The man of the second chance

Diego's story: doing business by keeping values and accounts together

A few days ago I accepted an invitation to lunch from a person I didn't know well, or rather, today I can say that what I knew about him was simply the result of easy conclusions given by a casual relationship, without any in-depth analysis. Diego was introduced to me by a friend and, without having spent too many words with him, he financed a project of my Association. He is an entrepreneur and as such I thought he did it more for publicity than for any social push. But I was wrong.

I don't know the real reason he made me accept his invitation, also because I rarely participate in meetings with companies that don't have well-declared philanthropic purposes. Unfortunately, my work is often a fatal attraction for those who love to take advantage of the opportunity of having a Striscia correspondent in their offices, even if only to show off a friendship that is perhaps represented by a photograph taken casually under their logo. The fact is that this time I can only consider the meeting with Diego as yet another "God-incidence". He received me in his office inside one of the many warehouses that make up his empire. Because that's what it's about. His company deals with cleaning for large companies, but also with the sale of everything he needs to do them; as well as car washes, laundries and many other things which allow it to have around 250 employees. His latest business is the production of clean energy: in Puglia he owns a wind farm with an investment of over ten million euros. In short, a man who had intuition, ability and, therefore, success in his work.

In the first half hour of our meeting he spoke to me about his story, and he did not do so with the pride or egocentrism of someone who wants to demonstrate his power; on the contrary, he continued to underline the simplicity of his origins, the limit of his high school diploma, and the kindness of someone who doesn't want to compete with his interlocutor. Diego was proud of what he had achieved, but he demonstrated the humility of someone who knows the meaning of effort and commitment as edifying elements in the construction of human dignity.

He moved me when he underlined that from a simple accountant he had now become vice president of a famous bank, underlining several times that this was one of those few credit institutions that by statute reinvest profits in their clients' projects. The opposite of what all other banks do. But the surprise came when he got to the heart of the structure of his company.

Diego's collaborators are only fragile subjects who no longer had hope: separated women with or without children who do not receive maintenance from their husbands; those victims of violence, physical or psychological; failed entrepreneurs with no future; parents with disabled children and with little time to dedicate to their maintenance, and all those categories who are often excluded from the world of work. Diego is the man of the second chance. His 250 employees were first listened to, helped and welcomed into dedicated apartments, and finally inserted into the world of work, restoring their dignity. And today they are Diego's empire. An empire that is not based on the rules of normal economics, but on values that distort the accounts, but which in reality make them add up.

Max Laudadio

NP Febbraio 2024