Passion, perseverance, preparation, creativity and an elegant dose of nerve, but only where and when it is needed. Everyone of them rigorously under 40 years old. Everyone of them with some suggestion that we should listen to, because the match with Italy is always at stake. And they are the ones on who we should bet on. With this cover story, One wants to raise the curtain on the Italian excellence, which is made by people, principles, and ideas. One wants to do it in order to meditate on these stories, to celebrate the faces of success, to share the tricks of the trade for an always-bigger Italy, for a number ones’ Italy.

Beauty-without-age is a family field. Both his mother and sister, pharmacists, are committed in the research and formulation of anti-age products. His father is a world-renowned plastic surgeon.  When crossing Bocconi’s gates to study business economics Giovanni D’Antonio didn’t fear the outsider’s label. “Initially I was torn. I knew I was dragged towards two apparently different directions. On one side, marketing, my passion and vocation; on the other side, the desire to be part of a project able to connect every member of my family. Still, since the first day of that experience I was certain that I could have been a piece of that puzzle. And one day, going along with my intuition, Miamo was born”.

Miamo is a young cosmetic brand devoted to treat every typology of skin’s age. It is declined in three product lines dedicated to every phase of life. “The pun” – the young entrepreneur explains – “it’s easily deducible. Miamo (I-love-myself, editor’s note) is a recall to self-regard, to take care of oneself”.

Out of the university D’Antonio decided to apply his know-how to the family’s project, and in a short amount of time he was able to develop the brand with a widespread distribution in Italian pharmacies and one product (Acnever) became leader of his market sector. While his father gives the inputs with respect to the different needs that each different age has, his mother and sister study and develop new products. Then, it is D’Antonio’s duty to find the right formula to position those products in an always more competitive market.

ONE followed Giovanni d’Antonio in his auto-defined “regular day” between meetings, business launches, and meetings with clients. At the end, we discovered that it is possible to perform the Tour of Italy in one lap around the clock.

Naples, 6am: Awakening and run on the seafront. “It is an habit that I have had from my childhood. The muscular awakening coincides with the ideas’ awakening. It can be the sunrise, the dark of the winter days, the rain and lately also the snow. But I would never renounce to this routine”.

7am: Breakfast with the news, rigorously on paper. “Internet is always with us. To read in real-time I use the blackberry. The traditional daily newspapers always maintain their allure”.

Naples, train station, 8:30am: The tour starts. First meeting is in Rome, where the training team waits for him. “I strongly believe in human contact. The company’s guidelines are always available to our collaborators, our pharmacists, and our sales force. Still, for the their motivation and for the quality of the service, the proximity to the people that work with us is paramount.  I enjoy consulting with them, to receive their feedback”.

Rome, Meeting room, 11am: After the introduction speech, Giovanni is asked in the meeting room, where an international buyer group awaits to meet him.

Rome, Termini Station, 3:00pm: In the waiting room is the moment for a Skype call with the Miami branch. “Miamo was born in Miami. It was born from an Italian intuition and an American production. My sister, Camilla, is the youngest member of the American Anti Age Society. The team in Miami is dynamic and always ready to pick up new trends and ideas. There are new inspirations and confirmations everyday.

Florence, 4:30pm: Giovanni meets Camilla at an open-day event in a pharmacy in the center of the city. “We cultivate the direct relationship with pharmacy’s clients. Those clients give us the most concrete signal to refine our work. In fact, the inspiration comes from our client’s needs”.

Milan, happy hour: Informal meeting with some journalists. They ask the question we wanted to ask and here is the answer: “As an expert in marketing and strategic advisory, my main contribution to the company is to make everyone understand that some marketing rules need to be rewrote for a new generation of consumers that doesn’t care about costly testimonials, huge campaigns and catchy slogan”.

Milan, 8pm: Dinner with One’s head editor, Letizia Bonelli. The question about the crisis is inevitable. The answer has a surprisingly positive angle. “If we define the crisis as something that forces us to curb the superfluous substituting it with substance and with the meritocracy that everyone so often tends to forget, I say hooray for the crisis. To choose wrong or useless products and services is a luxury that we cannot afford anymore.  Food and care of oneself are fields that resist. Data speaks clearly about this. In these fields measurement is made on the quality index. If the product gives results one will keep consuming it. If not, one will stop buying it”.

Milano, Armani Café, 11.30 pm: Life is not just work, but where this man finds all this energy is a mystery. Maybe it’s true that his nutritional supplements work. However, he promises to stay there for just an hour. Tomorrow a flight from Malpensa will be another day’s kick-off.

She had a successful make-up artist career, until the turning point that leaded her to change. And, all of the sudden, it is prêt à couture. Astrid Fataki, native of Caserta, decided to create something new breathing deeply the desire for a change that is in the air. She started her first collection of dresses in the middle between prêt à porter and haute couture. “When one turns her back to a career, one shouldn’t have fear to lose something. What we have learnt in the past is inspiration for new projects. In my case, I think about dresses as body’s make-up. Thus, I think about dresses able to exploit virtues and skillfully hide defects. Because dresses are a second skin”.

His blog (www.achitettoconsiglia.com) reveals some tricks of the trade without avarice and with huge openness towards the reader. This generosity denotes self-confidence and distance from that démodé archi-star attitude, which many consider inextricably intertwined with this profession. From the famous houses to use as inspiration to the little tricks for the home staging, with practical examples on how to transform houses and offices in a place both functional to use and beautiful to see. Alessio Carrabino explains the importance of the project when transforming a space in something unique. This formula should be utilized also when facing a professional objective and not just a house. In fact, aren’t the variables taken in consideration by a project (foundations, materials, spaces, time, geographic and cultural context, clients) the same that exist in a start up?

He is a graphic designer for Ikea during office-time and a full time artist for the rest of the day. Alessandro D’Aquila is part of the movement of the Fu*Tourists: “I have learnt that contemporary communication doesn’t allow interpretation; because of this very reason I paint “synthetic panoramas”, which are simply reduced to form of colors, that is the way a blind person would describe them. I would create a sort of parity between who possess a sense and who doesn’t. I would like to put them on the same footing, to give to the observer a feeling of bewilderment using the brail language, which is almost incomprehensible to the majority of the people. Paradoxically, it has a huge visual impact and it is able to communicate a deep sense of dismay to the ones that can’t understand it. I would like to make visual art suitable for those who look at it and not for those who simply can see”.

Andrea Carpinteri is one of the actors of Carvina, a short film born from the huge passion of a friend’s group and fantastic filmmakers. The short film wants to be the mirror for the contemporary generation of the so-called “under 30”.

Patty, Ste, and Lollo are three old friends. They grew up in the same neighborhood facing the typical questions of those who are searching for a turning point in life.

Carvina’s protagonist is a lottery ticket. The topics (lottery, scratch and win, bets, casino) have always had a strong influence on people’s life. To believe in a life-change because of a victory is a mechanism created to give the people the illusion that, all of the sudden, they will be able to start living the life they’ve been dreaming about. Peculiarity of this project is its funding, a bet started on the web (http://www.100-days.net), with 100 days to reach the break even point for the production expenses, where the web users financed the movie becoming shareholders of the project. A won bet, and an idea to take as an example.

“My best quality? Tenacity.

I was born in a marvelous family in which I was taught the sense of duty and the certainty that without effort no result can be achieved. Finished high school I wanted to discover the most difficult path to follow. I wasn’t and I am not afraid by challenges. This concept was blended with a lucid memory: I was a kid and I was with my father. We were at the notary. The authority of this person fascinated me because it derived from his competence. It derived from his certainty of having not just one solution but the right solution to the problem. I decided that I wanted to be like that person. Thus, I started to walk my path to build that competence, that awareness. It was a path without Saturdays and Sundays. Some defeats helped me to understand that the real strength is to keep believing in your dreams. I became a lawyer, but I love the “white-and-black” mentality. I love things to be represented for what they are and not for what one wants others to believe they are. Thus, I persevered and I won my challenge. In the meantime, I have been interested also in business and I’ve been following courses for the young entrepreneurs; I helped a friend to develop a fun idea that was the first step that leaded her to success; I taught law and nourished my mind with many other things in order to maintain it open towards real life.

Today I’m fully committed to my profession, because only the first bricks are in place. My challenge is now to enter in the Gotha for merit, ability and effort. Because also in Italy merit has value, contrary to what the thousands of clichés with which we love to surround ourselves say about this country. It will not be easy, but if the objective is clear everything is in our hands”

The  payment is a critical moment for the majority of the professionals, particularly if one cashes-in less than what one was used to do. When these problems start to be difficult to handle the debt collector enters in the picture. How can one choose the right one? Vincenzo Anello, Creditcons’ Administrator draws the identikit for right debt collector. “In our field is fundamental:

1. To have a polite and respectful attitude. With those, one can understand the reasons that leaded to a deterioration of the situation. In this way it will be possible to help the parties to find a solution.

2. To describe the problem clearly and politely. The professional’s attitude must transmit professionalism and trust, without using intimidating and boisterous behavior. The credit consultant can really help the debtor to solve the debt situation. When this happens, the relationship of trust is bilateral.

3. To guarantee the maximum privacy of the data, working with resoluteness and concreteness, and not asking for expenses and interests beyond the assignment received (debt collection’s ethic means to not take advantage of other’s difficulties).

To keep your promises is today an obsoleted virtue, in a cynic society that is also always more indifferent to chivalry. How many problems could be avoided if only people kept their promises? I believe many. To honor one’s word would allow to avoid processes that often leads to ephemeral results and high costs. Sometimes, legal counsel can make things easier. The lawyer’s intervention in the out-of-court resolution is in fact decisive for the respect of the rights implicated in the matter. The recent intervention of the legislator (d.l. 132/2014, turned into law n. 162/2014) introduced the so-called “assisted negotiation”, which aims to solve litigations in a friendly way with lawyer’s aid. The negotiation can lead to an agreement undersigned by both the parties and the lawyers. This agreement is an executive title for the inscription of the lien on property. Therefore, the result is the same that can be obtained with a judicial sentence but in our case there are considerable savings both in terms of money and time.

She is Tuscan by origin and Milan adopted her. When she sits in front of the piano, she is international because of her studies and her reputation. Chiara Orsetti knows how to give meaning to everything that is in between the black and white (of the keyboard) in an infinitive number of sound’s shades. The decision to became a concert performer data back to her childhood. She recount to ONE: “The emotion produced by applauses, the adrenaline that one has in front of the score, the energy released when music is in the air conquered me from the beginning, when piano lessons were an investment to enjoy the free time”. “Today’s instruments of communication are formidable. With a simple Whatsapp one is able to cultivate professional relations despite having oceans in the middle. There are social networks that can help to spread one’s name in a specific field and others that can help to meet who is similar to us. Still, exactly as it is when listening to music, when working one must not undervalue the importance of the “live” relationship, in which sensations have the right dimension. The important thing is to touch the right keys both in a company and in a piano” We asked her the perfect soundtrack for a business day

Transform interests from individual to collective… (in three tweets)

She is an expert in communication and external relations. As voluntary work, Maria Satta Flores accepted to be appointed as Telethon’s Ambassador, firmly convinced of the importance of the scientific research and of the commitment of the single person in favor of the community. Being her pragmatic and mindfully of the so-called “fast-communication”, she expressed the motivations of her decisions in three tweets:

«#Telethonproud I’m proud of the results of the Italian scientific research, which is exported everywhere in the world and financed only by private contributions.

#everyday I try to do something for others. For my family, for my friends and for everyone whom I don’t know and that I can help.

#Iexist Each and every child is equal, every life is equally precious. Every kid has the right to a diagnosis and to therapy”