There are many reminiscences of the first 20 years of my life, where incredibly smart and generous people kept me in a life made of church, catholic youth gatherings, volleyball and family, sparkled by some very compliant teenage love stories I still remember vividly, all this until Club Med happened and at least part of the compliance got pivoted quite quickly.

More info about the pivot in my second book, which I won’t resume here since this is not the topic of this post.

For the ones who don’t know me well, I happen to have a kind of autistic, functional (to something) memory for many things, from the 1000 numbers of my first sales job started with cold calling, in Paris, roughly 30 years ago, to know by heart the whole holy mass and all the repertoire of Francesco Guccini, an Italian songwriter very few care about, all related to over three decades ago.

Then I supposed I used the same memory to learn languages and being obsessed about making the least possible mistakes (to the point of writing the book in English, and someone else translating in Italian later).

“Truth will set you free” and “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. ” are some of the biblical sentences I always kept in mind.

The second one, is the Law of Attraction in the Christian version. This thought has been throttling for a while in my mind.

The first one, is the one liner resuming the “The subtle art of not giving a fuck” book.

Agnostic version, of course, and i very much relate to both.

How on earth did I come out with such a thought for a newsletter post? Well, blame Netflix. I am watching (in Spanish original, with Português subtitles so my brain keeps training) “The girls of the last row” these days. The story of 5 schoolmate BF girls going on a trip in Cadiz because one of them got cancer, and they decide to spend some times making peace with the past, experiment on adventures, and get out of their comfort zone (all of them shaving their heads before making the trip).

Each day, there is a challenge for all the girls, each one setting one, and writing on an anonymous piece of paper. Some more “fun” like stealing something from the supermarket, some others way deeper, like “make peace with the most controversial and hard relationships in your life”.

And I started to relate.

I didn’t need a TV show to do it, but I realised how harsh, indisputable, sometimes hurting, fact based truth is one great ingredient for the life I want to live, and (finally, some relevance for the business you would say) having the opportunity to apply this to business is one of the greatest achievement I am proud of.

I am not saying I am setting an intention to answer to every idiot tweet (the author, the content or both) with my filterless reaction, or start exposing without care people or uncomfortable situations.

“I am sorry, I would love to help but do not expect me to step in here, not my scene, not enough energy, not enough time, not the right time” should be a sentence I should say more often, and I would love to hear more often as well, for example.

I am very well aware of the people, the situations, the relationships and the facts I have not made peace with yet, and I think we all are, at least in the private convos with ourselves.

I don’t think any of us can be truly, deeply free and empowered without making peace with all of them. The truth (towards yourself first, with mindfulness, and in sharing with the relevant others if necessary) is a great way to start.

Rebelliously yours

Matteo