Do you dare to tell your life?

Part of mine …
I was born in Bilbao, full of energy, character and expectations, it was an important event in the family because the heir was born!
Years later they told me that the family hierarchy visited me after my birth with the illusion of depositing in me their expectation of the future to continue and to manage what had been achieved. It was the song that I listened to throughout my youth and that my great-aunts and my grandparents repeated insistently, “Javi, you are the heir”.

Being the oldest of a generation, in my case, implied privilege that’s what they made me understand for many years. It implicitly carried obligations and destinies that I had not designed. In my case it was the will and the feeling of my elders. All this marks your character. I heard the continuous arguments with the implied word Hereu, I heard them many times throughout my youth. Naively I always thought What a priviledge! It made me think that I was different. I was educated in a well-off family that made me understand that my destiny was written.

I cannot ignore, the story that my grandfather and I had, an endearing story that I like to remember. A beautiful passage that showed the love they had for me. This story made me feel even more special, although I was no the only one that felt special for having his own story. My grandfather was a cultured person, he was a writer, a painter, an engineer, an enterprising industrialist and above all a romantic and of course, very dear, he made us feel special.

Duchy of Digesto, the story

The story goes back to the 70s and early 80s, and it was told as follows, I was born with the title of Duke, and despite having a father who was supposed to inherit the title, the title was mine. In our history, my grandfather married me with the Duchess Maria Artiach and therefore I inherited the title “Duke of Digest”. In our entertainment I asked my grandfather, why was I to inherit the title if my father was the next in the line of succession? He, seriously, answered me with irony, do not worry Javi, we’re going to jump your father just like Don Juan was jumped. We fooled around so much that a pre-sister-in-law believed us. The title of Duke referred to the digesta cookie, and to the Duchess Maria who was the precursor cookie in Spain of the famous Maria biscuits, the main breakfast for thousands of families, both were my grandfather’s favorites and protagonists of our history.

All this fun, affection and the demand in the form of talks I received from my elders, made me look unique and special. The slogan of my elders was constant, in each family encounter they repeatedly told me “Javi you must prepare yourself, you must study, you are the Hereu”.

Should we get serious?
My rebellious character as a discoverer and the entrepreneur in me, made me get ahead in my own way. It made me understand that entrepreneurship does not mean following the family saga, undertaking is something else. The bases of the moral and entrepreneurial education of my families and the genes that I carry within, were mine and caused changes in my way of understanding the role that I should have. During my coexistance I was lucky enough to know stories and hear conversations about family businesses that occurred among my elders. This were of interest to me, I listened to them with attention and that provoked my entrepreneurial spirit. All this fell on me.

The ambitions were mine, the dreams came naturally and with a bit of luck and courage, I took my way although it was not what they expected. I was lucky to decide my way and not wait for the one I should have had according to the family roadmap. Meanwhile, the late 70’s crisis, my uncle’s good work and the sale of the company, took my future as Hereu. But I had already started on my way, I was on the street selling.

I must not renounce to my family’s past, it is a heritage that has shaped my character, but my path is marked by my entrepreneurial attitude. I preferred to grow up in the jungle than in captivity, this was a feeling that had given me form over the years.

At school I stood out, but not because of my good performance, perhaps because of my education and my way of dealing with things. I was the center of attention, sometimes in a positive way and sometimes not so positive, all in all it, has helped me to learn in the lifetime.

Many times we believe that making mistakes is bad and negative, failure hurts pride. Nobody likes to err, and this limiting belief harms and paralyzes us. But with the history of the family I learned the concept of prudence as counterpart of balance with entrepreneurship.

The society where I lived, and the environment forged me a socially introverted character, where I learned the value of prudence and to stay in the background, from where, now I go out to tell you my story. I want to tell my story, since I must be transparent in a highly technological and connected world, I must do so, if I intend to lead some ambitious projects. I want to do so, thinking about the future of many Spaniards and Portuguese with an enterprising character, willing to gamble their good work and find financing for the development of your project. The world changes rapidly, we are walking towards a world that tends to be transparent. The society where I grew up, in the other hand, was a non-transparent one, very different from the current society.

Despite this environment, where my personality was forged, with struggle and hard work I overcame the difficulties, I set up my first business in 1982 thanks to my courage and my family name. I obtained, along with my partner Avelino, the distribution of those who are today the forerunners of Artadi wines, in addition to Conservas la Luz, Vega Sicilia products, Sanz wines, and some other things. Those 4 years of work and until its sale, were my professional life’s school, I understood and assimilated the action of selling, I learned to treat clients and to suffer sometimes their demands. Client must always receive their part of “affection”. With Diaral I tasted the success, after the sale of the company. At the same time, with other options in mind, I married Marta, my current wife and my livelihood, and emigrated to the United States, to embark on a new adventure.

conclusion
Over the years I understood that this change occurred naturally in me and that entrepreneurship does not mean following the dictation of your elders without using their lessons to create your own projects.

In America I understood that protected societies evolve at a slower pace than where people forge themselves. Now with this accumulated experience I want to go back there with you.

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