Ancora impara

The story goes that at the end of his life Michelangelo made an allegorical sketch of an old man accompanied by the words ‘ancora impara’. Translated it means “I’m still learning” and because I’ve had it with GLOOM & DOOM I’ve decided to blog about BLOOM instead. I want to deliver some good news and I found my inspiration in this wonderful phrase,
‘ancora impara’.

I recently wrote a blog, quite rightly bagging the accountants, administrators and so called economic doom sayers about their constant negative input into our profession. I’ve had a few comments and I’m shocked. I didn’t realise these jokers were that sensitive, some of them actually found they had
a heart.

After various conversations with these sensitive souls I’m now convinced these chaps are only happy when things are well and truly stuffed. So in absolute defiance I’m going to write the good stuff and to hell with
the excreta.

Ancora impara! How wonderful that a genius can reach the ripe old age of 89 and proudly state “I’m still learning”. It’s wonderful and timely because learning is something we all need at this moment of history. We need to use these moments of so called challenge to learn all we can, so as to work towards ensuring we never make the same mistakes again.

In marketing terms it’s pretty simple because we don’t possess a formula that works for every company, every time. We have some basic fundamentals but they are more like guides than foundations. What this brings to our profession like no other is ‘ancora impara’ and that, ladies and gents is something very special, because unlike the administrative ‘know it alls’ we live in an imperfect world, needing to think, be sharp and use our intelligence, wit and experience to stand, speak and survive.

There are no marketing ‘wise men’ just people with more ‘intelligent ignorance’ than others. Learning is powerful, fulfilling and skews the bent away from the negative to the positive. For example, I’m learning not to see GLOOM just BLOOM. It’s like the old gardener once said about his lemons, “When they’re green, they’re growing; when they’re ripe, they’re rotten”. I’m green and blooming Michelangelo – ‘ancora impara’.