MONACO WORDS OF WISDOM
this will to achieve a certain goal, definitely kills procrastination and
it keeps you more focused.
HM: What is financial wellbeing for you?
LdG: For me, financial wellbeing is having the ability to avoid stuff
that I would not like not to do. That’s it. So I think that financial well-
being helps. Of course, you have higher goals than that and create
stability for your family and create stability for a series of things and
focus more on what makes you more productive. On the next level,
you can hire people to do stuff that you’re not good at or wasting
your time on. Like filling invoices and getting some of the hotel bills
checked ten times if the coffee was included or not. This type of
stuff, so you can focus more on what you’re good at. This, for me, is
financial wellbeing. Just being able to do what I like and being able
to focus on what is relevant.
HM: Do you think money is important for success?
LdG: It is important because society is based on this capitalist cul-
ture and you need to pay for services and stuff, but it’s definitely not
the most important, no. Health, for example, is much more impor-
tant than money. Knowledge is much more important than money.
Having family and people that you like being healthy and happy. Of
course, money is important, but it’s just part of a much larger equa-
tion and it’s not the most important factor of it.
HM: Do you consider yourself a successful person?
LdG: I don’t think success is an end game. I think success is a point.
I think it’s part of a process. I think I’ve been achieving a lot of what
I wanted, I’ve been working very hard, but I haven’t achieved all my
goals. So far, I can say that I have some successes in my life, but I need
to continue working on this development phase. It’s like happiness:
you achieve a goal and you are happy, and another goal, you’re hap-
The way I see purpose in life, you have
to do what you love and what
you’re good at; you have to spend
time with people that you love and
make you happy.
py. It’s not a state; it’s a series of steps. Success, for me, is the same.
I’m just going up these stairs, which are very long and each step is
a small success and I’m trying to go up the stairs as much as I can.
HM: What makes you happy?
LdG: There are a lot of things that make me happy. Success is one of
them, so I try to reach my goals. Seeing people that I like happy and
helping them achieve their goals makes me happy too. And some-
times I have to remind myself that when I’m unhappy, the reasons
are sometimes so small that it shouldn’t make me unhappy. Maybe
a race went badly or there was a problem with the car or this or that,
but in the big picture, it doesn’t affect my long-term goal. So I try to
tell myself that I shouldn’t be unhappy: «You’re still healthy, you are
still motivated, the goal is still there».
HM: What role does love play in your life?
LdG: I think people try not to rationalise love because they think it’s
something mystical. But for me, it’s something quite rational. I love
and take care of my family and my wife, and my kid that is coming —
I already love him a lot! I love my job and I love what I do. So love
gives me motivation to continue. If I would lose these things, I think
I would lose my purpose. The reason why I do the stuff that I do and
the reason I wake up early and go to work and why I take five flights
a week is because of love. Love gives the motivation to do all of that.
That is why it’s so important. If I didn’t have love, life would have
much less meaning.
Lucas and his wife Bianca Diniz Caloi
with Pope Francis
28 / Hello Monaco Summer–Autumn 2018
HM: Do you agree that if you don’t love yourself, you can’t love any-
one else?
LdG: It’s a difficult question, because in life, you need balance.
And if you’re not happy with yourself, you’re not going to achieve
this balance. So yes, loving yourself or being happy with who
you are is important. If you don’t love yourself, you need to find
the reason why you don’t love yourself. And work on this «piece
of the pie». You have to get yourself into equilibrium first. If I’m