The French writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add… but when there is nothing left to take away.” And yet… People still have 10-line disclaimers in their email signatures. Or worse… the “please don’t print this email” line. I’ve reviewed bids where they were one step away from including the name and breed of the bid manager’s dog. Horror vacui. Or just… “just in case”. Every extra word that doesn’t serve a purpose?...
1 day ago • 1 min read
In Japan, they often say: “Your life is like a garden.” If you’re not intentional… it gets overrun with weeds. Randomness. Distraction. Noise. This happens when you have too many goals. Too many priorities. Because let me tell you something. If you don’t have a clear maximum of 3 priorities… you have none. You get distracted. With lesser goals. Stupid goals. Or worse… scrolling. Looking for your next dopamine hit. This applies to your life. But also to how you work. If your door is always...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Hospital PPPs have a bad reputation. Delays. Overpricing. Rigidity. You’ve heard the stories. I remember when I work at ACS that any RFP announcement of a hospital was received as the last Trump’s tweet… We didn’t know what to do about… Let’s now talk about the Alzira Hospital PPP in Spain. Launched in 1999. First of its kind. A full model: Design. Build. Finance. Operate. Not just the building. Healthcare delivery. High risk. High exposure. High scrutiny. And still… It worked. Well… somehow....
2 days ago • 1 min read
Yesterday I learned that the European Union, the climax of bureaucracy in human history, will require passports for all dogs and cats. Some countries want to be wealthy. Others want to lead in technology or AI. Others want to be the best place in the world to do business. In the meantime… the EU is busy with things that will surely make it richer, more prosperous, and a better place to live. I’m telling you this because the EU is not unique. This is everywhere. Every country, government,...
3 days ago • 1 min read
My wife is preparing a yoga retreat. She works hard. She needs “disconnection.” Fair enough. Now… the price? Let’s just say… You’d expect a 5-star hotel. Except the hotel looks… basic. Very basic. And there’s a small detail: There’s no food. No lunch. No dinner. Fasting, they call it. So basically… You pay like you’re getting a Michelin tasting menu… But the experience is: “You don’t eat.” Interesting business model. I don’t know what you think. Maybe you love paying for the “experience.” The...
4 days ago • 1 min read
“Learn the rules like a pro… so you can break them like an artist.” — Pablo Picasso I used to repeat this to my teams when the time came… But if you asked them what Vicente would do in almost any situation, the answer was simple: “Follow the contract.” Always. Because most people don’t even understand the rules they’re trying to “bend”. They jump to shortcuts. They improvise. They create risk. That’s not creativity. That’s incompetence. First, you master the contract. You know every clause....
5 days ago • 1 min read
Research shows that doctors with 20 years of experience… Are often less skilled than when they first left medical school. Read that again. Less skilled. Let that sink in. These doctors didn’t become worse overnight. They just stopped evolving. They got trapped in routines. In habits. In outdated ways of thinking. So instead of 20 years of experience… They have 1 year of experience repeated 20 times. Shocking? Really? Because, it shouldn’t be. This is the norm. Think of... Engineering....
6 days ago • 1 min read
Yesterday, a student told me:“ You’re selling this for peanuts.” He’s right. I know it. But when something is working… when things are flowing… You don’t touch it. At least, that’s what they say. But here’s the problem: Underpricing is not generosity. It’s positioning. And I’m done positioning this as cheap. So yes…I’m breaking the rule. I’m increasing the price of everything in the academy. All of it. Today, you can still get in at the current price. Tomorrow? You’ll pay double. For example,...
7 days ago • 1 min read
It was under control. Of course it was. April 15, 2019. Semana Santa, aka, Easter… again. The most iconic cathedral in Europe. Notre-Dame Cathedral Under renovation. Experts on site. Protocols in place. And then… Fire. Not a small one. Not, it was not a “candela”… but a catastrophic one. The roof gone. The spire collapsing in front of the world. Millions watching it live… with popcorns. Oups… This was not an abandoned building. This was not chaos. This was a controlled environment. Or at...
8 days ago • 1 min read