The Safe Box – Paolo Gallo

Witten by Paolo Gallo

“Dear Valued Customer – the letter from the Bank was elegantly printed – please don’t have any regrets in 2022…” the beginning of the letter caught my attention: “You should consider renting a safe box in our premises: they come in several sizes and prices, starting from only….”

The Safe Box – Paolo Gallo

The Letter continued with some scary statistics about how many apartments and houses are “visited” by burglars. Effective marketing technique, I have to admit, to convince a valued customer to rent a safe box.

Sure: I do not want to have any regrets in 2022 but somehow the regrets of having my possessions stolen rate very low in my list: partly because I don’t have any, except several thousand books and records, that seem difficult to store in a safe box, even a big one. Point is: we all know that this kind of regret is not so relevant if we think – and feel – about it.

Interestingly, the very same day I finished re-reading for the 4th time an amazing book: “The top 5 regrets of the dying” by Bronnie Ware, a palliative nurse that has her life transformed by the dearly departed. Her professional and personal experience is outstanding in terms of emotions, caring, learning, pain, tears and joy.

Bronnie has – literally – accompanied many unfortunate people during the painful and devastating last chapter of their life: she has written her book to share the top regrets of the dying. Lets see if the regret of not having a safe box in a Bank basement is among them, shall we?

# 1 – I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. To me – for example – to have the courage to choose a job that makes you feel alive, not important…to follow what makes sense to you, to be your true self.

#2 – I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. We know it well: we still have in our heart the – true regret – that we have chosen a meeting over the birthday of our child, an email over a kiss, an extra hour at the office rather than an extra hour with our spouse.

#3 – I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. This is so true. How many times we wanted to say something and we didn’t? How Many imaginary conversations we had in our mind, in lieu of real conversations?

#4 – I wished I stayed in touch with my friends. Yes, the real friends, not the ones on Facebook or Instagram. The friend who – no matter how much time has passed – is still able to tell you what you don’t want to hear, the one who makes you laugh as if you are still in high school, the one who would come at 3 am to help you: these people, the real one.

#5 – I wish I had let myself be happier.

The lesson from Bronnie Ware is priceless: a tender and a respectful reminder of what really matters in life that cannot be stored in any safe box but only in our hearts & souls.

About the author

Paolo Gallo has delivered more than 100 keynotes including 10 Downing Street, World Economic Forum in Davos, Ferrari, FCA-Fiat, LVMH, Manpower, World Bank, Microsoft, United Nations, Toyota, Ministry of Economics and Finance(Italy) ,LVMH, Citigroup, Blackrock, UBS, ENI, Unicredit, Salesforce, IATA, WTO, WHO, WIPO, British Chamber of Commerce, PWC, IMD, St.Gallen, Antwerp Management Schools, Starbucks and given TEDx and several commencement speeches worldwide.

Paolo has served as Chief Human Resources Officer at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and has also been Chief Learning at The World Bank in Washington DC and Director of Human Resources at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, with prior experience at the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC and at Citigroup in London, New York and Milan, his hometown.