We go out to the balconies and windows of our houses every day, at 8:00 pm, to applaud the health personnel, firefighters, police, truckers, supermarket employees, etc., for all the good they are doing for us. Let’s keep doing it. They deserve it. They give everything to get us out of this as soon as possible. One of my sisters is geriatrician. She has a residence in our hometown, and I applaud her also every day. For her to come intact after a day among a vulnerable group, such as her aged people, who by the way have not been affected so far. I knock on wood. Thus, I understand the concern of families and friends who have a loved one in these groups. And surely that among the applauded there are more groups than those I have mentioned. My apologies for forgetting them.
Today I had the opportunity to speak with an entrepreneur. A man who runs his business with clear ideas, determination and courage, as corresponds to a modern businessman. And I have realized that if there is a forgotten group in the collective imagination, a group that does not enter into an applause, it is the entrepreneur’s and the businessmen’s one, basically the small ones. The freelancers who open their businesses every day, see how orders have dropped, how nobody or hardly anybody enters the shop, how bills accumulate and obligations do not stop. And how heavy it is to not know whether you will be an entrepreneur tomorrow or you will become a salaried employee of the largest company in the State, the one that swallows your children in a stark and unrepentant way.
In these times when there is so much talk about reinventing ourselves, about resilience, leadership, dystopia, or about applying new management methods, as if suddenly the old ones were not worth it, I have preferred to go to something much more basic. To the individual who suffers, or who is having a bad time, but that his entrepreneurial race prevents him from throwing in the towel, from lowering his head and accepting what is coming. He or she who has risen so many times simply expecting that each day is better than the last one. They are not going to bend.
Today I have gone out on the balcony of my house, and since my confinement, I have applauded for all of them. For their strength, for their courage, for their struggle, for how they cope with their anguish, for being the main forgotten ones whom nobody helps. So that they feel the warmth of my spirit, with how much or how little I can do, so that they see that they are not alone, to fight for our tomorrow, and not only for today, being sure that behind the darkness the light comes out. In order that we can all together with this. But specially to see that tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. I can again applaud all of them, without missing a single one, without any of them having stopped being what they want to be: entrepreneurs. It will be the best sign.