Thirty years ago

Just these days, 30 years ago, after a serious car accident, I made the decision to resign from the job I was doing. I had been a salesman for about eight years, and it was a job that gave me (alas) only economic satisfaction. Deep down I was suffering, because deep down in my heart I felt very well that it wasn't my way.

I was indulging someone else's dream. In those days I decided to leave a safe and profitable way to measure myself full-time with music, and to make it my only profession, not a second job, not a useful hobby to supplement.
I had to understand at any cost if I would really be able, if I would be able to support my family with my passion, pay the bills, the mortgage on the house, the schooling of the children who would arrive. In short, I had to figure out who I really was, and what I was capable of (if I was). The decision to change made scorched earth around me. Only my sister Rosanna, Ernesto Olivero, my wife (we had been married for just over a year) and very few friends who I could count on the fingers of one hand (advancing…) supported me.
I've spent most of my life working days, studying nights, sleeping 3-4, 50 weeks a year, for about 20 years. When I left, I was afraid I wouldn't make it, but I hoped and wanted it with all my heart. The first time I was called to work at certain levels (I think it was in 1998) it didn't seem possible; I said to myself, "Well, that's beginner's luck."
The second time: "Dunno, it's a coincidence...". The third time: “Hmm… I was just the right person in the right place at the right time”. From the fourth time onwards I had to admit to myself (and with immense disbelief, since self-esteem has never been my strong suit...) that perhaps it was also a little thanks to me, and that luck no longer had anything to do with it , fate, chance, destiny.

Thus I understood that I was on the right track, and that I was doing what I felt I was born to do. Over time I have recovered all the relationships (primarily the one with my father) and have woven many other wonderful ones. I am immensely grateful to life for my last 30 years and those yet to come. I'm happy for the mistakes I've made that have taught me much more than the successes. I am grateful to the people I have met, to all the great teachers I have had, to all the friends who have accompanied me, corrected and supported me fraternally, and to my family.

In my office I have hung a series of photographs that portray me with real, important musicians. They are not trophies.
They serve to remind me every day how important it was for me to pursue a dream, and that if I did it that I was scarce, shy, awkward, plump, insecure, with a faulty R… Well, anyone can really do it, even getting results better than mine. A few years after my decision, the Laboratorio del Suono would have been born, but that's another story...

Mauro Tabasso
NP May 2023