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"John Conte"

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WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.600 Why was a thunder? 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:03.839 So no sales, let's see what's happening. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:09.039 So what they do, they stop, they observe 55 billion dollars investment. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:10.080 That's unbelievable. 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:10.880 Everyone is saying. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:12.640 So I'm not gonna see you for another year. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.839 You all around it. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.719 From where you sleep to where you go to school. 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:21.120 It's not targeting all the ranges. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:28.320 And it really I didn't choose it, I didn't want to, but it was like came from some podcast 10 projects a year of the caliber of a mark. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.079 Of a caliber, 10 projects in a year, two in 2022. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:43.600 Second book was the book by an engineer that becomes a sailor, actually, sailor that rediscovered his passion for sailing after going through 10 years of very intense life in Milan. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:44.960 Simone Perotti. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:53.520 Hello, everybody, and once again to another episode of It's About Time. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:57.119 I'm your host Chris, and today I'm joined by a good friend of mine. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:58.159 His name is Fabio. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:03.759 He's been living in the Emirates for 13 years, and I am have the great pleasure of introducing him to you. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:04.879 Hi, Fabio. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:05.920 Thank you, Chris. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:06.560 Thank you so much. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:07.359 It's good to have you, man. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:08.079 Good to hear you. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:09.840 And uh it's good to catch you. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:14.079 I know you're very, very busy normally, but thank you for making the time to be here today. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:15.439 Big pleasure, really. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:16.959 So let's get started. 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:25.439 I know your story, your story is quite amazing, and we met, thankfully, through Michele, who already was uh here, so the audience gets to know him. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:31.599 Um, and um and we met, I think it was uh one of the evenings at my house. 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:32.879 Probably it was in your house. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:33.840 Yes, one of the evenings. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.400 And that's where we discovered famous parties, yes, one of the famous dinners, the spaghetti. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:39.280 True. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:44.159 Um, and and that during that time, uh, I discovered your talent for music. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:46.640 Oh, yeah, the very hidden one. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.319 Well, yeah, for me, it was a whole revelation, to be honest with you. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:56.959 I mean, uh, because you it's not like you play the guitar, you you make the guitar sing, man. 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:58.400 You have such a talent with it. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:01:59.760 I made love to the guitar. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.359 Oh, yes, sir, yes, you do. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.920 And not that the piano as well, the way you tickle and feather those keys. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.199 These are my very good partners, piano and guitar. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:24.159 So um, I already obviously told a little bit about how we met and uh and how our relationship started, um, which for me has always been a blessing because every time we get together, just good things happen all the time. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:27.840 Um, but tell us a little bit about your story. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:35.680 So you come from Italy, I do, and I had the fortune of of joining you for your 10th wedding anniversary in Marche. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:36.879 Very true. 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:38.879 So, yeah, Marche, Fermo. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:41.919 Actually, I came to Fermo to Torre di Palma particularly. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:42.800 What a beautiful place! 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:50.400 That was a cool place to spend time together with friends, and uh yeah, Fermo, that's where uh where I was born. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:52.319 Uh how many years? 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:53.680 40 years ago, yeah. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:54.960 My friend, it's wrong. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:04.719 Uh starting there, um, my mom came actually from Lebanon to deliver me in in Fermo. 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:11.919 Uh she came in 1977, so she became quite Italian, married my father. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:13.199 A lucky man. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:20.080 A lucky man, and uh and they actually gave birth to three beautiful kids. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.639 I was the middle one, my sister. 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:25.840 Uh the first, and my brother the third. 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:29.520 So I stayed in Fermi, beautiful town, quite calm. 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:33.439 Yeah, I would say it's very cool, and and full of medieval architecture. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:35.759 It's literally a medieval town on the hill. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:36.719 Yeah, it is. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:43.599 It is uh a town that's on the hill, like many count, many, many towns and cities in in Marque region. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.840 They are not very big, but they're very peculiar or different, they all have their own. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.080 Right, you have that antiquariat market. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:50.639 Oh, true. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:52.479 Oh, that was very fun because you loved it. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:57.360 So they are little places, very calm, very good to grow. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:01.039 That's why I stayed there and enjoyed my you know, teenage. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:03.840 I did study until 18 years old. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:08.080 Uh had most of my very good old friends there still there. 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:17.279 And that's a place where I really love to go back very often, close to the sea,
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mountains, hillside, beautiful, really beautiful landscape. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.120 And I want to ask you. 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:21.519 So, 18 years old, you study there. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:23.519 You did you do an university there as well? 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:25.920 No, I left when I was 18. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.560 In Italy, you live at 18, you go to university, and I went to Ferrara. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:34.240 Oh, Ferrara! Yeah, Ferrara studying architecture. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:44.959 But at that time it was very uh renowned, probably the first number one architecture uh university uh in early 2000. 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:47.120 The first decade was very popular. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:49.519 And uh yeah, I studied that why architecture? 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:52.399 Why architect- Oh, that's uh that's an important one. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:57.839 You know, I I know architecture because architecture. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:10.959 Um architecture because I basically I it's kind of a mix in between the uh artistic soul that I took from my mom. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:17.920 My mom is an artist, and the very rational mathematician side of my my dad. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:23.759 My dad is a biologist and math professor, used to be now in retirement. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:24.319 I forgot. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:44.240 So I I fell in between these two fires, and architecture seemed to be the good combination to bring up these two, you know, very different sides, but at the same time, you know, you have the artistic creative side with the lots of uh science in it, and of course. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:54.399 And my uncles, three of them are engineers, so that brought me to you know to choose a path that was not too far from from them as well. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:55.439 Okay, very nice. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:57.040 Two uncle uncles actually. 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:02.879 One in the United States, one in used to work in uh Abu Dhabi, and the other one in Italy. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.079 So very different stories, but all them. 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:09.680 Okay, so architecture it was then in Ferrara. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:10.319 Yeah. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.759 And uh and uh w when when did the music start? 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.399 Oh, the music started very early. 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:30.720 I'd say I was 10, 11, and I and I had a fantastic professor at school that basically uh you could have chosen the typical flute. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.199 Everybody was who didn't have a a great passion would play flute. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:51.680 And that guy, that professor Maurizio, he gave me the chance to play guitar because he knew how to play guitar, and I started downloading all the lyrics and music and copying discs from friends masterizzatore. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:54.639 At the time was like a pirate thing, you know. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:07:07.680 Of course, and listen starting to listen to music,
and I was spending lots of time in my little bedroom and playing and singing and playing and singing until I found good friends to create a band with. 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:11.839 You had a band, I had a band called The Boys of Love. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:13.120 Oh man! 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.600 And we had sunglasses at heart shapes. 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:25.040 We were doing like uh oasis, Beatles, and Brit pop in general, and classics, rocks. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:25.759 That's beautiful. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:27.920 That was a fun time. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:36.800 Teenager uh with three very good friends, we were four, and um yeah, and that kept going. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:41.279 I actually started the courts the conservatorium playing guitar. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.360 Not only did you liked it as a passion, you went all the way through with proper education. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.639 Yeah, yeah, because it was really the the greatest passion. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.399 I used to play football as well, but music was. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:51.839 How did you balance the two? 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.959 Because I know conservatorio is not an easy school. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.600 Yeah, my professors at school didn't like that. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:06.800 I was doing that because it was taking more time and more uh you know, more energy because you know, the solfeggio, the Doremi fussel. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:17.360 And uh it but it was that was coming out of passion, so I started you really diving into the guitar and the music theory and starting playing piano. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:25.839 My sister used to play piano, and I I would basically replay what she was playing, like uh, you know, uh, and that was my thing. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:37.600 So, until when I was 18 years old, I spent a whole week with selected musicians from Marche Region, a whole week uh with Mauro Pagani. 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:45.039 Mauro Pagani, one of the biggest, greatest, I would say, musician, polymusician, poly instrumentist in Italy. 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.559 He founded a PFM Premiata Forneri Marconi. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.919 He he did records with DeAndre and many others. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:09:06.399 So in 2004, we spent one full week re-recording uh Cresa de Ma, uh, an album that was written and published uh 20 years before, so 18 uh sorry, 1984. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:19.600 So he's chosen some musicians and he spent like a seminary of one week rearranging and playing it live, and that was to me the the highest peak of my musical career. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:22.399 And I was really into a different world. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:30.399 Uh after that week I had to subscribe to university, and I was like, shall I follow this man? 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:46.799 Or shall I shall I stalk that man and and give him my mixtapes done in my bedroom, uh having a very small chance of doing things, or shall I start my you know, uh architecture career. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.000 Career, let's study and then let's see how it goes. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:56.639 So at that time I'd say I've chosen not to make it into a profession, music, and started. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.720 So I guess that's that's where the rationale coming from your father kicked in. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.080 Correct, precisely. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:06.159 I probably he also told me, yeah, get a get a degree. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.960 Get a degree, make some money, and then play the guitar. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:13.840 Yeah, yeah, but in the meantime, he knew that was what a conflict though. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:23.200 It's it's a positive conflict that stayed alive in throughout my life all time. 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:30.240 Of course, when when you're younger, you tend to have that side of yourself that's a bit more irrational. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:32.080 A bit more of the grasshopper side. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:36.879 You want to go and you wanna enjoy, you want to live, you wanna do. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:11:12.399 Yes, yes, you wanna do, and you don't think of uh of the you know of paying the bills or the responsibilities that will come with time, the family, and the things you think hey, having a guitar uh on a beach in you know around a fire pit, it it's the best thing that can happen to my life at this moment, which is still I agree, but you know, there are other things that come alongside which are still good, but you know, if you manage to balance them uh in a way that doesn't make you too frustrated, but it gives you what you need at the right time. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:25.279 For example, taking I remember during COVID, I was thinking of uh actually not COVID, I was in Amsterdam uh because after university, after these five years of university in Ferrara, I moved to Amsterdam. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:25.840 Okay. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:39.440 And uh I for a month of my probably that's the only one month of my life that after graduation, after degree, after getting uh finishing my studies, I did not work until now. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:41.679 So that was the only month except for COVID. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:43.919 Uh so you took like a month sabbatical. 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:45.840 That's the month sabbatical. 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:51.440 Uh that was just waiting for getting the you know the contract done. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:12:07.039 And that month I recorded whatever I had written uh during the past 15 years, or let's say 10 years, and I still remember that as a counterbalance of my career that was very short, intense, but very meaningful. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:18.240 So I still listen to those records, and that reminds me that it's good to make time and give time to your own passions and hobbies whenever you can. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.559 Yes, even if it's a short time, okay. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:26.960 I'm not a musician, uh let's say professional
musician, but I gave time when I could. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:45.679 And of course, the next part is every time every time I spoke uh with somebody about their passions, their passions always bring them back to that moment of happiness and and cheerfulness and carefree that they had uh in their youth because most passions are born when you're young. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.159 Uh you become a child again. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:13:01.200 And I believe this happens to you when you're there uh enjoying your music, playing your guitar, you go back in time and you're free again. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:08.879 Which is which is a fantastic thing, and and I believe everybody should have a passion and nurture their passion, take care of it. 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.720 And recognize what you really like. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:11.360 Correct. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:30.399 Take time also to recognize what you like, because it may be that you like you know football a lot, she like you like music, you like cooking, you like anything, and you don't give the right time and in and you know you don't put the right effort also to nurture that passion. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:37.440 Which I I I feel is um it's really a shame if you don't listen to what you really want to do. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:52.159 Of course, life took me to you know to spend lots of time at work, uh growing, especially here in Dubai, from a young architect that I was in 2013. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:59.120 I did grow up, I don't want to burn all your meistons, but uh the storytelling of this story. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:01.840 But I it took it's your story. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:08.000 But I it took me um you know some times to get there. 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:21.120 And when I also started feeling that my efforts on uh you know as an architect was bringing me, were bringing me to to a very satisfactory uh level, I also enjoyed it. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:28.559 You know, work is very enjoyable now, and I really can consider that also part of my passions. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:34.320 But I I don't want to overtake, I don't want to overthrow what's the king, which is music. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:39.039 I I understand, and and I understand exactly what you mean. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:42.480 I I have had many passions throughout my life. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:54.399 Um, painting, uh now jewelry, for example, uh, my motorcycles, uh and and each one of them has a specific spot in my life. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.840 Music has always been a constant in my life. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:08.720 Obviously, I never pursue a career in music, or I never pursue formal education like you, um, but it has always been present with me uh since my childhood. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:13.919 It was something I I adored, and singing was always something that I really, really loved. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:17.360 I'm a shower singer, but it's my thing. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:22.399 Well, I s I wasn't the shower, I wasn't in the shower with you. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:26.240 No, but I did listen to your beautiful voice. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:44.720 I mean, now you can actually uh listen to your voice even when you're talking that it's a very deep and profound, you know, it's very, very pleasant, but when you sing and you put that different upper layer of interpretation to it, it's something that is really good. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:51.679 So uh it's not professional, but you know, I don't think that it wouldn't be too far from being that you know level. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:56.159 I it's you are the reason why I started singing. 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:56.879 Really? 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:57.279 Yes. 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.480 You were singing in the shower first, and then you came out of the shower. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:12.080 Well, I did a little bit of choir when I was in military school, but uh you are the reason, particularly, you and Michele creating the atmosphere at home. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:16.320 It's just and and and I know this, I recognize this. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:20.639 Uh we if I wouldn't have met you guys, I would have still been a shower singer. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:30.879 But it's thanks to you guys that that you brought it out of me, and uh hanging out with you that you you brought music into my life again. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:32.399 That's such a beautiful thing. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:34.159 But it is the truth, really. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:54.240 Because actually, uh music lovers we we have still the need of uh uh performing in a way, whether it's with a very small crowd of slightly bigger, uh dinners, parties, barbecues are always the right time to do it. 00:16:54.399 --> 00:17:18.000 And this is actually what you're what you're saying, and the moments that you've created at the villa and the pamphers and JLT, and now and what claim uh all these moments are uh the actual moments when you say they bring you back to you when when you're kidding these are the light motive of my musical soul. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.799 When I was in Fermo, Porto San Giorgio on the beach. 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:27.920 We used to you know sing and play guitars on the beach. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:41.200 When I go to Ferrara, uh it was the thing, you know, you sit on a square in front of the cathedral till late, and that's that was the thing when I was in Prague, when I was in Amsterdam. 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:53.119 These are always the moments where you actually give yourself you ex I uh for me, I was expressing myself the most, you know, more with the most intent intensity. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:58.240 Uh here in Dubai, there are not many moments and occasions for that. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:11.279 Your dinners, the barbecues, the these moments are the ones that that's why they they bring me back to to the beautiful times of my lives, which are always present. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.640 And so, and then we're
gonna probably keep doing it forever. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:15.599 Oh, yeah, man. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:21.359 This this started, it ain't gonna stop until one of us, either both or me, I'm on the ground. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.279 So don't worry, we'll continue this. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:30.640 And uh, if you combine it with a passion of barbecuing, then it's gonna be it's it's a good manual. 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:32.799 It's a good combo. 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:43.599 So yeah, we went to Prague, and I assumed uh from what you said, I understood that this is where you uh had your first job in our Prague. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:49.920 No, I was during my studies in university, it was the one year of uh of Erasmus. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:57.359 Uh over there I met Maria, and uh yeah, it was uh uh it was a beautiful year. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:02.720 It was you know coming from the let's say the small reality in Italy, yeah. 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:06.079 Ferrara, it's kind of a medium city, medium-sized city. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:13.039 Fermo is a small town, maybe 30, not small, it's a province, it's like 35,000, 40,000. 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:30.480 But you know, going abroad, spending a whole year uh out of your country, your home country, and uh you know, fostering you know the language, speaking, meeting all the people, uh you know, being in that mix. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:37.440 I I used to live with a French guy, a guy from Tahiti, a guy from uh the people that you never met in Fermo. 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:42.960 People that you never met in Fermo, maybe you would meet them in Ferrara because the other Erasmus are coming. 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:47.519 Yes, yeah, so the Erasmus program is amazing, by the way. 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:50.000 Yeah, I really that changed my my life. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:20:09.759 And um and from Prague, met my future wife, and uh from Prague I decided to I I had to go back to Italy for the let's say for starting the upcoming year, yes, but I wanted to prolongate a little bit that international vibe. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:36.640 So I decided in 2008 to spend the whole summer doing uh traineeship in an architectural office, and that's where I decided to go for that summer only in Abu Dhabi, where my uncle George, by the way, uh kind of uh a reference point in my life, not just for that, because he is an engineer in the construction field, but he was like is a very cool uh dude. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:38.559 My uncle George lives in Abu Dhabi. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:39.599 George from Lebanon? 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:40.240 From Lebanon. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:40.960 Oh, yeah, for sure. 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:42.079 He's a cool dude. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:21:04.640 He's he came very often to Italy, he was you know bringing us the that uh you know that vibe of international uh spirit coming at Christmas time, also meeting him and all the whole family, uh, Sonia, Maggie, uh Heisen, all of my cousins there my
age. 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.920 It's always been a feast when we met together. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:11.920 So I decided okay, let's spend a couple of months in Abu Dhabi. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:21.039 He'll host me, he'll show me what does it mean construction, the proper construction with Capital C in Abu Dhabi in 2008, right before the crisis. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:40.079 Um, and I spent that two months that probably changed my life because I then, and by the way, in that summer, I also spent a good month in Beirut where my cousins uh and ruba uh they really showed me what means what it means to party. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:43.039 Oh, yeah, party hard Beirut. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:50.160 And that uh that year, I still think that with all the troubles, it's still a fun place. 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:54.720 But that year, at my age, at our age, it was really the best place to be. 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:58.720 I remember this rave or concept of uh above and beyond. 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:01.279 Uh it was very Very cool. 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.599 So I stayed there for two months. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:05.920 I basically it was a vision. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:12.319 You know, imagine you come from Europe, you do that project for a year. 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:17.920 Uh you studied very well, you do a lot of ideas, YouTubeistic things. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:21.599 I came to Abu Dhabi, and the things were actually happening. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:23.519 Oh god, this is the future. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:25.119 At a speed that you would never see. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:26.880 Yeah. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:29.039 So I still get amazed here. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.160 It's still after 13 years, I'm still amazed. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.640 So go back to Italy, finish the studies. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:38.240 After the studies, I thought, okay, should I go back to UAE? 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:45.119 And someone recommended me to some more European um you know experience. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:55.440 Because once you come here, you will switch off your uh learning or let's say your educational part, and you'll just start doing. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:07.119 So I wanted to uh still do things and explore the northern Europe that has always been a beacon for architects, you know, the best architecture, Netherlands, Denmark. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:16.640 So I went to Amsterdam, um, Maria as well, and we spent there two years, two and a half, one and a half year. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:19.759 I was coming and coming to Florence also because of another job. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:24.880 But anyway, after Amsterdam, it was a very good chapter of my life as well. 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:32.000 I I was called back from the Italian office who had the business in Dubai. 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.000 So they offered me, Hey, do you want to go to Dubai? 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.559 I know that you you've been there, you're more familiar. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:37.599 I said, Yes. 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:38.079 Yes. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:47.200 Again, luggage radio cool flight 2013 started with one of the best office in Italy, actually, Arkea. 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:50.960 They did uh Antino Rewinery, yeah, very, very, very cool one. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:24:00.960 And for two years working for them, and then I've met the MR, MR World, which was also an upper grade. 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:02.240 That was a bit different, right? 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:03.359 That was a bit different. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:08.880 I understood okay, here things are starting to get serious. 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:15.359 These are the big boys, very serious, big volumes, big master plans, big projects. 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:33.680 And from then on, I really started diving into work, profession, architecture, growing, and uh and building up a career that uh I would say I'm I'm I'm quite happy about after eight years at Imre. 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:47.359 If if I may, yeah, the way I see IMR compared to other developers is um I think other developers build compounds, they build buildings, uh towers. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:49.200 MR builds cities. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:25:01.279 Yeah, they build a complete working infrastructure where thousands of individuals can go and and colonize this place because it's it's a city. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:01.680 Yeah. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:10.799 I I every single project I have seen from them in the past ten years has been a complete solution. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:11.519 True. 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.759 And uh and this for me it's it's a I don't know, it's like SimCity, you know? 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:22.319 Like I have this this map, and okay, we're gonna have this, this, this, this, and and they just set it up. 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:25.519 It's it's a it's an all-around solution, as you say. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:30.319 Correct, it's like a community, we don't call it you know, neighborhoods. 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.440 They're communities that have everything in it, correct. 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:39.519 All the services, schooling, uh they have their own uh power plants, they have the everything. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:40.640 It's amazing. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:46.079 So you basically build a a set, a movie set for a real life. 00:25:46.400 --> 00:26:04.319 So you all around it, from from where you sleep to where you go to school, to where you go shopping, to where you have entertainment, where you spend your leisure time, uh, dinner, and meet your lover, and uh, you know, meet friends and take spend time. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:29.119 Basically, it's a recreation, it's a creation, not recreation, because in the end, it's a model that probably started 20-30 years ago, taking from the best of other cities, you know, coping a little bit from Miami, from uh uh from Paris, from here in the beginning was really uh take that and put it together. 00:26:29.519
--> 00:26:39.440 By uh the time that you know MR started growing very rapidly, and the city started growing very rapidly, that model became a very original model. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:51.920 So when people say uh this feels fake, that that's actually uh some type of construction and planning model that we are actually exporting now somewhere else. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:27:03.599 So it's an all, as you say, all at once, all around type of life solution that is available uh for any type of target, any type of uh pockets. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:05.519 It's not very expensive. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:18.000 Okay, of course, uh it's not targeting the all the ranges, like the extreme ranges, but I would say middle class, so most of the people in Dubai can afford to live there. 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:20.000 I live there, you've been living there. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:28.240 Uh and I feel really that made me feel really proud because you start designing it. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.799 By the time you design, they already start building it, preparing the ground. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:35.599 Yeah, you keep designing and you see it growing. 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:38.079 I and it's oh that that's what I did. 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:38.880 Oh, I did a mistake. 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:40.480 Yeah, it's not doing the next one. 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:44.240 It's like the loading page, and you're trying to catch up with the speed at the one point. 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:45.599 Correct, correct. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:28:01.759 So uh designing and having the the pleasure and uh let's say the the luck to see what you're designing being built, it's not something that you see commonly anywhere anywhere else in the world. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:07.359 At that speed, at that pace, at that um uh in that scale. 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:09.359 So I live in a city now. 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:17.279 I have to say, I can say I live in a city where I recognize a lot of things that we did with our team did. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:31.200 Now I I work in the office that we've designed five years ago, and from that office I see buildings that are growing, and they've been designed by people around me, myself, my team. 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:38.079 So, and that that gives you that uh it's not just enthusiasm, it's it's really adrenaline. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:39.759 But can we call it also pride? 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:41.119 Pride, pride, pride. 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:43.119 And it's something that keeps you going. 00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:50.400 You know, during these 13 years in Dubai, we were as a family called back called back to Italy. 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:55.279 We guys we wanted to go back just to say, okay, let's see how it goes. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:29:00.480 You know, let's try to work in Italy before saying that that's not a good place. 00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:09.519 We were almost starting, we were starting to work in Italy, and things were happening so fast in in Dubai that they called me back. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:11.599 They just said, Hey hey Fabio, where are you? 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:12.240 Where have you been? 00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:12.880 I'm in Italy. 00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:13.839 Hey, I left. 00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:16.160 Uh we need we need you for this project. 00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:17.119 Are you are you in? 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.519 And I said, So imagine you're are you're at a different pace. 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:24.559 The train goes very fast in in UAE. 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:32.559 You are in Milan, which is supposed to be the you know, the most efficient, the fastest place in Italy, but you are on a 500 compared to that. 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:32.880 Oh, yeah. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:35.440 And the passing by and say, Hey Fabio, you wanna still jump in? 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:36.559 I said, okay. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:43.599 If I say no in 2018-19, if I say no this time, it's gonna be almost all probably a no forever with MR. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:58.960 So I jumped back on the same train, and that started to grow even faster because after COVID, you know, Dubai was the country that was uh basically recovering and boosting much, much faster than that. 00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:00.079 It was it was unbelievable. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:00.960 It was unbelievable. 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:05.200 So that thing, so imagine it was to me, I call it it. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:22.960 I was re-ox uh basically it was a year of not a sabbatic year because we were working, but it was a a year to basically reset my energies, slow down a little bit, and then again jump again into the fast-growing Dubai. 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:24.720 How do you keep up? 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:26.079 2020? 00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:30.480 From 2020 until now, I've seen things that you human beings can't. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:31.599 I know, man. 00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:33.359 I haven't seen you, to be honest with you. 00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:34.480 Yeah, we haven't seen. 00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:36.720 I I I don't remember what I've done really. 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:39.599 It's it's it was very it was amazing. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:42.319 This last past five years we broke all the records. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:49.519 We went from 10 projects, which is a lot still, 10 projects a year, to of the caliber of MR. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:31:04.720 Of a caliber of 10 projects in a year, to in 2000 in 2022, to 770 projects in a year launched and both basically purchased, sold out. 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:11.200 So imagine by by the way, same people, same team, same thing, just more efficient outsourcing being. 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:25.359 So imagine that became some somehow the more you did, the more you do, the more you feel passionate, the more you feel obsessed in doing, and that's obviously Imar's chairman. 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:34.960 Is a visionary is I would say uh his visions because he really had to be the target always
higher and higher. 00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:38.079 Yeah, you have to be the guy that sees the thing that others don't. 00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:38.960 Exactly. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:42.880 He sees the things, okay, not just him, although the management here in Dubai. 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:48.160 They they are in a you know challenging situation, such as COVID. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:53.200 Of course, and they do crazy things to you know stand up again. 00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:59.519 Now, in this context, since the 28th of February, people went scared. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:00.240 Me too. 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:02.000 Everyone's like, What's gonna happen now? 00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:03.359 The drones are coming. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:07.920 And um, so no sales, let's see what's happening. 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:21.440 So, what they do, they they they stop, they observe, and just a few days ago, the boss comes up with a new master plan of 55 billion dollars investment. 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:24.480 That's in that's unbelievable. 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:27.279 Everyone is saying So I'm not gonna see you for another year. 00:32:29.119 --> 00:32:31.359 I I I don't know. 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:39.519 I mean that people yesterday they were calling me people in insiders, you know, they were calling me, hey, what's going on? 00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:40.240 What's this master? 00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:45.440 I said, I know that we've been preparing it, and now we need to unveil it to the world. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:33:00.559 And he didn't wait for everything to be settled, he just doesn't wait, and we will do and and do because and that's and you learn by doing how to run at that pace. 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:20.480 And that's you know, that's why I also sometimes I forget about my other sides because you don't really have time, it's not it's not a choice most of the time, it's really that you don't have time to stop by and take time and and uh and choose what to do because you need to do, otherwise things get not get done. 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:26.880 Although two years ago or a year ago, I don't remember. 00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:36.240 I was with friends, family and family friends in Thailand in a very remote place. 00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:39.759 I think it was Kukuud or something like that. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:41.920 Okay, very remote place. 00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:45.359 I don't know, five hours from Bangkok. 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:50.000 We get there, it was Eid time, nobody was working. 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:53.759 The mobile network was not really available there. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:56.400 Oh, bless you from the guy at the same time. 00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:01.279 You were not thinking, hey, I'm not I don't have coverage, no stress because then nobody's working. 00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:07.279 So that was another week time, like the month sabbatic time in Amsterdam. 00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:19.440 Another week time to stop and think and read a book, simply
actually in that that week I've read two books, maybe three. 00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:26.000 One was, and they were surprisingly accidentally all about slowing down. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:35:08.000 And it really, I didn't choose it, I didn't want to, uh but it was like came from some podcast, I don't know, some uh referral from people from friends, and I start reading this book, De Brevita Vite by Seneca, so about the short shortage of life, yes, which is about this uh old senator that decides to take time in his life and go basically uh do agriculture at his 60s, and he suggests he recommends um um basically Seneca saying to this let's send a letter to a politician in Rome, ancient Rome, 2000 years ago. 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:18.079 They had the same problems, just that the problem wasn't WhatsApp and uh email everywhere, it was about very intense political life of Rome. 00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:23.840 You don't have time to appreciate what you're making, you don't have time to appreciate people around you. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:32.320 So he was saying, Hey, you've got a certain age, take your time, go to your countryside house and start working on your olive trees. 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:38.239 That was by Seneca, so it was said slightly better things. 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:44.159 But that that was the message, and it was a very small I really recommend you the Brevita Vite. 00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:55.440 Uh and I was there in Thailand, my feet on the water, cocktails, uh family was already taking care of themselves, but nobody was complaining. 00:35:55.599 --> 00:35:58.880 No, no really problems around us. 00:35:59.519 --> 00:36:12.800 Uh, second book was a book by uh an engineer that becomes a sailor, actually, sailor, that rediscovered his passion for sailing after going through 10 years of very intense life in Milan. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:14.719 Uh Simone Perotti. 00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:18.960 The book is uh Adesso Basta. 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:22.960 And then I've read Rhapsodia Mediterranean even better. 00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:29.360 So basically, say okay, from uh this moment onward, I'm gonna take care of myself. 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:32.800 And I'm gonna I'm not gonna suffer hunger. 00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:49.519 I'm I will plan it very wisely, very well, and I will I'll start re-prioritizing, resetting priorities, and and uh basically leveraging on my true soul what I really want to do. 00:36:49.760 --> 00:37:09.920 So basically, these two books, the situation, the context, put something in my mind, and uh that made me think that probably it's it's time to reconsider forcing myself to spend more time uh with the family. 00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:10.719 Yes. 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:12.480 Home, you know, at home. 00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:18.239 We I've got you know, parents, brothers, friends, uh enjoying the countryside house. 00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:20.559 Going back to the roots, the theater. 00:37:21.039 --> 00:37:24.320 The theater, yes, enjoying those type of things. 00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:26.800 What you have worked for to to build. 00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:28.000 Yes, exactly. 00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:31.840 Because you do, you do, you do, you do, and then when whenever when do you enjoy it? 00:37:32.159 --> 00:37:33.920 Like Seneca said, your olive tree. 00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:40.400 Your olive trees, and that was surprisingly true in my life. 00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:52.079 So uh that's that's not like okay, I'll I'll I'll uh I'll stop everything and I'll do the uh you know the monk life, the monk's life. 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:56.800 No, um it's about rebalancing up from time to time. 00:37:56.960 --> 00:38:00.079 Yes, it's like I don't know if reset your router if it doesn't work. 00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:07.360 Allow yourself your a weekend, allow yourself uh two weeks if needed. 00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:10.639 I've worked, I mean I've studied now for my sailing. 00:38:10.719 --> 00:38:12.960 Uh I was gonna touch that. 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:16.320 I was gonna tell you the captain, my captain! 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:18.559 That's part of the plan, you know. 00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:19.840 It's beautiful. 00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:22.559 Yeah, I mean well, you're a captain now. 00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:29.119 I'm I'm I'm I'm a days keeper, but still, yes, I can do I can I can do I can do I think I can do it. 00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:30.239 You can use a sail for a sale. 00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:36.320 I can get I can get friends on a boat up to 24 meters, which is very big. 00:38:36.559 --> 00:38:38.719 Man, that's not doesn't need to be that big. 00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:44.079 But what I want is a boat that goes by wind, by the wind. 00:38:44.239 --> 00:38:44.639 Yes. 00:38:44.800 --> 00:39:02.480 So the it's a bit romantic, but you know, not having the technology around the silence, the silence, yourself, the nature, friends, a good piano of pasta, maybe a guitar, a guitar, some good drinks, very beautiful people around. 00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:05.440 It needs to be experienced from time to time. 00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:07.519 So when is the party? 00:39:07.679 --> 00:39:08.400 Oh probably. 00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:10.960 I'll be there, man. 00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:14.320 I'll make the pasta probably summer. 00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:15.519 Very nice, man. 00:39:15.760 --> 00:39:20.960 So this is um basically what's my my call, my echo. 00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:37.840 In my in my head, I always have that more present and present, and I need to kind of give back to this dual, let's say, I would say sometime conflictual, but dual soul nature of myself. 00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:43.119 The good the good profession, the good architect, but at the same time something else. 00:39:43.519 --> 00:39:46.079 Of course, and the soul requires nourishment as well. 00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:47.039 For sure. 00:39:47.360 --> 00:39:51.039 So was it around this time that uh Mr. 00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:53.119 Gialmini, no?
00:39:53.360 --> 00:39:55.440 No, that uh Mr. 00:39:55.519 --> 00:39:56.800 John Conte was born. 00:39:57.599 --> 00:39:57.920 Mr. 00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:00.159 Gio Conte, we should invite him. 00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:01.360 We should invite Mr. 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:02.320 John Conte. 00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:02.960 Mr. 00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:04.000 John Conte. 00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:05.920 That was Mr. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:07.039 John Conte. 00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:08.639 That stage name. 00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:17.440 Yes, that stage name, John Conte, actually was born uh in JLT. 00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:24.800 In your living room, you had black gloves and you were cooking, probably you were preparing some. 00:40:25.280 --> 00:40:29.280 I was marinating the meat or marinating the meat that we would have had the same night. 00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:29.840 Yes. 00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:38.000 And I came earlier at your place because you went you wanted to show me um some instruments that you got in Armenia. 00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:38.400 Oh, yeah. 00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:40.719 Fantastic. 00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:41.679 And I came okay. 00:40:41.760 --> 00:40:42.800 Let's let's see what's got. 00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:45.679 And then we were talking at that time. 00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:50.880 At that time, a friend of mine, Andrea Chiarini, very correct, super now. 00:40:51.119 --> 00:40:51.760 Are you following me? 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:53.119 It's very fun, it's really great. 00:40:53.840 --> 00:41:03.599 Good guitarist getting all over the stages all over the world, uh LA, uh everywhere in Europe, so he's on stage constantly. 00:41:03.679 --> 00:41:05.679 A guitarist, Andrea Chiarini. 00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:13.840 At that time, he was working at Universal Los Angeles, and he's he was studying with me at the conservatorium, but very good friend of mine. 00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:26.880 So at that time, he he asked me to record my own song where he would give me a reef, which is like a very normal reef, like it's uh, he said, This is your reef. 00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:32.880 And out of that reef, I would build my own song. 00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:42.320 Yes, and I've written my my song called Magic, and he's published it with universal music, and I was like, Oh my god, what's happening? 00:41:42.400 --> 00:41:47.199 You know, yes, that was thanks God, unfortunately, for what happened in the world, but it was COVID time. 00:41:47.280 --> 00:41:49.119 I had to I had time to do it. 00:41:49.280 --> 00:41:51.199 So I recorded that song. 00:41:51.360 --> 00:41:54.480 I sang it when I was very badly. 00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:57.760 I remember I had a bad, bad cough. 00:41:57.840 --> 00:41:59.119 I had COVID at that time. 00:41:59.280 --> 00:42:00.079 You can hear it. 00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:01.920 I don't like the way I've sung it. 00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:09.519 But anyway, that was a very good, fun time exercise to do it a bit more professionally, you know. 00:42:09.760
--> 00:42:11.679 So he would publish it. 00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:18.719 Uh, not Instagram, yeah, Instagram, some some kind of media thing, some uh Spotify, some publishing here and there. 00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:24.079 And I still had in mind that that was not my profession. 00:42:24.239 --> 00:42:29.840 I wanted to kind of draw a line between that side, the musician, and my career. 00:42:30.559 --> 00:42:34.000 Good or bad, I don't know if it was the right thing. 00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:38.159 But I was in your place and you suggested because one of your favorites. 00:42:38.480 --> 00:42:50.000 Give it a crooner, give it a crooner, give it a some kind of Italo American thing, and my favorite artist, John Lennon, and another favorite artist, Paolo Conte. 00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:52.159 So call it John Conte. 00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:55.280 Yes, Tick! It's fantastic. 00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:57.280 That was a really good call. 00:42:57.360 --> 00:42:58.000 I loved it. 00:42:58.639 --> 00:43:00.480 Actually, you were Johnny Conte or John? 00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:04.400 You can still be John Conte called Johnny Conte, but Johnny. 00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:15.519 So John Conte was born, um that at least the stage name, recording that piece, and and then and then it stayed there a little bit. 00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:16.880 But who knows, maybe. 00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:17.760 Who knows? 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:18.480 Who knows? 00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:19.599 We're still young, my friend. 00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:22.239 We're still young, uh and the future belongs to us. 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:23.360 Oh, why not? 00:43:23.519 --> 00:43:27.360 So this is uh this was uh that was a cool story. 00:43:27.599 --> 00:43:34.000 Um but you have played your music, going back to your music, yeah, uh, in other places as well. 00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:40.719 In fact, I remember um one point, one famous story is uh Together with Michele. 00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:41.519 Yes. 00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:48.400 Actually, first time I met Michele probably was the year that I came in Dubai in 2015. 00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:50.320 13 or 14 max. 00:43:51.360 --> 00:43:54.639 We met accidentally in a home concert. 00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:56.159 So, you know, not home concert. 00:43:56.480 --> 00:43:59.760 Yeah, it's called home course and the group that was organizing home concert. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.079 Concerts through Meetup. 00:44:02.320 --> 00:44:03.760 You know the app meetup, yes. 00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:04.400 You know Meetup. 00:44:04.559 --> 00:44:05.440 Oh, I remember Meetup. 00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:15.760 It used to be quite popular, especially you know, people coming from all over the places in Dubai where you don't have a central square where you meet people or the bar, you know, like Europe. 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:18.880 You just go out to meet people, and that's it. 00:44:19.039 --> 00:44:28.159 Here you had to you had to plan it a little bit, you had to put some effort, and Meetup was a fantastic way to meet people like-minded. 00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:28.800 Correct. 00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:39.280 Uh you know, you could put your passion music, cuisine, traveling, and I definitely met a lot of very good musicians or music lovers. 00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:41.679 That that was the first time, the first year. 00:44:41.920 --> 00:44:51.840 So, first year I go there and I meet a guy who's playing via via okay. 00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:55.599 I knew that song, and I started singing and he was playing. 00:44:55.679 --> 00:44:56.880 I said, Ah, are you in this? 00:44:57.039 --> 00:45:03.360 I say the met. 00:45:03.679 --> 00:45:09.199 We started uh playing you know a few gigs, very casual ones. 00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:11.599 I played in a restroom. 00:45:11.679 --> 00:45:17.280 Oh, some plays in the on the palm, and that's where I bought my first guitar, which is still with me. 00:45:17.440 --> 00:45:17.840 Nice. 00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:19.920 That was like Mikel organizing the game. 00:45:20.320 --> 00:45:22.400 She still sounds beautiful, that guitar, man. 00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:24.559 She's got something, I don't know what it is. 00:45:27.199 --> 00:45:31.599 That guitar still sounds beautiful, and that's that's another great memory. 00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:42.719 So I was playing some songs of mine, some covers, all uh music that I really play with big pleasure, and we sing together many many times. 00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:48.400 That was one of the gigs, and then we played together in one bar in Basha. 00:45:48.559 --> 00:45:49.119 You can sing it. 00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:51.599 Okay, that's these are these are fun nights. 00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:52.960 That one was so cool. 00:45:53.119 --> 00:45:59.440 So so Fabio invited me to a karaoke night organized by an Italian group called the Cugini of Carama. 00:45:59.599 --> 00:45:59.920 Correct. 00:46:00.079 --> 00:46:08.400 And these guys play at the oak bar, live oak bar, a live oak bar, and what they do, they give you background music, and you just karaoke music. 00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:16.079 Live background music with the drummer, with everything, until one point uh Fabio decided let's take over the stage. 00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:22.159 So we had you, me, Maria, and uh Federico on the T. 00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:31.199 Exactly, and um and you started playing a song that had nothing to do with Italian music, uh, which was The House of the Rising Sun. 00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:33.119 But man, we owned that stage that night. 00:46:33.280 --> 00:46:34.639 Yeah, well, that was cool. 00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:35.760 We had a great time. 00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:39.440 I think that's you know, just give us a couple of centimeters to stand on. 00:46:40.480 --> 00:46:45.280 I was you know, since that night, I'm still trying to see if we'll ever do it again. 00:46:45.840 --> 00:46:46.639 Maybe we should. 00:46:46.800 --> 00:46:47.039 We should. 00:46:47.199 --> 00:46:51.360 This these things are, I would say,
more and more available in Dubai. 00:46:51.440 --> 00:47:02.079 Yes, you know, there are occasions for open mics, uh stages, bars that that are not the DIFC bars that you need to correct. 00:47:02.239 --> 00:47:02.800 Uh you need to. 00:47:03.119 --> 00:47:06.320 We got um there is a uh called Lucky Voice. 00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:08.800 Uh it's a karaoke bar in Barcia. 00:47:08.960 --> 00:47:12.239 Yeah, and these guys have open mics, but proper open mics. 00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:15.679 I I got to know this because we sponsor a couple of events with the guitar company. 00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:19.280 All right, and man, they're fantastic, they're set up amazing. 00:47:19.440 --> 00:47:21.599 Yeah, but I want to get back to you. 00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:23.840 So, 13 years in the UA. 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:27.360 Yeah, you're here together with your wife and family. 00:47:27.920 --> 00:47:29.920 How was your experience here? 00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:44.480 Oh, and and you can summarize, you don't have to go into detail, but I I want to know as uh as an Italian who arrived here, you had a little bit of international exposure when you went to Prague, but then you come to and then you were in Abu Dhabi together with Joran. 00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:50.400 But then you come to Dubai when Dubai um post-crisis, I believe. 00:47:51.519 --> 00:47:52.960 You arrived to Dubai in 2000. 00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:55.760 Post-crisis, it was during the crisis. 00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:02.639 My my yeah, yeah, I arrived in Dubai post-crisis, but uh I have I've done that internship during basically the crisis. 00:48:02.800 --> 00:48:03.199 Yes, yeah. 00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:04.800 So you arrived here post-crisis. 00:48:04.960 --> 00:48:19.760 So when Dubai is uh moving forward, rebuilding itself, and then obviously today where it stands, because today I I would say it's it's in a peak and and it keeps getting higher. 00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:23.440 So how was your your uh your time here? 00:48:23.599 --> 00:48:24.400 How did you see it? 00:48:24.480 --> 00:48:25.599 How did you manage it? 00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:46.559 Look, I had to adapt a lot because um any I think any Western and European needs to just understand the rules of the game, which are very clear and very uh inclusive in a way. 00:48:48.320 --> 00:48:56.400 The only one that would be left over is whoever uh whoever doesn't want to do anything. 00:48:56.480 --> 00:49:01.760 So if you've got one thing that you want to do, this place will give you the opportunity to do it. 00:49:02.400 --> 00:49:04.400 But you gotta work hard for it. 00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:08.880 You gotta you gotta work hard for it, but but it's there. 00:49:09.119 --> 00:49:10.960 I would say that it's it's there. 00:49:11.199 --> 00:49:35.679 Just knowing this, that uh if you really uh put the right effort to you know to pursue your goals and to uh basically show others that you've got something to give, um there will be always one person that's gonna be there for you and listen to you and take your CV and try you, you know. 00:49:35.920 --> 00:49:52.960 So that meritocratic and that you know the opportunity uh environment gave me the confidence that I did not need to be to reach a 40 years old uh professional like we do in like we do in Italy. 00:49:53.039 --> 00:49:56.800 In Italy, you are when you're 40, you're a young architect. 00:49:57.039 --> 00:50:06.079 Yes, here I've basically reached all of the stages, all the uh positions that I can achieve. 00:50:06.239 --> 00:50:14.159 Okay, it's it's not for everyone like that, but that was possible for me, so I don't see why it shouldn't not be possible for many many others. 00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:21.360 So they gave me the opportunity, regardless of my age, ethnicity, uh sex. 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:43.440 I because I can tell you that why because my former uh my former chief head of department, uh a young, very very strong, charismatic, capable lady uh from India, very young, fantastic leader. 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:49.679 I I've I've seen that y it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't really matter who you are. 00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:51.440 Results results. 00:50:51.599 --> 00:50:53.679 Give me bring me the bring the results. 00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:59.280 I don't know if it's everywhere true in all the companies, but at Umar it was like that. 00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:10.400 I've seen people going from being the uh the housekeeper, the the security stepping up to you know C-level positions. 00:51:10.960 --> 00:51:16.400 Our CEO is uh used to be the uh I think he used to be accountant or something like that. 00:51:16.639 --> 00:51:35.199 So that's that what we call the lift, you know, the that that type of uh lift that you can get uh if you really walk the line and you do things good and and you don't basically try to you know to get to the results going around things in the wrong way. 00:51:35.360 --> 00:51:46.800 So if you really show your um your goodwill genuinely, you can get to uh probably satisfactory uh you know uh results. 00:51:46.960 --> 00:51:52.400 That's what happened to me, and I'm very, very, very uh grateful to this place. 00:51:52.719 --> 00:51:58.800 So I can't say anything other than this place is a place of opportunities. 00:52:00.159 --> 00:52:11.360 It made my profession into something that became my my almost hobby at a certain time because I could not live without it. 00:52:11.679 --> 00:52:16.320 And it's a very I would say how would you call it? 00:52:16.400 --> 00:52:23.199 You know, when you got something, you start doing something, and you can't you can't stop doing it, but you also don't want to stop doing it. 00:52:23.280 --> 00:52:29.440 It's it took actually over my full in interest in what I was doing when I was getting up. 00:52:29.679 --> 00:52:35.280 Still now, after eight years anymore, I I wake up and I go to the office very happy. 00:52:35.519 --> 00:52:39.039 Yes, that doesn't mean that's gonna be that
forever. 00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:44.719 But um you want to be there, you want to be there, you want to see what will happen next. 00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:49.679 Yeah, because you know that people would appreciate what you're doing. 00:52:49.840 --> 00:53:08.800 So that appreciation, which is not necessarily uh uh that is not accountable in in money, it's it's people saying thank you and uh uh you know having an environment that is all not always uh you know not always perfect, I would say. 00:53:08.960 --> 00:53:24.079 Uh there are grades, of course, but the there is a common sense that what you're doing, it's something that's gonna stay there forever, and you're gonna see the results when you are alive, which is not for all the architects in the world. 00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:26.480 Imagine like uh La Sagrada Familia. 00:53:26.719 --> 00:53:27.119 Yes. 00:53:27.280 --> 00:53:28.320 That's been there forever. 00:53:28.800 --> 00:53:30.320 Hundreds of years in hundreds of years. 00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:49.280 Imagine the arch I mean uh Gaudi, uh he designed it, but after Gaudi other architects, which is still very interesting, the stratification of cultures and things, but here it's so immediate that you almost get um that that that feeling you can't live without it. 00:53:49.440 --> 00:53:49.840 That's cool. 00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:52.159 So I have that type of uh feeling. 00:53:52.400 --> 00:54:04.719 Now that I've experienced that a lot, probably I will look into something a bit more uh slow down, and I will I have a recall for my background, as you say. 00:54:04.880 --> 00:54:07.920 Uh things that are slow are not necessarily bad. 00:54:08.159 --> 00:54:09.760 No, you know, slow foods. 00:54:11.119 --> 00:54:14.320 It takes uh anywhere between eight to twenty hours to make. 00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:15.199 Correct. 00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:19.760 So hey man, you got your passion, I got mine. 00:54:21.360 --> 00:54:24.239 So uh what's what was but how was Dubai? 00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:27.440 Dubai was Dubai was a thunder. 00:54:27.679 --> 00:54:37.039 Dubai was something so quick and strong that um that I don't even I didn't even stop and think about it. 00:54:37.199 --> 00:54:43.519 Now that you're asking me, I am starting to elaborate an idea about my past 13 years. 00:54:43.760 --> 00:54:48.559 But it it it sounds like to me, it sounds like it was yesterday when I came. 00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:54.719 So many things happened, many, many things had happened on a professional and personal level. 00:54:55.039 --> 00:55:19.119 Uh but it's a place where uh where parts of me will always stay, uh where I will go forever, forever to see the progress of my efforts, to enjoy the beautiful uh environment, you know, places that are becoming nicer and nicer, that's more welcoming. 00:55:19.760 --> 00:55:25.679 But I will always want to to uh bridge the gap. 00:55:25.920 --> 00:55:39.440 It's not a strong gap, but uh you know, to actually to foster the the bridge between my hometown or my country, Italy, and this place because of course because they they can really benefit from each other, of course. 00:55:39.679 --> 00:56:01.519 Uh they love each other in a way, they have things to uh to share, to trade, and also they have some something in common in terms of the people that really enjoy their families, they they have that type of uh you know laid back type of if you know you know approach to life. 00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:27.679 What you're describing to me, it's basically uh what I assume could have been the synergy between your mother, an artist, and a creative person, and your father, a rational mathematician, who they could be opposite, but then again, they managed to build something amazing, such as your family, and you took him out of that. 00:56:28.079 --> 00:56:32.320 So, on that note, man, I want to thank you for taking the time to be here today. 00:56:32.639 --> 00:56:41.519 I really enjoyed listening to your stories and your adventures, and and I am I am blessed to be part of some of those. 00:56:41.760 --> 00:56:50.320 And yes, I do live in an MR property, and I know that you had something to do with it as well that makes me even more happy about it. 00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:52.800 So, thank you so much for joining me today. 00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:53.599 Thank you, Chris. 00:56:53.760 --> 00:56:55.360 It was really a pleasure to see you again. 00:56:55.599 --> 00:56:58.880 Same here, and it's always a pleasure to to spend time with you. 00:56:59.119 --> 00:56:59.519 Thank you. 00:56:59.760 --> 00:57:00.800 Thank you so much.
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