Ricardo is a real local success story. Starting to appear on our small screen more than fifteen years ago, he has since continued to multiply his projects. If it seems that everything he touches turns into gold, it is not by chance, but rather the result of long years of hard work to build the success he enjoys today. Despite his busy schedule, Ricardo agreed to take a break and tell us about his success, but more importantly about his pursuit of happiness and balance.
Work and success
“I firmly believe that in life you have to work hard to get what you have: work, love, happiness, it doesn’t happen all by itself! I also think that success doesn’t simply build itself.” And Ricardo often says it, without his wife, Brigitte, he wouldn’t be where he is today: “I have lots of ideas, but she leads me, she chooses the best ideas, the ones we’re going to push to the end. There is a reason why she is the president.”
They built this successful business together, but also with a team of passionate people in whom they have confidence: “Brigitte and I made this choice very early on. We had lots of projects, but we knew we couldn’t do them all just by ourselves. Often, to achieve great things, it takes a lot of support around you. It takes people you trust, who will help you surpass yourself and take your projects further. Brigitte and I chose to trust others and let them help us.”
Having unifying ideas, projects everyone believes in, is another fundamental element of his success: “I don’t think it’s possible to carry a project all by yourself. If you are the only one believing in your idea, you won’t get far. It takes people that are on board with you. If you haven’t been successful in convincing them of your idea, either you have to go back to the drawing block and do your homework to better sell your idea, or your idea just isn’t that good. If that the latter is the case, you have to move on!”
For Ricardo, knowing how and when to let go is fundamental to his professional and personal happiness: “When you face an obstacle or a difficult situation, you can’t just stand still and dwell on the 1001 reasons that make the situation so trying! You cry, you rage, you scream, but then you have to move on! You have to keep moving and try to get something positive out of it! And once the storm passes, it’s over and you never talk about it again! You start over, because if you don’t, you will never be able to be happy!”
Happiness and balance
Now at the beginning of his fifties, Ricardo wants to settle down a little and take his time: “My personal midlife crisis is the surfacing of a new deep desire to find balance in my life. It’s being able to spend more time with my family and friends, but also having more time for myself!” This pursuit of balance involves making certain choices: “I always filled my agenda to the maximum to be able to do as many things as possible by telling myself that I had to finish all of them to reach my goal. But today, I question that way of doing things. From time to time, you have to ask yourself: does my agenda absolutely have to be filled? Do I really need to do all that to get what I want? Sometimes yes and sometimes no…. But this questioning leads us to make choices about what we want to prioritize in our lives.”
“Being very Cartesian in life, I have a rational approach to happiness and achieving balance. For me, these are things we must actively work for, plan for and put on the agenda! It may be a longer lunch break, a longer period between appointments or a couple’s massage – which Brigitte and I have been doing for several years now. These downtimes make a big difference in our lives and allow us to achieve a certain balance! We’re all busy, but at some point you have to force yourself to stop and do absolutely nothing!”
Even if his good mood seems endless, in reality Ricardo has always worked actively to achieve his happiness: “I think happiness is also a matter of choice. I chose to be happy. Making that choice means taking a different look at life. It’s choosing to keep seeing all the great and beautiful things life has to offer, even in the most difficult of times. That’s what I did by choosing to be positive. I also think we have to stop waiting for THE big day, when everything will go as we want and will have everything we need to be happy, because that day will never come! Every day is an opportunity to do a little something that will make us happy. And we also have to take advantage of the small moments of simple joy that take place every day. Life is a one-shot deal, so it has to be fun!”
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