He is a smart, practical and emotional man. He is the Head of a social cooperation and as such, being responsible for 250 employees of Studio Progetto Social Cooperation. He is an author. His e-books can be bought via Amazon and Apple store. His first novel entitled “Ogni futuro é giá trascorso” was just published as a book this year and can be bought in several book stores in Italy. He is an environmental engineer and a youth worker. He can be very sweet and very harsh. He is the man of contradictions, who is seeking for challenges all the time. He does not want to change the world, just supporting human beings how he can. And he is my friend.
Marazinha: You have just celebrated your 40th birthday not so long time ago. When you were a kid, what you were dreaming about? Where you will be in your life when you reach this age?
Andrea: When I was five, I am quite sure that I was thinking that I want to become the same person like my father. Even though I didn’t know what my father was doing. I would say that like meeting people, speaking with people, doing a job that involving relationship with people, and facing problems to solve and tasks to do or making important things. Maybe this is the main thing: I wanted to do things that matters and involving other people.
Marazinha: What type of kid you were?
Andrea: Till five, I was very happy and funny. Then something changed. I can’t remember my age, but it was around six, seven, eight, when something changed. I just became a little bit sad. I became scared from life. It was like something came inside me and started to make me think that the life is difficult. So it made me scared. It took me around ten years to deal with it. I mean, I can remember that from ten to seventeen it was quite hard. I felt unsecure and not like I am unable to do things but sort of. Then something changed again.
Marazinha: I think what you have explained it is really linked to the teenager hood or becoming an adolescence. How did your parents handle your sadness then? So they had a happy kid who just became scared from life. How did they manage you?
Andrea: (laughing)…This you should ask from them!
Marazinha: I would but they are not here!
Andrea: So I can give you some examples! Now it comes to my mind that my Mum always says to me: when I was around eight or nine, I had an illness that was not an illness. Every morning I had a hard coughing. They brought me to the doctor and he made a lot of examination, and he did not find anything. So finally they took me to a psychologist then to a graphologist. My Dad always explains to me that it was difficult for them because I was in trouble with something that I didn’t know and honestly still I don’t know what was it. I was basically scared by life – something like this.
Marazinha: So this had changed again when you were seventeen. What’s happened?
Andrea: I think, it was related to some stories that my parents brought into our family. At least, this is the way how I am thinking about nowadays. It is not so easy to explain. They weren’t happy. Their marriage was not happy. They brought into our family all their problems and I suffered a lot because of that. Their marriage just became worst when I turned to sixteen then they divorced when I was twenty two. So this could be the key to understand. Because then I started to realise that the problem wasn’t me. They had some problems. They just loved me, and they had problem with each other. This recognition changed my life. I understood that I was not a problem. I just needed to deal with some problems that they had and we had as we were a family. As in every relationship, if there is a problem, it can not be separated, it affects all members of the family! As a child, you are the weak one, and they should be the strong ones. If they are not able to be the strong ones, then you are a little boat in the sea. Then something happened to me. Maybe I became older just to start dividing the things.
Marazinha: I think you were exactly in that age when you had to choose your school and which direction your life should go as an adult.
Andrea: Yes, it went hand by hand. Nevertheless, I do not remember on my motivation. I just remember that I did not want to be an engineer. I wanted to do another thing. It was maybe literature or something like that. But then not only my parents but a lot of people had started to say to me that I will be not able to find any job with that kind of studies. So they suggested me to start environmental engineering studies. This means I had studied how to solve problems for instance when a mountain falls down, how to find new energies, so such type of things. I guess they suggested this study for me because I wanted to do something different. And this was a way to do something different, but still going to such kind of school that can provide me a job in the future.
Marazinha: Well, it is still very far from literature!
Andrea: Yes, it is! I was confused. I was not able to identify any specific studies or job. I just wanted to do something unusual and not to become a normal worker. It could be that I wanted to escape. I do not want to say that I was an artist. Probably I just did not want to do a normal stuff.
Marazinha: So then instead of literature you went to engineering…
Andrea: Yes, but for a strange one. I studied this in the University for three years then a crisis came again because I did not want to study anymore. I had just stopped for six months, something like this. Then I decided that since I have started it, I should finish it. So I had just moved from Padua to another city to study the same subject. Honestly, I had just thought that the second city, Bologna, could offer much more fun.
Marazinha: What had you done during this half a year break?
Andrea: Well, I had a relationship with a girl who had a kid. His father disappeared. So for six – eight months I was with her. I just really become the father of the kid even though I was not his biological father.
Marazinha: How old have you been in that time?
Andrea: Twenty two years old. For two months even I lived with them in the same flat. He was four years old in that time. It was a sad sorry…, although it was not really a sad sorry! Nevertheless, we were fighting a lot with the girl. Mainly, because our relationship did not really work. I think this happened because I was searching for something that made me feel that I was doing something. So I had the feeling that I was a father, but I wasn’t. I just wasn’t ready to be. And I was not the father of the kid, so I had done just a big mess. Still I had the energy to break with the girl, so it did not last so long. Honestly, still I was studying officially, however I didn’t take any book in my hands during this period of my life. Then I started my studies again when I moved to Bologna and it was a good period, because I had just started to study again, I had the will to do, so for two years I studied a lot and I almost finished when Studio Progetto came into my life. And this is another chapter.
Marazinha: So let’s discuss about this another chapter. How Studio Progetto came into your life?
Andrea: I broke with the lady, then I was a student in Bologna. Then my parents broke away and came to me after their divorce and said that now you should decide if you want to live with your mother or with your father. I was not so young anymore, but still not too old, I was twenty two years old. I was already an adult, but still it was not so good. It’s impossible that such type of thing could be good, because you have to choose. But still I had to decide. Okay, I was in Bologna for five days a week, but still when I came home, I needed a place to stay home. Then I was thinking about it, and I reacted on them that no, I do not want to choose. So I had decided that I want to try living by myself. But I did not have money, so it was a problem. I did an agreement with my father and I told to him that OK, you are giving me money nowadays because I need to study, so please can you continue to give me the same amount of money and I will find a job and I will study and I will work meanwhile. So I moved from Bologna to Valdagno and lived with a friend of mine and started to work as a part time youth worker for Studio Progetto. This last three or four years. Of course, the time for my studies became longer and longer because when you are working, there is no much time left for anything else. Nevertheless, I took my own life in my hands, so that was really a good period. I was living with a friend, I did a lot of party, and I did what I liked. I really liked to do youth work, even if it was really far from what I was studying. Still I didn’t like my studies, but I was almost near to the end, so I was motivated to finish. I was almost 30 years old when I got my degree.
Marazinha: 30 years old?
Andrea: Yes, I took me nearly ten years to have the degree. (laughing)
Marazinha: Have you ever worked a minute as an environmental engineer?
Andrea: Neither a minute! (laughing)
Marazinha: So you had started your carrier at Studio Progetto as a simple part time youth worker. And now after ten years you are the Head of Studio Progetto. Tell me about this carrier path! How was it step by step to reach the top level of the organisation?
Andrea: It had just happened. Basically I had just started, even though I did not have any studies about the things I was doing. I was doing youth work, and I just had done it with my heart and I really believed in it. In the beginning it was only the work for me that gave me the money for studies and that’s all. Then after a couple of years I just realised that I really liked what I was doing. So I had decided to start another study in the school of counselling. I just wanted a piece of paper next to my engineering diploma that allowed to me taking that type of job. Then slowly I just started to understand that maybe I will be not becoming an engineer. So I decided that it is better to gain another piece of paper that allows me to remain here, even when I will finish my degree.
Marazinha: What you can do with that piece of paper on counselling?
Andrea: In Italy its official. I mean by this paper you can insert your name in a national list that you are allowed to make counselling. That means you can help to other people, but of course, not with really difficult problems, for that there are psychologists, and so on. So the simple way to tell you: if you have a medium problem, than you can go to a counsellor and discuss with it. It is similar what you are doing with me now. Listening to people, giving some hints about their lives…
Marazinha: It is like a coaching then!
Andrea: Yes, in Italy we call it counselling, but totally the same. And it can be physically, mentally, etc. So I got this piece of paper. If you are a counsellor, you can not see the same person more than 10 times. If you meet the person more than 10 times, that means that there is a bigger problem than you can deal with. Still it was something for me that it allowed me to do this type of job. So it was good and I made a process that it was good for me because when you are doing such type of things meanwhile you grow up as a human being. Then what happened? I found myself to have a degree, I had a job there, I had this paper that I am a counsellor, and they offered me to increase my working hours in Studio Progetto, and I got a role with some responsibility since I was doing my job properly in the last three – four years. They were asking me that why do not coordinate 3 or 4 people now. I was thinking a bit about it, but the thing was I had this opportunity, so why to say no? I liked what I was doing even though it was totally far from the things I was studied, but still, so I took it. And after a couple of years it seems I was good at things I was doing because in every two years they were offering me more and more like can you coordinate some more people, can you be the head of this, and bla, bla, bla. Frankly saying, inside me I guess I was searching new and new challenges, however I did not run after it. It has just happened and I was happy to do it. And suddenly I understood that all my studies could be worth for what I am doing, for example managing budgets, mathematics, logistics, could be also useful for managing people, money, etc. I understood that I was good at doing it. Of course, it was offered for me more and more responsibilities.
Marazinha: And how did you become the President?
Andrea: The previous head of the Youth, Anna Carlotto went to studies and her place became available. I was asked to take her place as coordinator first of all.
Marazinha: Why you were chosen for this place and not someone else?
Andrea: You should ask this from them!!! (laughing) Maybe because I am practical and aim-oriented. I can really build up a process in order to reach an objective. I am quite quick to understand what is needed to do. I am able to put everything in a schedule and make a plan that it is needed to do this and this and this. And I am quite clear in this. This is a technical talent I would say and my studies help I had before. The other thing is that I am not so good at dealing with people but I am good at understanding people. I mean I can understand the feelings of people. So sometimes I can understand what is the proper job that I can do in order to support them doing the things better. I am able to create a setting where they are able to work properly. I understand the dynamics among the people. When you are working in a big organisation where the human being is a big value, then this is very important. You have to consider people, you can not treat people as an object or simple workers and in the same time you have to let them really efficient. I am still growing up in this, but I am quite good at combining this two things. Probably I was this one already when they offered me to become the head of the Minor and Youth area, and I grow up a bit. And still I need to grow up a lot to this. I would say I am feeling quite good. I also like it, I mean I like to understand people, I like to understand what they need. Besides this, I am still not so able to treat well people, make a relationship with them in a proper way, because I would say I am too emotional sometimes. So still need to work a lot on myself to increase this talent what I have. But still it is a talent, so…
Marazinha: Now you have to work with more than two hundred people, because you are the Head of the whole organisation.
Andrea: Two hundred and fifty, yes.
Marazinha: How can you manage this big number of people? What are the biggest challenges?
Andrea: I can manage with them because I have amazing collaborators. I just want to give a clap for them, because it is impossible to do if you don’t have very good people. There are fifteen people next to me who do more than half of the job, even eighty percent. The thing is that the president, the Head in this case, is the person who is the lightning conductor of the organisation. And you must take the responsibility for this task and you must do it, because there are some complains that you are the only one person who has to deal with. You can not give it to the others, you must sit down with the people, try to understand them. Accept their complain, then to try managing them, so to be like a father for them sometimes. In some cases you have to give up, and then they will take their road and you don’t need to touch them, even if those are bad complains, bad dynamics among people. But there are some that you can leave there and just see what will happen. There are some others where you have to put your words or say something about it. Every time you have to choose if you need to say something, or not to say, or what to say and which way to say it. This is challenging for me, because it is very hard for me to keep calm. For me this is the most difficult part. Because you are in the middle and they trust on you. They recognise you as the cause of all their problems and all of their happiness. It goes both together.
Marazinha: What was your biggest success till now as the Head of Studio Progetto?
Andrea: I will tell you what I am really happy about. I am really happy for the change we did in the organisation’ structure. We did a little change but for us is big, because it is not so easy to make a change in a structure and to make the people adapt to this change. We made the decision in last August and it was really a big change because it is bringing us to a road that makes our organisation closer to become a corporate but still remaining a social cooperation. This was the aim of the Board, I mean to be organised a little bit better but still remain a social cooperation. I think we manage. It is happened only three months ago, so we still need to wait at least one year, but I would say we are in a good direction and I am really happy about it.
Marazinha: I am just going back into the really beginning of our discussion. I remember you said that you had to choose between literature and environmental engineering due to your parents’ suggestions as literature is not really a well-paid profession. However, I know that you haven’t given it up your literature dreams and you are author of several short stories and novels. How literature came back to your busy life?
Andrea: I have to say that my parents were right (laughing), because if I consider my carrier as an author, I earned approx one hundred euro or one hundred and fifty as maximum. But still maybe better days will come. (laughing) Writing and also reading are simple ways to me entering into the magic of the life. An Italian author used to say that “A book should speak about the mystery of living and dying together”. It is a good definition because when a book can bring me this smell, this magic of life then that is a good book. So what I like in reading and writing and sure you know it, when you write, you just get in the mood that is detached from the reality but it is still within the reality. When you are watching a film meanwhile you are the part of the film. This type of book I love because it makes me feel that I am alive and I am enjoying the life. This is the reason why I am doing it. And I had some success, at least I could manage to publish some ebooks.
Marazinha: And now you have even a bigger success as an author. Your latest novel Ogni futuro é giá trascorso was just published by the name of the publisher. What was your inspiration to write its story?
Andrea: My inspiration was quite simple because it came from the school of creative writing I did. They gave us as an assignment to write a full synopsis of a book. So I did it because it was asked, but then I realised that I really like my idea and I have started to think what I can put inside. Then I decided that I want to put the story in the Nineties, first of all. After I started to study what happened in the Nineties because I wanted to seem to be real. Then I found out that 13 of December 1995 – it is a quite sad story but it happened – a plane crashed in Verona Airport. There was a lot responsibility of people who did not make their job properly. What I did is that I put an invented story among the real facts. I mean the real facts are the background, still in one point it is connected to the story and it remains in the background. I really liked the job what I did as basically it is an easy book that you can read for instance in the beach, it is a really quick reading, however it involves its reader into the story, meanwhile it includes real facts that I want to tell to the people. Because a lot of people, even in my region, already forgot this accident. It took me three years to write it. Then I asked one of my friends who also an author to read it and he liked it. He offered me to convince some editors to publish it.
Marazinha: The story is all about the reasons of this air crash?
Andrea: No, no, no! There are four people who try to rob a shop that is an invented mall just in front of the real airport. It never existed there in the real life. So, they try to steal some money from this shop inside the mall. In the beginning of the story you can not understand why this four people are connected. There is a head of the group but since the story just has staring in the middle of the action, you can not understand why they are together, why the head put them together, which is the real scope of their group, because the money is not so huge to steal. You can not really understand what is happening behind the real story. And the story goes like this: there is one chapter that speaks about this day 13th of December and then flashback comes. So little by little you can understand why these people are there, why are together, what are their stories, why they are doing that thing, etc.
Marazinha: So in the end the story will be understandable as getting the whole picture thanks to this mosaic technique.
Andrea: Yes, in the two last chapters you can understand everything.
Marazinha: Besides this novel, you have other books that are published as ebooks.
Andrea: Yes, they are published in the Amazon and Apple store. They are quite different from the one I had published, because they are really short, maximum 10 pages, so short stories and not novels. They are fantasies with a meaning. I just used fantasy characters e.g. elves or ants and they are speaking to each other or speaking rabbits or kids who speaks with rabbits, so something like these. The idea is to create a fantasy scenario and insert some meaning in it about the life how it goes.
Marazinha: Discussing philosophical thoughts through fantasy?
Andrea: No, I would not say philosophical. Just speak about life but using fantasy as a tool for it. I like to speak about normal things just by using imagined characters.
Marazinha: And what are these normal things you want to speak about?
Andrea: Not about the meaning of life, but how the life goes on. Which kind of roads and paths life takes even if you don’t want to realise something, sometimes you don’t want or you don’t understand maybe only in the end. But anyway you are part of it. This is what is really fascinating me.
Marazinha: What type of author are you?
Andrea: Nowadays I started to recognise that I should be much better to organise my writing in timing because I understood that if I write twice a week and both times in the morning at six a.m. it is better for me. If you put your body and soul in the same setting, it is better for you. I mean the inspiration comes better. But till some months ago, I did not make any strategy to do it. Just when I had time, even if just a short one like a short break or a flight, or during the night when I was not able to sleep, something like this. Then I recognised that a structure is maybe better. Maybe just because I am becoming older, but it is really better to give a proper time to that. Just to donate a proper time of your life to that, so creativity can come to you and you enjoy it. Not to force creativity squeezing into these little breaks in the life.
Marazinha: So it means you can still be selfish with your time as you don’t have any kids.
Andrea: Yes! (laughing)
Marazinha: Are you planning to be a dad one day?
Andrea: If you use that word in the end of the sentences, then yes. One day. I just feel that one day it will happen. But I am not planning, because nowadays I do not feel that this would be the moment. Of course, I am forty, so it should be the moment, however I do not think that people should be forced to do something like this. And I really feel that I am not ready to be a father yet. I do not think that this is bad. I think it is good that I feel I am not ready for that yet. Before I will get there, I can work on myself, I can take my time to become ready. For me it would me more stupid to say I am ready and not to be. So I am fine with it and of course, I feel that one day it will happen.
Marazinha: So nowadays you have someone in your life and your relationship is just becoming more and more serious. What was the moment you have decided that you want to know more about her?
Andrea: I can not remember on the moment but I remember on the reason, I mean the feeling what I had. I just followed something that I felt. The feeling was that she touched me in some ways. I felt that she was able to destroy some walls I had built up to protect my emotions. Of course, this also happened with me in the past, every time this happens in the beginning of a relationship, but now I was ready to put something more on the table. It was four years ago such a thing happened to me. So long time passed since the last one. (laughing). When I realised that she was able – I do not really know how – just to cross this wall that I really built up. And I felt safe because probably she recognised some emotions in me that she loved. The fact that she loved them, probably it just made me feel sure about showing them. Then I decided that well let’s see what will happen if I let these emotions live. So I am still exploring what is happening.
Marazinha: What do you admire in a woman?
Andrea: What I really admire in a woman is when they are able to show their weakness, but in the same time they are able to deal with it. So they are strong basically, but they do not have fear to show their weakness. I mean I do not like this idea for women today that they have to be strong. Because according to this point of view, they are not the same strong as men. They can be much stronger than men if they are able to deal with their weakness and make this weakness a force. This is what really impresses me in a woman.
Marazinha: How do you see yourself in the future, let’s say after 20 years?
Andrea: When I will be sixty, still I would like to work. Not as much as nowadays but still. I would like to be involved into good social projects. Not such that try to change the world, because I do not like to say this, just do something for human beings. In the next twenty years I would like to experiment a lot in this kind of job and also in international dimension. It would be amazing if I was able to publish couple of books. Not to become a rich, I would make a shit about this, but have the happiness that people can read and enjoy what I wrote. And hopefully there will be someone around me and hopefully next to me, not just around me with whom I lived and enjoyed a lot of experiences. And I would like to grow up a lot regarding to understand and deal with my emotions. Not to be a big man, only just being in peace with myself. To have still a couple of things to do, hence I will be only sixty, so…
