Was one of your grandmothers sexy?
My maternal grandmother: Judeo-Mallorca, yes.
Does that mark?
There was stigma. Something has remained: if they got angry, my grandfather still called him “xuetona”…
What inspires you?
I am attracted to ancient cultures, both Jewish and many others.
What interests you about them?
His wisdom to better live our lives. I have searched for knowledge in Japan, the East, Africa, Europe…
What do you find in the Hebrew tradition?
A wise Israeli woman put me on Mazal’s trail, a concept I unraveled.
What is Mazal?
Did you see Fiddler on the Roof, the movie?
Yeah.
They sing Mazeltov, a song to wish fortune, good luck, wealth… It comes from the Hebrew voice mazal.
What does it mean?
“Luck”, and derives from the medieval Hebrew term for “destiny”.
Luck, destiny: forces majeure!
It has its ancestral Semitic root in ancient Mesopotamia, where it meant “position of a star.”
We still say “you have a lucky star.”
Your fortune, in any case, depends on heaven as much as on you.
Can I attract my own fortune?
The day my mother died I had to deliver a book: I delivered it, I arrived at the hospital… and my mother had already died.
I’m sorry. What do you want to tell me?
At that time I was working like crazy. I felt guilty. But all my life I had seen my mother work like this, from dawn to dusk.
He had learned it from her, then.
She, then, would have wanted to see me deliver my work. And so I was able to forgive myself.
Was he a workaholic?
And I ended up in depression. Today I wouldn’t act like that.
He was talking to me about how to attract fortune…
Pay attention to the Hebrew secret: being 0.2% of the world’s population, Jews receive more than one hundred Nobel Prizes!
And what is the key?
It is in the Mazal voice, whose consonants are eloquent: M refers to “place”; Z, at “time”; and L, to “action.”
And the message is…
Act at the right time and in the right place.
Act appropriately.
And it is basic to train, to study. And ally: nothing great is achieved without alliances!
Take note.
Also note this quote from Nietzsche that Victor Frankl noted: “He who has why to live can overcome any how.”
And what is your “why”?
My father had books. He read, he wrote. He didn’t talk to me. He was mysterious. I published my first book… and he read it.
And that stimulated you?
“I will never read you again, your book makes no sense,” he said, which deeply frustrated me.
Well, you haven’t stopped publishing…
My father is long dead. But… am I proving something to him? Maybe that’s it.
Where did you find support?
In my loneliness. If I write books, translate, record albums (Hotel Guru), have dinner with inspiring friends… it is to prevent my deep melancholy from emerging.
Personal growth books, right?
With a pseudonym, many. My books are more famous than me. In my first book I condensed two hundred personal growth books: one per page… But my most famous book is titled Ikigai.
What counts there?
I explore human longevity and what encourages you to live (that means ikigai in Japanese). Oprah Winfrey recommended it on TV, she has already had sixty-six translations…
What other pearls for a better life do ancestral wisdoms hide?
The wise thing is to be kind. Because we will always need each other.
Thank you! Another pearl, please.
If you do not bring your unconscious to the conscious, it will govern you and you will call it destiny.
Other.
If pain cannot be postponed, why are you postponing happiness?
Other.
You only have what you can’t lose in a shipwreck.
Other.
One loneliness another loneliness = zero loneliness.
Other.
Every time could be the last time.
Other.
There are no small tasks.
Other.
Learn to receive.
And two others, the last two.
Find someone to look like. And… when you get angry, do the opposite of what you would do!