Have you ever wondered what it takes to get rich? Many, I think perhaps all (apart from a few Tibetan hermits) were born and grew up with the aim of becoming, if not very rich, at least a little richer than they were “at the start” of their life. And since the whole world is marching in this direction, it is normal that those who, like myself in part, have reached an undeniable state of economic well-being, are seen with envy, because “he made it”. It may also be true, but you, you who are reading me right now and who perhaps, at least in some small part of your heart, you too dream of becoming as rich as and more than I can be, you, answer me honestly, why do you want to get rich, what do you need it for?


I assure you that the question just posed is anything but trivial. We’re not talking about the usual dilemma whether “money gives happiness or not”, I’m not interested in talking about it and anyway, spoiler alert, brace yourselves, it won’t be a disproportionate bank account that will make you happy, trust the words of a friend. My question is another: what do you need to be happy for? And please don’t answer me, with phrases like, to make ends meet, to pay the bills, take away my whims, etc, because, and I’ve been there too, you don’t need to be rich to be able to afford these things. For those, a minimum of economic well-being and an ability to spend are enough.


So my dears, do you have in mind, very clear, the reason why you would like to become rich? You know, you have to think about it, and do it soon, because it never wants the case that at a certain point you really become rich but in the meantime you haven’t yet figured out what to do with your wealth: you would either risk dissipating it quickly in useless rivulets, or at the opposite of living without knowing how to enjoy it for the fear of not spending a single euro. Because that’s how it happens, you know?
I? I have it clear in my head why I immediately tried to get out of standard working environments, which perhaps promised me a secure salary at the end of the month, but which on the other hand did not offer me any opportunities for personal and economic growth. I immediately went looking for this wealth with, clear in mind, that the day I reached it, I would have used it to give happiness to those around me, and only heaven knows if I succeeded , but also and first of all to fulfill the wishes of “Roberto as a child”.


I know that this could sound very Pascoli-like to you, and perhaps it is, and who cares after all. I have always felt I owed something to that child who grew up with little, very little I would say, on the street in Rome, and I decided to give that child his dreams, albeit in a very deferred way in terms of time.
But it doesn’t matter if it took 30, 40 or 50 years to realize his deepest desires. The truth is that those times, after some time, I have fulfilled some desire for him it is as if I had heard him smile again; and if children’s smiles are beautiful, imagine how beautiful your child’s “if” smile can be.
Whenever I travel to the most incredible places in the world, I hear him smile. Every time I’ve given myself experiences that would have been unimaginable when I was little, I’ve heard him smile again. And even now that I’m driving my Ferrari on the Varano circuit, the child Roberto is smiling; he’s laughing like crazy almost sobbing, and the roar of his smile is as loud as the scream of the 296 GTS pushed over 300 km per hour, a fantastic car that will soon enter my collection together with the F8 Tributo that is already driving around me for Europe.


Do you understand now why I wanted to reach this position in society? If, seeing me on the street (or seeing some other “kid” like me) in a Ferrari, you believe that mine, ours, is an exercise in ostentation or a filler of some inner void, well you are completely off track.
You see me, you see us from “outside” driving, and you only hear the roar of our custom-built cars. But if you could hear what we feel “inside” at that moment, you would hear the laughter of a child who, with so much patience, lived his dream after so many years. And do you know what is the most beautiful thing? It is that, believe me, he still has many more to do…