Pocket Recorder on the Nightstand

"It is said that in the 1970s, the three hours he spent in bed every night were often interrupted by sudden ideas, and for this reason, he kept a pocket recorder on his nightstand. If while sleeping he comes up with a solution to a problem or a way to expand production and business, as soon as he opens his eyes he jots it down and then goes back to sleep."

"Rest is not an option. When he really can't take it anymore, he helps himself with simpamina, which many used at the time. It was sold in pharmacies, even the domestiques of Fausto Coppi took it at the Giro. It helps to stay awake and focused. It is actually amphetamine, a drug in every respect, produced by Recordati and sold freely until 1972, without any prescription."

""The boss is a steamroller who sets himself new and exciting goals," one of the managers from those years explains to me. "He teaches you and gives you confidence, knows how to charge you up in the right way. But he never gives up, never." You are sucked into his project, his creative destruction at a steady pace. "He has an accelerated concept of time," another manager tells me. "In recent years, even more so." He is the CEO but also the head of department, foreman, commercial office, and planning and control. He notices every smallest detail. It's useless to try to hide anything from him, the only thing that really drives him crazy."

""I used to come to the factory in the morning at five or six, whenever I woke up, and I would stay until midnight." That's why he prefers to talk about Luxottica, rather than about himself. The identification is such that it's only the company that fully represents the entrepreneur. Loved ones – wife, children, siblings – necessarily take a back seat in those years. "The company is my life," he says in the interview with Biagi. "And it's also a great responsibility.""