I am an Economist and a Philosophy Doctor, and I am involved in four professions: business, advising organizations; literature, as an essayist, article writer and translator; mentoring, accompanying individuals on their ethical adventure; and education, as a teacher and speaker. My common passion for all four is the human being, which I study relentlessly; and the question that obsesses me is that of ethics — what makes life good? — which I try to answer in these four areas.
I was born in Seville in 1972. I started writing at the age of seven, and I was also a book junkie from a very early age. As soon as I became a teenager, while doing what all young people do, I became fascinated by music and philosophy. On the night of 17 October 1992, I made the best decision of my life: I plucked up my courage and grabbed Nuria’s hand, and a little later I kissed her. With that audacity I lost a friend and gained a love for ever.
I was a “science major”, but I studied business, and at first, I opted for finance. I was an auditor and worked in a multinational for twenty years, the first half as controller and financial director. I did an MBA, another master’s degree, we had two beautiful children (Claudia and Daniel). In 2007 I started working in innovation and creativity, did another postgraduate degree and remembered how much I was fascinated by people, also moved by Nuria’s enviable professional experience (she is a psychologist). In 2010 my path in the multinational, until then full of responsibilities and adventures, started to narrow: every day there are less challenges, less and less opportunities. I got sick more than usual and accumulated frustrations. I wanted to turn them into something good; we had our third child (the cherry on top of our home, the peerless Victor) and I stopped being a self-taught philosopher: I graduated, did a master’s degree and a doctorate in a row. Since 2011, and thanks also to the fact that I love languages (I speak seven), I started to give lectures around the world, eight countries and four continents since then.
In 2013 I came out with my first manuscript: I knocked on the door of about twenty publishers, most of which did not even open their doors. Rialp did, which published my first text, and then offered to translate it, a privilege for those who love literature, especially if we are talking about translating Shakespeare, Tocqueville, MacIntyre or Rilke into our language. I created a blog with a friend and then I started writing articles in various media (Disidentia, La Iberia, El Debate…). In 2017 I left the multinational, in 2018 I got rid of the thorn of running an SME and in 2019 I chose this independent life that allows me to cope with my four professions. As everything is better when it is done in good company, I joined Strategyco with six other people —now friends—.
I am passionate about culture and politics (organizations and societies), justice and leadership, innovation and creativity, processes and management control, behavioral economics and, above all, I am passionate about human beings. I draw from many different sources: science, the humanities, the arts and even (serious) management. I believe in professionalism, about which I wrote a book; I try to bring it into organizations and classrooms. On the other hand, I am suspicious of “talent”, “personal branding”, coaches and gurus, and I am on guard and at war with clowns. I care a lot about critical thinking, i.e. argumentative skills and conversational excellence. I have great respect for rhetoric, I strive to be a good communicator, and I teach others how to communicate. I research and teach what I practice and see others execute, and I try to translate what I learn and conclude into reality; armchair theorizing does not interest me.
The nicest thing anyone has ever said to me: “You are what you seem to be”.
