“There is nothing noble in being superior to someone else; true nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”
(Ernest Hemingway)
Ambition has a subtle talent: it pushes us to measure our worth against others, as if life were a ranking.
But true greatness does not come from outshining anyone; it comes from surpassing oneself — day after day, mistake after mistake.
“Procrastination is totally a good thing.
You always have something to do tomorrow,
plus you have nothing to do today.”
After all, what is a delay if not a refined form of prioritisation?
A wise leader never rushes; they simply wait for the perfect alignment of circumstances — or, more elegantly, for someone else to act first.
Today I spoke at a conference in Poland, sharing insights from my specific field: the engineering, inspection, and maintenance of giant wind rotor blades.
Among the presentations, one particularly stood out — a talk on the 6R philosophy, a modern evolution of sustainability principles that goes far beyond the familiar “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
“Practice does not make perfect.
Perfect practice makes perfect.”
(Vince Lombardi)
Repetition alone is not a guarantee of progress — it can just as easily entrench mediocrity.
What matters is how we practise.
“If hard work led to success, the donkey would own the farm.”
But it does not.
The donkey works the hardest, from dawn to dusk, and yet remains where it started — tired, obedient, and replaceable.
The truth is that effort without vision only strengthens someone else’s dream. The donkey’s labour feeds the master’s ambition.
And that is the silent tragedy of many: they mistake productivity for purpose.
The wise man uses his knowledge when the moment has come.
The prudent man waits for the right moment.
The fool jumps ahead of it.
The idiot lets it pass.
(From the film Never Give Up)
The wise man speaks little, observes much, and acts when the silence of others becomes louder than words.
The prudent man waits—perhaps a little too long, but at least with style.
“In Sicily, when we do something, we do it grandly — or not at all.
That is why we often do nothing.”
(Pino Caruso)
This remark is both self-irony and deep truth: in Sicily (and not only there), there exists a natural aversion to mediocrity.
Doing things “halfway” is almost an insult to one’s own pride.
The paradox is that this drive toward greatness often becomes a trap.
The “all-or-nothing” mindset leads to postponement — waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect means, the perfect conditions — which rarely ever come.
“Marriage is when one person is always right, and the other person is a husband.”
As everyone knows, a successful marriage is simply the art of a man learning to nod, smile, and pretend his opinions matter.
Meanwhile, his wife, blessed with an innate understanding of all things (including his mistakes before he even makes them), gently guides him through life.
“See you between three and five. And please, be on time!”
(Renzino Barbera)
Italian precision — and even more so Sicilian precision — is a form of art.
Forget Einstein: we bent space and time long before relativity.
“Between three and five” is not a time. It is a state of mind.
It is an invitation to enter a temporal zone where clocks follow the rhythm of the heart and the level of post-lunch blood sugar.
In recent weeks I have found myself involved in very different situations: some related to my work, others to my hobbies.
There was no real connection between them, except for one essential fact: in every case I felt the moral responsibility to find a solution.