History SHOULD teach us nothing

Europe has been one of the main actor of the last 1500 years of history. Within Europe, Italy played an important role throughout the different times starting from the Roman empire, going through the Venetian republic and the importance of Florence in the Renaissance.
That's history and this is what has heavily shaped our italian (and European) culture up to today.

Facts are that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO sites included my beloved Dolomites (and I'd better not start talking about the wasted potential of this as only 4% of our GDP comes from tourism) and some of the laws, rules and habits are a direct consequence of what our beloved Roman ancestors discussed a couple of thousand years ago.

Everything has been already seen and tried and checked... as the great Shirley Bassey said, HISTORY REPEATING.

We have 2000 years of history!!!

And we know why things cannot work.
We know everything that has been already tried and why this is not going to generate what we expect. Therefore we need to find something new, something new out of very little choices since everything has been already tried.
This is what I call the "WHY NOT" syndrome. It is a very European type of syndrome as we come from a very "conservative" colture.
It is spreading everywhere and it's mainly appearing when salesmen are doing their presentations. Things changes though. Sometimes people that do not have experience have an advantage. They are free to do things without prejudice and preconceived ideas.

A salesman must be a visionary, someone with hope and dreams. Someone that is trying to break the current status quo trying to find something different.

Different countries
Different customers
Different solutions
Different products

And the hope, the dream and the optimistic approach are the main driver to make them spending hours in a plane or in a car, away from their families and their hobbies.

There are little things that can destroy this. It is like putting some sand into the gears. Little things that are making the whole system break down.
And the "WHY NOT" people are the worst enemies. People that already know that "it'll not work because..."

It's always easy to say that things will not work without saying HOW TO DO TO MAKE THEM WORK.

This is the basic driver for a salesman (and not only for a salesman). We must think it will work.

If we do our best to convince people that they can't succeed we will easily make it happen. With a bad result for the company.

Things changes and things have changes. Do not worry to try again and to risk. Don't take history as unique driver for your choice.

Challenge the "WHY NOT PEOPLE" proving that YOU CAN DO THINGS.
Being in the winter olympic period, follow this

Take your shot. And score.

Have a nice week end

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.

I would really like to be a good father to my children and a good husband to my wife.

Quite a difficult task when you are spending half of your day phisically at work (being in reality more than 3/4 of the time in which you are awake) and some of the rest mentally at work.
In this difficult task, to try and spend as much time as possible with my children, I drive them to school.
With my little princess, 5 years old, I must also enter into the school and I help wearing her smock and getting ready for the day.
In that very moment also the school bus arrives and my daughter's school mates enter as well and start getting ready.
They do everything themselves and what is always funny is that, if I ask anybody if they need help, they challenge staring at me and, after a "no thanks" meaning "I am good enough to do it myself", they show me how good they are.
They simply learnt to do it properly since every morning they must do that themselves. And if I ask my daughter to do it she is simply telling me "mmmm daddy, can you help me?" exactly in the way that you cannot say no.

This came into my mind while driving to the office.

The radio was giving the usual bad news telling that some companies are closing and hundreds of workers risk to be made redundant therefore help is required to the government to try and help their case.
Sad thing, clearly. But how much is this our fault?

If on one side the companies, once they settle somewhere, MUST have a corporate social responsibility on the other side they must continue their business in a sound and healty way.

If one plant or company is not going well this cannot make the whole ship sinking.

In reality a government should be able to protect workers by making the working and investment environement suitable and appealing for the companies. In a word, by making the country competitive as the companies that are in the country should be.
Currently, unfortunately, what we are doing to to protect the workers is subisiding them and the companies and, to me, this is a big mistake.

This means we are financing the inefficiencies instead of financing the SOLUTIONS to the inefficiencies.
In an office environement, this would mean to continuously hire people instead of improving the process.
Quite difficult to imagine if you are an investor or entrepreneur.

It is not something that can be done overnight. I know.
We are, or better, we have been experiencing a deep change in the economy and in the markets. But it seems we haven't realized that. We must really start realizing that the "lifetime job" will probably not be the standard in the future.
It will definitely not disappear but it will not be the norm as it was.

So, how should we react to that?
This will not be easy. It will need first a change of attitude and mind.

So...
1) STUDY!!! Always!!! Look around, listen and be curious
2) Understand what we are goot at
3) Do not give up. Elvis was told to go back driving his truck instead of sing!
4) Be the best salesman of yourself!

Do not trust people that say they have the secret for the success. There is no SINGLE SECRET FOR THE SUCCESS.
Look for someone that can be a teacher, someone that you trust and that care you. Someone to tell you how to wear your smock at school but that let you do it yourself.


But remember

So, I would like to propose a change to the old saying I put on the title.

What do you think about...

It is not 100% mine I admit, but I liked that very much. UNDERSTAND-LEARN-SELL

Ciao and have a great week end

It's hidden in there

What is that?
It's easy! Come on!

Right, it's paper.
BUT...
Last week in my blog "It's a kind of Magic" I was talking about what the great Michelangelo used to say: "the sculpture is already into the block of marble. The artist must only free it".

Well. Whichever thing I do to take out of this paper sheet a masterpiece this is the best I can do

It flies veeeery well, it's landing smoothly but it's far away from being a masterpiece.

In Apulia, the region I talked about in "Heaven", there is someone that even from such a simple and straight forward paper sheet is able to create something exceptional.
The "Cartapesta" (Papier-mache).

For its “cartapesta” and artistic craftsmanship, Lecce can be considered as one of the major cities in Italy. This cultural heritage is strictly linked to historical developments during the 17th and 18th centuries, right in the middle of the triumph of Baroque architecture.

“Cartapesta” began as a symbolic, sacred art in honour of Lecce, which was then the most sanctified city of the southern region of the Kingdom of Naples, owing to its great number of churches and convents.
During the following decades, the production of “cartapesta” embraced symbolic figures of every kind, such as those representing the lives of ordinary people.

It is in such an environement, full of history and legacy, that Claudio Riso has revived this ancient art, with his skilful use of simple and modest materials.

You can find all the "Made in Italy" features (what I really like) in the workshop:  - Il laboratorio del Maestro Claudio Riso is a family owned workshop, it has more of 25 years of experiences and all its products are hand-made and delicate.

You can see the "Sacred Art" (Nativity, angels) associated to local social life (who is producing wine, card players).



But he can also create customized products based on the special requirements or events. The Cartapesta is recognized as an artistic product.
You can find all the masterpieces in Claudio Riso's workshop (it: il Laboratorio di Cartapesta di Claudio Riso) where, during the year, he always gives « Cartapesta's lessons » to students who come in Lecce.

How is he able to do that?
Have a look at this video. You will be surprised.
Again a great story of:
-Talent
-Passion
-Immagination
the reasons why Italians are (or should be...) known around the world.