ROOTS
I take a lot of the heritage I have inherited from my family in the way I approach things. My father used to have a car repair shop from the 60s until the late 80s. As a kid I grew up in the shop. I saw my father rebuilding from scratch the whole body of a car. At that time you could not buy many of the parts so he had to mill everything and be creative in how to solve problems. Everything he did he was meticulous in the way he went about it. He really taught me how to use my hands and be passionate and proud of the way I worked. There is a word for this in Italy – Mestiere! It used to be considered as an art when the Renaissance in Florence developed. The art could be anything you made – furniture, clothing or a musical instrument. Some consider art as only literature, painting or music but the school of art in the Renaissance could be any job. So I think in the end the heritage we inherited from the old school Mestiere is something we still breathe in Italy. I learned about that way from my father. He has been a huge influence on me and still is. He is still alive and he still works with me on many new projects. Whenever there is something new which cannot be done by the product managers, I often ask my dad. When we design a product we need to know how easy it will be to actually produce in a factory. This is essential. In business sometimes you need to go somewhere which is a little bit more edgy to find the answer to your problems. My father is the only guy in the company that can come up with the solution on how to make a new part with different materials and he does it with his hands. It is that approach of thinking out of the box. There is no box there, just a new piece in the jigsaw that did not exist before. He has been very beneficial to the business.
On the other hand my mum used to have a shirt factory. I grew up between my father’s workshop and my mother’s shirt factory. At the factory I used to help put buttons on, cut garments or ship the products when they were made. Naturally for me, making a board, sail or my clothing range has been influenced greatly from working with my parents during my childhood. Luckily I had that heritage to be doing what I do today. We do both equipment and fashion with RRD. I build it with my heart and soul and that is where the Italian part comes into play!
I love to spend time with my kids and my wife. My son Rocco is eleven years old and my daughter is seven so they are far away from taking over eventually what I am doing. I would like to give them a glimpse of what it is to do things with passion. Hopefully they will find their own passions down the line. I don’t expect them to follow in my footsteps but to follow their own inclinations. I have no idea what they will do but all I know is that I need to encourage them to find their own way and try to experience what is interesting for them.