Hello Monaco #08 Winter 2019–2020 HM 2019 #08_web | Page 28

WORDS OF WISDOM IN MONACO
have a woman with you that you like and she likes you, or if you have
friends, etc. It’s more complex, it’s not only one thing, it’s everything
together. When it’s all together, it gives you power. If you are only hap-
py about one thing, you lose a lot, because maybe you are not happy
about the rest, I think. It can be so simple to be happy sometimes.
Maybe if you have the whole family together and you do something
together. Maybe you have one friend, or one woman with you and you
do something special. Maybe, sometimes, you are happy for no rea-
son. I was happy a million times for different things. If you know only
one time you were really happy, it’s a problem, because that means
you weren’t so happy for a lot of the time. I think happiness comes
everyday, during the day. On the weekend, you don’t think of the
problems of work; you have fun, you are happy. And also if you love.
HM: Do you agree with the statement «If you don’t love yourself,
if you don’t accept yourself unconditionally, you can’t love anyone
else»?
MS: My father, when I was only 6 or 7 years old, he told me, «Listen, if
you don’t like yourself before you leave
the house, your life is finished. Remem-
ber that». It’s what I tell my children. If
you don’t like yourself, before you go
out, it’s a problem. It’s a basic problem
in life. And never arrange your looks for
other people, arrange your appearance
for you. If you arrange your looks for
other people and for your job, it won’t
work, because it doesn’t reflect your
own personality.
© HelloMonaco
HM: If you had the power to change one
thing in the world, what would it be?
MS: The problem is that the world is
never going be united. Change the
system on each continent. We weren’t
born to all live together… When you
have many tens of thousands of years
of history, it’s not possible. It’s impor-
tant that everybody works together
but «simplistic» Globalization of eve-
Charles Leclerc and Mauro Serra during the match
26 / Hello Monaco Winter 2019–2020
www.hellomonaco.com
© HelloMonaco
rything is not possible. The first
thing to change is politics, but
politics is you, me and all the oth-
er people who vote. This is the
problem. One can change some
things in the world but changing
the whole world is impossible.
HM: Is love important to you?
MS: Yes.
HM: What does love bring to your
life?
MS: Love is a gift of life. It gives
ever y thing, because you are
satisfied, you are relaxed, you
see that there is nothing nega-
tive outside that can reach in-
side you. My mother slept for 9
months at the hospital in one
small, metal bed, close to my
father; she never slept at home
before he died when he was at
the hospital. This is love. With what we have we can destroy
everything today, because we have too much. And men are not
so strong. For example, I have never insisted on anything in my
house because I am not strict, but when I was young, nobody
started to eat if my father was not sitting at the table. Without
telephones in our hands… There was total respect for my moth-
er. My father was ready to die for my mother. If people can go
back in time a little bit they would see that many of the problems
of today are about this.
HM: What do you like the most about Monaco?
MS: It’s my second home. I’m not at ease as much with it today be-
cause it’s completely changing. Monaco is like a painting. Class, se-
curity, wonderful people, intelligent and rich and the quality of life. It
is a perfect place. Now, I think maybe the world is changing. We feel
secure and everything, but we’re losing the nice people and style of
life from before. The face of it has completely changed. Maybe to be
part of the world’s system, in order to get into Europe, you need more
space. But Monte-Carlo, I don’t know if you remember, the picture of
how it was, the casino, beach, nice beautiful houses. Look at it now.
However, when you go outside of Monaco, you see the difference,
that’s why I live here.