We had the good fortune of connecting with DIEGO ANDRES and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi DIEGO, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk is a factor you always have to play with. If you don’t take risks, you don’t win, and that’s part of life. With time and experience you may win more times than you lose, but failure is also a part of victory. I have been in comfortable jobs, where it was not necessary to take any risk, neither at work nor in life, but also with very little evolution. If you are in your initial stage of your career, you have to make mistakes, you have to assert yourself when you are right and try to be non-conformist whenever you can. And non-conformism and risk are very good friends and it is very good that it belongs to your gang.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I would say curiosity and excitement to do things. It must be a chemical thing that happens in my body, but when there is a new idea that I can do, when an artist or a brand comes with a problem that I know I can solve in a powerful and creative way, I still have that feeling of “I want to do it now, this is going to look super cool” and I feel excited about it and for everyone to see it.

If we talk about values, there are several, I couldn’t tell you just one. We have talked about curiosity and enthusiasm as the driving forces of my career, but I would say that something that is very important to me and that I have managed to manage well over time is tolerance of failure. You have to relativise mistakes, learn from them, give them the importance they deserve but no more than the right amount and not let them become something that you carry with you for a long time and that paralyses you. When you manage to see that you don’t have to look back too often, everything changes.

The other principle that I have been following for some time now is simple but sometimes difficult to see: treat people as you would like to be treated, be a good person and companion and help those around you as much as possible by sharing knowledge or resources.

Where are you from and how did your background and upbringing impact who you are today?

I’m from Barcelona (Spain), from a working class neighbourhood like El Clot. Since I was a child I have always seen at home what it means to buy and sell because that’s what I did with my father in antique markets. I have always been in contact with people, knowing their stories and looking for/finding objects that had an emotional connection for them (this gave me a lot of general knowledge about many things).

Since I was a child I have drawn, made graffiti, clothes and art related things. My studies have always gone between those worlds. I first studied contemporary jewellery and then advertising, design and some fashion as well.

All this has made me a person with many different interests, versatile and always around creativity. I also learned that sometimes a good idea is less of an idea if it is not well transmitted. You have to know how to sell it.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think I draw on a lot of people around me, who I always consult, ask for their opinion and I am interested in what they say. Luckily there are many of them, and as I’m sure I’m leaving some out, those who know who they are will be alluded to. A big shout out to them. I love you.

Website: www.diego-andres.com

Instagram: thelastdiego

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/helloitsdiego/

Image Credits
Cristina Robles (only Personal Photo)

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