The Distillation of Brunello Cucinelli

“Enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day.”– Brunello Cucinelli

Words cannot express the immense gratitude and appreciation I have for Brunello and the lessons I’ve learned from him over the years. I’ve compiled some of his teachings to hopefully impact others the way these words have impacted me. 

This is for: Seekers of wisdom. Lovers of philosophy. People who care about future generations. And the curators of beautiful souls. 

Brunello Cucinelli was born into very humble beginnings in Castel Rigone growing up with no running water or electricity. But through dreams, hard work and determination Brunello has gone on to found and create the fashion empire brand, Brunello Cucinelli. The “king of cashmere,” Cucinelli dropped out of engineering school and used a $550 loan to launch a fashion line in 1978. He donates 20% of his profits through the Brunello Cucinelli Foundation. He has been described as a “philosopher-designer” for his approach to humanistic capital and as of today the market cap of Brunello Cucinelli is $5.2 billion euro. 

Our Ideals for Life and Work 

Ten Rules

I. We love and respect Mother Earth: we cultivate our land according to nature and we welcome its fruits as its greatest gift.

II.We do not use more resources than it is necessary or natural. We make careful use of the universe.

Ill. We always act as loyal and affectionate guardians of creation.

IV.We believe in the moral and economic dignity of human beings.

V.During work we support fair profitability and harmony between profit and giving back to the community.

VI. We seek harmony between fair work and human privacy.

VIl. We commemorate our forefathers. They taught us to respect the law, and our story is written in their words.

VIlI. We believe in universalism and we act displaying great respect for all Civilisations.

IX. We welcome fair change in order to experience the best from our time.

X. We are fond of young people and pass down to them hope and the dream of a bright future awaiting them.

“After all these years and experiences, I know nothing, nothing at all, that compares to the love for another person when it comes to reaching immensity and infinity.”

Early Years 

• The first part of my life, I spent in the countryside. We had no lights, and no electricity at home. We were farmers and we would work the land with animals. I enjoyed a very special relationship with the ground, with the animals, and with creation in the world. And since we had no electricity at home, we would follow the sun along its path until sunset. The stars and the sky were a great source of inspiration.
• It was a very important time in my life. And I say it even now as a grownup because there were 13 members of my family living together, and there was such a high degree of spirituality, humanity, dignity, and respect for everything that surrounded us.
• We were not poor because we had enough food on our table, but we did enjoy a very special relationship with creation, and by that, I mean, the ground,  the animals, and the water surrounding us. And still today, I believe that we need to recover the kind of harmony with creation that we were able to build back then.
• Dinner was the most meaningful time of our day. It was always the same yet always new and longed for. I will never forget the loving gaze of my mother, who looked after us all.
• Basic flavours have no less taste than the most refined ones, since water and a piece of bread give the fullest pleasure to those who learn to appreciate these values. Living with little is not only healthy, but it also rids us of the frantic needs of life and protects us from the unpredictable events that fate might throw at us; also, in case we luckily become rich, it helps us be fully aware of this fortunate condition, which paradoxically is not as easy to manage as it is commonly thought.
  • Few words were generally exchanged during meals, and the silence in between lasted long; yet we were all in harmony; our parents’ eyes spoke of their love for us, and they invited us to reciprocate that feeling. After all, prayer is the longing of the soul, a feeling that we felt even stronger during Christmas.

Love of Reading & Time Alone & Rest 

• During this constant effort I have received a lot of help, both material and spiritual. Usually I do not like to express a preference, yet in this case I think that a small exception should be made: because of the help and the pleasure they give me, books come first and foremost.
  • Books were vital for Bruce Lee, Tony Robbins, Phil Jackson, Yen Liow and Josh Waitzkin. 
• Humanity is to be found both in big and small things. and we recognise it in our daily rituals.
• Brunello is known for wandering the streets of Solomeo in the early morning hours to spend time thinking and connecting to his spirit. 
  • “I would always read when I was alone, especially philosophy. I’m reminded of Machiavelli during his exile. He too spent his afternoons playing board games and drinking wine, while at night, in the austere silence of his studio, he engaged in solitary, literary conversations with the ancient scholars. Through these experiences, I have gained a knowledge that makes up for those long-gone pleasures and a desire that nourishes new ones.”
• “Do you know the word Otium in Latin, meaning, ‘doing nothing’ The Roman people were all laid back. In all the pictures, they were all lying around. They were doing nothing, just staring. In the winter on a Sunday afternoon, I can spend six hours in front of the fireplace, just looking at the flames and thinking. In the evening, I’m drunk with beautiful thoughts. My wife says to me, ‘What are you looking at?’ I say, ‘The fire.’ We have to take a step backward.”
• Perhaps this pervasive sense of the sacred stirred in me an attraction for the spiritual life of religious people, their silence, meditation and prayer; this is perhaps also the reason why, whenever I can, I spend part of my days alone, as I long for solitude as if it was a distant, but beloved and precious friend.
• Today there is no break between a noise and another flowing one… This is the main reason why I have become a “chaser of silence”. Saint Benedict said: Non nisi ab obscura sidera nocte micant, “Stars do not shine except in the dark night“. 
• We cannot appreciate the beauty of our inner voice except when there is silence. 
• When as a kid I spent hours on end by myself in the countryside, it was so quiet around me, indeed! This silence then became richer and more stimulating when the voice of nature came along; it could be birdsongs, the rustling of poplars or the water flowing in the ditches. Slowness dominated.
• The wise Epicurus explained that when public life prevails it brings about discomfort and deprives us of rest, which is necessary to restore our soul. We need time to rest: it is not only a matter of sleep but also of “creative idleness”.
• For the ancient Romans, “otium” or idleness meant time free from public office and it was the best chance to spend time with oneself, to regenerate the soul, to study and reflect and to take care of one’s ideals. There was no material gain or purpose ever associated to this idly active time. Thinking, writing, reading are the core of knowledge for us, too.
  • Where has this time gone? 

I have to confess that my initial motivation arose out of recklessness and instinct. Today I am firmly convinced that we must act even when we have feeble hopes, because sometimes the most incredible success arises out of utopia. There was uncertainty at the beginning, as it is often the case, but I persevered and one day something changed for the better.

And that’s how and when I started my very tiny business. I wanted my company to foster the human and economic dignity of human beings. That was the main purpose because I was moved by the tearful eyes of my father. 

Inspiration 

• About his dad, “I have learned a lot about life from him not only through his words, but also through the tears he sometimes shed.” 
• And then two very important things happened in my life when I was about 17 to 18 years of age. The first one was coming across philosophy and Kant in particular. And there’s one famous quote by him that says, “There are two things that move me, the starry sky above me and the moral law inside me.” And then there’s another one that we would place at the entrance to our village, our hamlet, “You should act considering mankind, not just for you, but for others too, not just as needs, as simple needs but as the highest purpose.” I was 17, or 18 by then, and that’s precisely something that changed my life.
• So the first thing that I did that was a game-changer was my discovery of philosophy, and the second important thing is my dad. My dad took up a job at a plastic factory, and he did not complain about his wages or the work conditions, but rather he moaned and complained about the way he was subjected to humiliation daily. And then he would come back home in the evening and say, what did I do wrong to God to be subjected to such treatments? And those key statements and also his eyes that were filled up with tears.
  • When I was sixteen my father went through a difficult patch: for the first time I saw him with different eyes, I could comprehend his world. In the evening he would come home after a rather hard day, as he was working for a company manufacturing prefabricated reinforced concrete. At fortyfive he was in his prime: he never complained about the hard work or the low wage, but rather about being belittled by his employers. I saw him disappointed, troubled, with tears in his eyes. He would repeat: “What have I done wrong to be offended like this?” I was very struck by his unjust grief; I felt helpless, since I could not defend my father, but one thing inside me became instantly clear: even if back then I did not yet know what I would do in life, I knew that I would definitely live and work in order to foster the moral and economic dignity of man.
• This is why humanity is the driving force behind my actions as a man and entrepreneur. Striving to respect human dignity might sound daring, something that not everyone can achieve. I however believe that such an attitude is within the reach of everyone because it does not concern the quantity but the quality of our actions, whose value is rooted in the intention more than in the actual deed.
• I liked the fact that beauty was so closely linked to work.
• Our lot was not very big, but it was farmed and kept like a garden and this love for tidiness and cleanliness has accompanied me throughout my life. The ancient 
  • Greeks had some wonderful expressions in this regard: “If your doorstep is clean, then your city will be clean“; and: “It is our duty to leave you with a city more beautiful than the one we inherited“. Centuries later Alexander Pope thought: “Order is the first law of heaven.“

The Soul

• I do believe there are two types of intelligence, the one that comes from educational study, and another one that comes from your soul. And I believe that we must mix and combine them both to have the best results.
• “I have a better and more reliable tool than my eyes to distinguish the real from the fake: it is the soul.”- Seneca
• Epicurus is very insightful when he thinks that human beings have two main problems to tackle: 
  • The first is the malaise of the soul: everyone should settle this issue by pursuing happiness; 
  • The second one is to use what the earth gives us without consuming it, so that we can improve Creation.
• Saint Benedict was a great source of inspiration for me, he used to say that we need to feed our minds through study. We need to feed our souls through praying and then we need to work. This means that we need to balance out all these different aspects of our life. And we are in dire need of this balance because if you work a lot, if you are online a lot, when do you have time for your spiritual freedom? When do you have time to raise your gaze to the heavens? 
• At difficult times, we all need to take a break, and then raise our eyes high to the heavens. And we must nowadays discover this balance. I want to be contemporary. I want to buy the latest technology, but I also want to have time for my soul because Sean, our soul needs to be nourished and fed daily like our bodies.

Time changes the shape, but not the substance of things. 

If we discover the dreams nurtured by our heart, we will achieve the most important goal of our lives. 

One should always be ready for something beautiful. 

The Man Brunello Was Ready 

• Between 15 and 25, this is when I was hanging out at the local bar, learning even more about life there. I have this belief that when a person turns 20, their personality is already fully formed and shaped. So when I was 25 years of age, I didn’t yet know what would become of me, or what I’d do in my life but I had quite a clear-cut character and personality.
• Between 20 and 25 years of age, I became fascinated by humanistic culture. And then while I was still pondering as to what I would like to do in life, I already, however, felt the importance of always fostering respect and dignity for the human being, because I was moved along those lines because of what my father has suffered, and also my brothers that have been subjected to it too and what they were saying to me. I kept asking myself, why should I or anyone offend other human beings? At 25, the man Brunello was ready, and then I came up with this idea of colored cashmere. You might ask me why, how did it happen? And I do not know because until the day before I was still busy at the bar playing cards.

• 2 very important things that stand out to me about this paragraph:
  • #1 Like Boyd Varty said, “I don’t know where I’m going but I know exactly how I’ll get there.”, Brunello wasn’t sure what to do with his life but he knew that human dignity was going to be a guiding path.
  • #2. Everything can change in an instant. The day before he had no idea he would come across his idea for colored cashmere that would end up transforming his life. 
  • Tomorrow could be the day you have your idea that forever changes your life.

Many times, in the evening, I slip imperceptibly into reverie in front of the fireplace: in that twilight realm between wake and sleep I can see so many roads ahead, so much fate, so many omens and many pitfalls, but also so much spirituality, generosity, courage, humanity; amidst all of this a man is proceeding cautious and daring at the same time, paying attention to everything, yet always sure of his beliefs. That man is me, and I feel I am driven by an immense desire: that my life, when it reaches its end, will not have been useless for Creation.

Love of Learning & Philosophy 

• I’m seduced by the purity of thought of so many exceptional men.
  • ‘Philosophy is the most beautiful gift that the gods lavished on us.’ Socrates
•  I have always carefully listened to the very wise words of the greatest men of humanity. The great thinkers, the scientists, the emperors, and the saints, because they were the ones who taught me to feel and act as a guardian and as a caretaker. They were the ones who taught me to believe in respect, dignity, kindness, grace, and good manners. 
• Knowing oneself is just as important, and perhaps more difficult than knowing those we live with. That might explain why, since I was a child, I have taken to jotting down the most meaningful things and my daily thoughts on a notebook and re-reading them over time… One should not expect any coherence in these writings, as it may have never existed: in fact, the true meaning of my life seems to be a spontaneous drive and energy.
  • Something I’ve done over the years is compile my thoughts and favorite notes into one online document that I print out at the end of the year. It is my favorite thing to read.

You Must Have Courage 

“Sean, you are very young, I could be your father, and what I’m saying to you is that you must have the courage to envisage the golden century that is forthcoming, that is before you. I think that we fathers have made two major mistakes. First of all, we have taught you children, our children, to always be fearful. You always have to have fear of something. 

Why don’t you replace the word fear with the word hope? Because a life without hope there’s no point in living it. My grandfather taught me courage because courage was very important because he went through hunger, and went through the war. And he never, never talked about the hardship of that time, always talking about courage. So that’s the first warning.

The second mistake that we fathers have made towards you children is the fact that we have said to you, so you’re no good at school, you have to go to work. And this way we blamed work for everything that we had done wrong with the school, for example. And this is not the right way to go, because I believe that you have two kinds of intelligence, the intelligence that comes from what you learn at school, and then any intelligence that you have inborn in your soul. And we must support this, the latter, this kind of intelligence, and this means trying to nourish a very special relationship with human beings.” 

Words of Impact

“You live if you are useful to many.” – Seneca

“Transparency was one of the reasons for my success. As well as willpower, honesty has been a crucial means to vouch for my ideas.”

“Beauty will save the world.” Dostoevsky 

“I only follow paths that do have a heart.” 

Love is the oldest of gods.

What I admire in Emperor Frederick II, among other things, is his great eternal quality of knowing how to find a positive meaning in everything. 

“Work makes the spirit of man sublime.” 

I understand and am fascinated by the greatness of Goethe when he says: “It is beautiful to make progress, even when you have reached infinity.” 

“If you combine pain, focus and dedication you get success. That is the truth.” 

“I felt responsible for the beauty of the world.” Hadrian

I Feel Responsible for the Beauty of the World 

• Being able to sense beauty and wishing to know its secrets is an important expression of our humanity. Emperor Hadrian felt responsible for the beauty in the world, and each of us can feel responsible for the beauty of some part of it, maybe just our threshold, keeping it tidy and clean and perhaps adding plants and flowers.
• Beauty is simplicity: this is an essential theme; simplicity does not mean getting rid of something, it means applying knowledge and choice to come up with synthesis. This is why it is about being brave and strong. The greatest minds can convey deep and complex thoughts with words that are understandable to everyone. Oscar Wilde believed that we should think simply and spontaneously, as if we were kids.
• It is the beauty of things, of people, of ideas, of manners, of words. It is the beauty of life. The world is beautiful, the future is beautiful and bright. Beauty is not mere appearance, nor an external feature or something that only matters in the surface. Beauty is the shape of the inner qualities of people and things. Wherever there is beauty, there is positivity.

What I Learned From Mom & Dad

• If you talk to your parents, if you listen to your peers, you will share joys and sorrows with them and you will be more ready to reap the golden fruits of the future.
• I have learned from my teachers and from nature many of the things that currently make my life beautiful; however, the great teachings of childhood were also those I received from my mother and father: both of them, each in their own way, have passed on lasting values to me, more through example than words, above all the silent courage to persevere despite the hurdles fate sometimes places on your path.
• The feeling I associate the most to my mother is tenderness; from her, I learned patience and spirituality. 
• From my father I learned the courage to dream and to choose; he is a simple man, but I owe him something that has contributed to my entrepreneurial success, namely the awareness that any project involves an effort and its ultimate purpose must be mankind and its dignity.
• Life with my parents and the other family members was natural and pleasant. Mutual support happened spontaneously and guaranteed the survival of people as well as of material and spiritual values. 
• Until a few years ago, those bonds were so strong in the rural culture that they safeguard ideals. The willingness to make sacrifices for others, to be able to wait for a reward, the devotion to work; for me, these are everlasting values.
• The joy of working together and sharing what was being produced turned work into a joyful liturgy, not a punishment. We all knew what was being done in the fields, in the garden, in the pastures, at home; planting, cultivating, raising children and helping parents. There was no wealth. but we were happy. And it makes me think: having enough is a form of wealth.
  • Poverty should never be a reason to offend someone and I also dislike those who tease people for their poverty, because they suffer and might even be ashamed of it. On the contrary, we need good people, people who know what to do to support human dignity. What difference was there between that unfortunate orphan and me? Didn’t he experience my same feelings? I am fascinated by Seneca’s thought: all men are equal before true good and true evil.

My Dream

Joining together the beauty of the past with the beauty of the future. 

It means combining business with family, innovation with tradition, profit with giving back, money with humanity.

I would like its strength to lie in the heart rather than in the mind, because I like it more, and because the heart is always stronger than the mind. Feelings succeed in obtaining results that mathematics would deem impossible. 

We Are Custodians 

• In my view, it is useful to hand down humanistic values such as family, spirituality, craftsmanship and agriculture: I see the roots of the future in them.
• Confucius believed that preserving ancient rituals and using a suitable language were essential to favour human progress. He said: “I do not create, I hand down”. So it is not about nostalgia for the past but about authentic values, in which we find every answer we might need to build the future. This is why I have always thought of myself as a guardian, and today also as a true ferryman commuting from the past to the future.

Massimo de Vico Fallani 

• It would take me endless days to describe this wise man. He is refined, enlightened, visionary, respectable, polite, kind, ironic, almost a man from another time. I always call him jokingly “my Aristotle”. A great relationship was born. We began to meet more often, our talks always driven by our outlook on life. Those early years were exciting: I was forty five and he was a little older. We both were the right age to plan and take care of mankind.
• We shared the great value of beauty. “I felt responsible for the beauty of the world“. The Roman Emperor Hadrian expressed this eternal tenet with this sentence, and we wanted to apply it to our Solomeo. 
• We sought the beauty of things, people, ideas, manners and words. The beauty of life: The future is beautiful and bright. Beauty is the form of the inner quality of people. Where there is beauty there is almost always truth; in most cases it coincides with simplicity, which in turn is not a shortage of ideas or resources, but the sum of great inner wealth. 
• When people are surrounded by simplicity, everything is clearer, they can understand beauty, and every human quality is brought to its fullest expression.

Humanistic Capital 

• We also discussed something we decided to call “human-istic capitalism”: we imagined a business embodying the rules of ethics in their noblest form, those rules that mankind has defined over the centuries. I dreamt of a form of contemporary capitalism rooted in strong ancient values, where making a profit should never harm or offend people or things, and where part of the earnings should be earmarked to promote initiatives aimed at concretely improving the condition of human life; the common good should be the purpose of careful yet courageous actions; finally, the human being should be at the center of any production process, because this is the only way to restore dignity, since quality cannot exist without humanity.
• Human dignity is truly the cornerstone on which I base my life as a man and a businessman.
• If we work together, say, and, even with one look, I make you understand that you are worth nothing and I look down on you, I have killed you. But if I give you regards and respect — out of esteem, responsibility is spawned. Then out of responsibility comes creativity, because every human being has an amount of genius in them. Man needs dignity even more than he needs bread.

The Idea That Changed Everything, Dyed Cashmere 

• My first meeting with Alessio, perhaps one of the most expert cashmere dyers in the world, was wonderful. I brought him six women’s sweaters and asked him to dye them in six different colours, choosing delicate hues. His first, blunt reply was: “It is crazy to dye cashmere in these colours” I spent nearly the whole morning trying to convince him to meet my request. He finally told me: “Let’s try, but I am not sure how it will turn out”. It was undoubtedly the most important moment of my life. I am extremely grateful to this man.
• One Sunday morning I was alone in the small workshop near Solomeo, taking a break and reflecting on the results of the year. For the first time I started to take myself seriously and to believe in the future of my company. My business knowledge was still somehow limited and I knew nothing of my competitors, but this did not jeopardise my enthusiasm, which was constantly on the rise. I had the feeling I had been waiting for that moment forever, the moment when my life changed direction.
  • Similar to Winston Churchill, “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.” 
• When I recall those days and endless phone calls of friends who hadn’t seen me for months, I still marvel at that spontaneous and unexpected transformation.
  • Anyone is capable of a personal transformation like this. 
• At that time I was often alone and I thought back on my father’s teachings: no one will respect you if you do not behave properly. Respectability, courage and a transparent conduct are essential for life; in other words, you must respect your own dignity, and the dignity of others. Radical changes in people, which are often due to a great dream, are fascinating.

A Fashion Empire is Born

• So this very small company, how was it going to be organized? Well, I wanted my employees, and my co-workers to work in better places. For example, we are here now in a castle that dates back to the 1300s, and then I wanted them to make better wages. I wanted them to become the thinking souls of this small business because that’s what’s the underlying idea that I have. I wanted dignity, I wanted respect for human beings! 
• Those were the main themes because I knew damn well that every single man, every single person has a pinch of genius in them. There is creativity and a little bit of genius in each one of them, and I just wanted to be the organizer of this genius of these co-workers.
• I have always been firmly convinced that in order to successfully stand out you need to focus on one single project representing the dream of our life. 
  • I was reminded of the moving story of Takashi Paolo Nagai, a Japanese doctor who died after being exposed to the A-bomb radiation in Nagasaki. He told his children: My dear children, do have a dream. Have a beautiful dream. Follow only one dream, the dream of your life. The human life that has a dream to cherish is happy. A life that pursues a dream is new every day. My dear children. A life that might seem short is in fact long; and a life that seems long is actually short. Those dreams that, once achieved, can make a whole community happy cannot be achieved by a single person.

Approach to Work 

• Brunello gives 20 percent of his company’s profits to his charitable foundation in the name of “human dignity” and pays his workers wages that are 20 percent higher than the industry standard, mostly because it allows his company to encourage and continue the Italian craftsman traditions. Cucinelli also pays for an artisan’s school in Solemeo: Young people are free to work either at his company or for another Italian company.
• In this company, you cannot send emails after 5:30 PM, when the company closes for the evening. The day after, when you turn up for work, what are you like? You are a still person. You are better.
• If everything is so short and to the point, how much time is then left for your mind? It should be the case that if we need three hours to go deep into things, then we do it. 
• The first time I was in New York, we had a tiny office, and they were emailing across it. I said, “No way. Just get up and go to your neighbor and ask them one thing, in one split second, in person.” First of all, you look me in the eye. You smell me, my presence. Maybe I take the opportunity to ask you about your family. Don’t you feel better than if you get an email? Maybe I smile and you feel even better.
• We think that protecting the brand is more important than promoting it. 

The word utopia is the easiest way to do away with something you are not willing or not able or not brave enough to do. A dream remains a dream until you start to do something about it, and only then does it become a project and therefore something infinitely bigger.

– Adriano Olivetti 

Death 

• Yet, death is part of life. I learned it the painful way when my mother died of a stroke. She was seventy years old. In spite of all the confusion, I had a chance to spend almost an hour with her alone, a time that made me grow up years. 
  • Holding her hand I whispered: “Dear mum, you have had a wonderful life, you have raised us children according to noble ideals and great values. You are not really abandoning us, you’re just preceding us to reach a peaceful place where we will all meet again eventually”. I was recalling Seneca’s quote when he said that his son was not dead, he simply preceded him in a different place, where he could think of him every day, smile with him, talk to him, always keep him in his heart.

• The thought of the lost loved ones gives me strength and a reason for living. Even today, almost every evening before falling asleep, I talk to my mother, to don Alberto, to my dearest friends who have passed away too young; I miss them a lot when I meet my other friends in the evening.
• “Let us therefore reflect, my beloved Lucilius, that we shall soon come to the place he has reached, to our own sorrow. And perhaps, if the sages are right and there is a place that will welcome all of us, then he whom we think we have lost has only been sent on ahead.” – Seneca, speaking after his son Lucilius death 

We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. 

This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, lightheartedness, and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile.

The Future Generations

•  We have to act as guardians, and at the same time plan for the coming 2000 years.
• Today there is an increasing need for good manners: young people want them, and they are the first to adopt them. 
• Kindness is nothing but generosity, a sign of moral strength and the language of beautiful souls. Kindness is not a means but an inner attitude, a seal, a mark of human beings. Kindness takes on many shapes and I have always liked the idea of guardianship. 
  • Goethe wrote in the Elective Affinities: “There is no external sign of kindness that does not have a deep moral ground… There is a kindness of the heart that is close to love: the most useful kindness of outward behaviour derives from it.”

• Your task as young people is to have a new vision of the world, merging performance with humanism; you must replace the obligation to be afraid with true hope. If you are able to plan for centuries ahead you will be crucial for the future.
• We believe in you, young people, as you are the “lamp carriers” of the third millennium, the brilliant innovators who will transform the Internet into an enabler and a tool to produce material goods without forgetting the humanistic ones.
• I would also like to give the new generations a piece of advice: learn to listen, perhaps better than we have been able to do, because it is beautiful, pleasant and fruitful. If you are able to fall in love with beauty with both your senses and your mind, if you can listen to nature, to the voice of the wind, the rivers, the sea, the sky, and men, you will learn how important and vital it is to preserve the integrity of Creation. 
• If you listen to the elderly, you will eventually be able to see beyond their wrinkles and find the children they once were.
• You must act as a guardian… You have a responsibility because you are the defenders of creation and you should try to be courageous, graceful, and open. Openness is a good thing. You should be open to the world, to culture, fascination, and beauty. When my father would say to me, “You have to make the furrows straight because straight means more beautiful”, that’s the importance that beauty has in our lives.
• There are three things that you can’t hide for a very long time,the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Technology

• Being online is surely important, but this should not steal our soul; sometimes the background noise we are constantly surrounded by becomes an additional bu-den for the malaise we all carry in our soul. 
• Voltaire was right:’If you don’t embrace the spirit of your time, you will be left with the worst of it‘. Today, from time to time, I too feel the psychological burden of my smartphone: the idea that this device knows everything about me and always listens to me even when it is switched off, spoils my longing for solitude.
• I’ve always said we must be on the cutting edge with technology. But your life shouldn’t change as a consequence.

Sean, I don’t know whether there will be a better world ahead but what I can say for sure is that this time is the best time that we have lived so far. And I know that because I’m passionate about history. 

2000 years ago in 170AD, Marcus Aurelius was an emperor who was also a philosopher, he had a lot of things on his plate. So he had to run Rome, there was a play he wrote, there was an economic downturn, there was the war against the Germans, and still, he would say, “Live according to nature. Try and find peace, find balance.”  That’s precisely what we need to do now. We need to find a balance, yet another important point talking about balance is to find a balance between humanism and technology. And this is particularly important for the next generation.

I believe that over the past 30 years, we have tried and attempted to rule mankind through science only, but it is not possible. We need our souls too into the equation. We must mix technology and humanism. And mind you, I believe that technology is a blessing. A blessing we have received from creation. And I say to my staff, you should always buy the most cutting-edge technology there’s on the market, but be careful the way you go about it because otherwise, it will steal the soul that creation has given to us. 

That’s why I say that we need to find and strike a new balance. We also need to have the most serene relationship with ourselves. We must have less fear of the future and be kind all the time. For example, Emperor Hadrian once stated, “I have never met anyone who did not feel better after being paid a compliment.” For example, Sean, if I speak to you, and I start by saying, how are you? How is your family? You would feel differently rather than just saying hey and that’s it. So we really must find a new spiritual and humane relationship with lots of answers.

At this stage in my life, at sixty-three, I looked into my soul. As my beloved Saint Augustine stated, I would like to imagine a golden century where mind and soul merge and help us treat the malaise of our soul by restoring the value of hope.

As my thought-mate Marcus Aurelius taught me, I live according to nature and humanity.

Marcus Aurelius left us possibly the most exhaustive statement: “Live as if it was the last day of your life and plan as if you were to live forever.”

Work/ Community/ Serenity 

• In the old times work, when it did not mean exploitation, was rarely without rhythm, songs, human solidarity and aesthetic pleasure; power and profit never prevailed over serenity; family, neighbours and friends were part of a tangible community, where everyone could fulfill any task, if needed.
• The joy of working together, producing and sharing the outcome, made work similar to a sacred ceremony. In the cycle of daily work every member of the ancient village knew everything that happened in the fields, in the gardens, in the pastures and in the swamps; everybody was available and ready to jump in to work the land or raise the children. We worked just enough to guarantee a healthy and peaceful life:
  • The motto of that civilization was: having enough is itself a form of wealth.

• Leaders must be aware that there cannot be equality in any profit unless there is equality in the liability for errors. To run a company, it is not enough to organise work and assign tasks. You must pay attention to the development of people working with you, you must stimulate passion, which is essential for creativity and can be found when there is pleasure in what we are doing.
• Dignity generates responsibility, responsibility generates Creativity.

All our actions must respect the harmony of the nature that is inside us. 

“You did not give us a heart so that we could hate each other, or hands so we could slit each other’s throats. Help us to help each other endure the burden of this painful and brief life. May all these tiny variations which differentiate the atoms called humans not be the triggers of hatred and persecution; may those who light candles at midday in adoration of vou learn to tolerate those who simply bask in the light of your sun, may those who wrap a white cloth round their robes to express the command to love you not hate those who say the same thing under a coat of black wool; may it be equally acceptable to adore you in the jargon of an ancient language or of a more recent one; May all men remember that they are brothers! May they abhor the tyranny wielded over souls, as they ever execrate the violent theft of the fruits of hard work and peaceful industry!” – Voltaire 

• I often think of a world where men and women from any corner of the Earth can go and live anywhere they choose and integrate with those who already live there without having to wear a mask; a world where hosts can look at the newcomers beyond their appearance and without fear, because every new encounter should mean enrichment, not fear.
• Marcus Aurelius claimed that the world is like a single living creature made up of a single substance and a single soul.

Moral and intellectual education is a long and difficult process: only at a certain age are we able to assess the past with a mind free from fear and to reconsider our life under a new light, judging it according to the lessons of experience.

“Enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day…”

• As an entrepreneur who likes to converse with the wise men of the past, I am expected to convey not only my work experience, but also ideas and projects focused on respect for human dignity, love for beauty and safeguard of Creation. It’s true, and perhaps I do not have the simple and great eloquence needed to show you the truest feelings. Ernest Hello wrote that “Elevated things love words, deep ones prefer silence” 
  • “And after all these years and experiences, I know nothing, nothing at all, that compares to the love for another person when it comes to reaching immensity and infinity.”

• Everyone deserves a chance to achieve full happiness. The challenges awaiting the willing are neither simple nor few, and require time and effort, but we will succeed if we choose life, if we choose to act. 
• Everyone can give a new direction to his or her life. There is nothing more natural than change, just look at nature! There is great energy to be put to use, new jobs to invent, new joys to be savored: I seriously hope that the world will succeed in achieving this. 
• I am convinced that it is not right to limit our dreams, our ambitions. If they tell you that your plan is too ambitious, that maybe it is better to split it up into many different stages, or that it is not the right time to put it into practice, do not listen to these people: they are trying to clip your wings.

We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, lightheartedness, and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile.

I would like young people to learn the value of guardianship towards their friends, their children, nature and the products of human creativity. If they practice guardianship, they will soon learn that this does not mean loading themselves with ballast, but enriching themselves with values that will give them the wings to build the foundations of the future.

The past is the essential nourishment of the future. Nothing is old, nothing is new, and time is what we make of it.

Let Values Guide You

• Today we are experiencing a crisis of our civilization. Values have been put aside, perhaps by mistake, distraction or haste. Those values will always be the backbone of mankind, and if we can restore them the new society will benefit from them.
• Those values remind me of some seeds that we might forget or maybe throw into a pile of garbage, as we think they are no longer able to bear fruit. One fine day, to our wonder and emotion, we see a green leaf sprouting, and that shoot will become a great shady tree spreading life for centuries, much to the advantage of our children and their children.
• This is my idea of tradition; this is what I mean by “values”. They are part of us, they are part of nature. This is why we are taught the concept that perhaps I love the most: moderation. You do not need examples to put moderation into practice and to enjoy its benefits; you do not need formal rules, you do not need laws. Each of us has these rules carved in the most certain part of the heart.
• We know by instinct when it is the right time to stroke our children, when it is the right time to give to those in need; we know when we exaggerate with food or money, if it is time to pray, reflect, or act; we know when we need to be alone, or to seek company. 

Final Words

“Until now I have been a man of my time and I have tried to be guided by my heart, courage and caution. As a grown-up, all my efforts have been devoted to bringing some good to mankind. In particular, as far as work is concerned, I have had a constant commitment: never manufacture anything that could harm Creation, neither directly nor indirectly.

I do not know whether I have succeeded in fulfilling my dream and I would like more time, more than I have already had and more than I have probably left, but I am reminded of the words of the man of the past I hold most dear: Marcus Aurelius. Comparing life to theatre, he came to the following conclusion: “In life, a mere three acts can be the whole drama”.

It is a reassuring thought for my soul because I know that whoever has set my time here has also established the course of my actions; and once again persuaded by the great Stoic philosopher and emperor, I know that I am not responsible for either of them. This is why I keep living and acting, ready to leave the stage peacefully, because the one who will give me my exit cue is peaceful.

Collection of thoughts from Brunello’s notebook:

• This is one of Emperor Hadrian’s thoughts: “There has never been a clear explanation that has not convinced me, a pleasant disposition that has not won me over, a joy that has not made me a better man.”
• The following statement by John Ruskin is fascinating and true: “The man who does not know when to sacrifice himself does not know how to live.“
• I find this comment from Confucius delightful: “At fifteen I began to take a serious interest in my studies; at thirty my character was formed; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I understood the Divine will. At sixty nothing I heard upset me.”
• The following statement by John Ruskin is wonderfully wise: “If you understand the art of life, you will eventually realize that every beautiful thing is also necessary.”

If you enjoyed this please share it with a friend & checkout my interview with Brunello HERE

Send me a note if this impacted you, Sean@whatgotyouthere.com