Category: IDENTITY: ORIGIN
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ALWAYS SMILING
What makes me laugh? “Risus abundat in ore stultorum” — laughter abounds on the mouths of fools. A warning. Or a misunderstanding. I prefer to begin elsewhere: with the idea of the other. What does not fit the format. What cannot be catalogued. What people define too quickly, just to feel certain. Even though it…
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THE WOODCUTTER
When you were five years old, people would ask what you wanted to be when you grew up. That is really the most beautiful moment in life: the moment when you begin to remember without forgetting anymore, when your thoughts start generating reflections and ideas. It is when you realize you are real — that…
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WHO I DECIDE TO BE
WHAT ARE YOUR MORNING RITUALS? WHAT IS THE FIRST HOUR OF YOUR DAY LIKE? Thank you for today’s question. My daily commitment to answering is, first, an act owed to myself, and only afterwards a courtesy toward the person asking. Human rituals, needless to list them, are tied to needs — in the literal sense…
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BORN FROM HER
They told me I was stubborn.And I listened. Then they said I was hard-headed.And I kept listening. Then came the word diligent.And I still listened. Then they moved on and called me a trickster.And I observed. Then they gathered courage and said I was dependable.And I observed. Then I became empathetic.And I observed. Then I…
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THE TRUE MASTERS
….OF THE SWINDLE We were colleagues, my father and I.We worked for the same American multinational. Salesmen.Cognitive swindlers. The first rule was always the same: fairness and trust toward everyone.The second: understand the client’s real needs before the client did. Selling was not pushing products.It was helping someone avoid trouble. More sales did not mean…
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AN INNOCENT LESSON
I called him and asked which area he was working in. I realized I was only sixty kilometers away, so I asked him to have lunch together. I had not seen him since our last work meeting, two months earlier. I arrived at his hotel and booked a room for the night. I wanted to…
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THE BRAIN ON THE PILLOW
DON’T LEAVE YOUR BRAIN ON THE PILLOW I was twenty-three when I met, by accident, the doctor who would become my mentor until the day he died. The first time he saw me, he looked at me and said: “You’ve got everything now.A job, a car, money, women.But you’re still missing one thing to be…
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WHICH FILM OR TV SERIES…
…HAVE YOU WATCHED MORE THAN FIVE TIMES? 1979. I was fourteen and playing rugby.A young love was tormenting me.A relationship I wanted to build, but I simply did not have the tools yet. My first mentor was him — Peppe, my president.First a friend, an expert in the female world, and then a mentor. He…
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WHY WAS I BORN?
It was a true act of love. I was the second child.The first one is often a ritual: it simply happens.The second one is different — it is wanted, it is searched for. My mother wanted a boy.I happened to be one of the available candidates.So they shipped me here. A Misplaced Arrival That damn…
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YEAR 2025
Leaving Everything The Decision The year began quietly. It still carried the influence of the previous two years of literary and editorial work. My convictions were firm and clear. I had no reason to doubt myself. I was, and still am, a man of my word. However, February changed everything. During my sixtieth birthday, three…