became homeless until her father persuaded a friend to take them in for a few months until they could save enough for rent.
She learned English, she completed her equivalent to A-levels, roughly comparable to American high school, and went to college, with the help of student loans, to study law and criminology. She didn’t know if she wanted to be a lawyer and took a year off — to work in a law firm.
“I didn’t enjoy working with lawyers, but at the end of that I had loads of friends that were lawyers. So, I decided to go to law school.”
She finished law school, going part time. She graduated, then worked for various companies, big and small, a year, two years at a time, and in a small business in the staffing industry, what is called in the United States job placement, she learned the operation and business side of that industry.
In 2020, when she founded Alium Consultancy, she fulfilled another lifelong desire — to own her own business.
Alium places people in positions in the health, data and technology industries with a focus on empowering success through diversity in the workforce.
She insists that she is nothing special.
“Coming from where I came from, if I can do it, anybody can do it. Seriously, I’m not particularly smart, and I found out in law school that I’m dyslexic. It was tough — ‘I need to pass this exam. Why is this subject not going in?’ — and so I think if I can do it, anyone can.”
“You don’t always have to know what your calling is. You just have to have the tenacity to search for it, grab what’s available and continue to search. You try this and you try that. Be willing to try new things. Be willing to spot an opportunity. Be alert to your environment, think about new ideas and be prepared to fail, because I failed a lot.”
Be relentless, she says. Listen to your instincts, keep looking for the thing you might enjoy “waking up to,” and be resilient.
“Life is tough. It is what it is. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Failure,” she says, “might not be your fault, but it is certainly your responsibility to keep going.”
She delivers her message in Great Britain, in Portugal and other places. She tells her story in schools and colleges and is on television as a guest invited to share her opinions on various subjects.
America is next, both for Alium Consultancy with its focus on filling positions and promoting diversity in the workforce, and as a speaker with an iniring story to tell.
“I can really demonstrate, like I said, that if I can do it, anyone can do it. I’ve got the credibility to back it up.”
Find out more about Ana Vilhete.
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