Cipriano Quintas, businessman: “Always talking about the bad is good business for many”

The writer, Cipriano Quintas, in a file image. EDITORIAL PLANETACipriano Quintas (Madrid, 57 years old) has been giving lectures on success and the meaning of happiness for more than 30 years. People from all over the world recognize it as a reference for creating links and relationships that benefit all parties in order to travel the most assertive path to success, true success. He is considered one of the greatest networking experts in Spanish speaking (that network of professional contacts that allows you to publicize your work and experiences to connect with more people and companies). The Networking book (Planeta, 2017) —whose prologues have been written by personalities such as David Bisbal, Susanna Griso, José Mota and Miguel Ángel Revilla— has dozens of reissues and has become a user manual for those who want to have successful companies and fruitful projects. Sawubona (Planet, 2024) is his most recent work, and the title refers to the greeting in the Zulu language—an African people who live in South Africa—and which means “I see you, you are important to me and I value you.” With this book, Quintas wants people to approach the concept of success and happiness, taking others into account and valuing vulnerability, sincerity, work and empathy. Tell me about Sabouwona, and the vital moment you were in when you came across the African concept and then how that word became part of the book. Answer. I had already written a large part of the book, but I couldn't find the common thread. I remember perfectly that it was a spring day last year (2023), and I have a restaurant where things happen… It is very famous in Madrid because it is a place where people come to have things happen. I think I am the only person who is capable of meeting in a restaurant, my own restaurant, to eat with four tables and nothing happens because I live widely and life gives me the possibility of meeting many people. And I was there, sitting and I was a little overwhelmed because I couldn't find the leitmotif, and suddenly I said, I'm going to put 'good person' in Google, and I put in several things or the important thing about being a good person and I get a photo of a black guy. with my hand on my heart looking at the camera and I thought: and who is this guy? I clicked and told the story of Sabouwona, a tradition that this tribe in southern Africa has that when someone makes a mistake or makes a mistake, for two days they take them to the center of the village and remind them of all the good they have done throughout the years. his life. That impressed me because, look how simple it is, how instead of scolding people, instead of picking on them, instead of valuing the bad, they put the good. I think that the main objective that a person should have is to try to be good all their life.P. Being a good person…? A. I am a lover of oxytocin, because it fills you with fulfillment and you have to know how to get it out… Kindness is closely linked to being a good person and being a good person generates trust and if you generate trust you can do whatever you want and that's where it comes.P . How long had you been writing the book when you had this motivation to search for it on Google? A. Easily one year. I take a lot of time to write a book. My creative process is that I record and dictate a lot of things to Siri, then ideas come to me. I am not a writer, in fact when they introduce me as a writer I look back to see who they are talking about. Then I organize it, I print it and with scissors I cut it out and staple the chapters because I believe that my creative process is very about touching, very about sharing and I share it with people and see what the world is teaching me.P. That image you describe is very surprising. That of a person like you, who has been doing what you have been doing for more than 30 years, searching on Google: good person…R. It was because I was lost. Because what I want to try to give in the book, just like the previous one, is how to relate to others, and I wanted there to be an achievement. What I wanted to convey is that if you want to achieve success, true success, you have to dedicate yourself to giving, helping others and also receiving. Learn to receive because receiving has been my last great learning. I try to be an example and it is true that I do many real social things. When I say that the world is full of talkers, of people who have opinions on everything, it is because I always ask people to look on Google to see if what they say is what they do. We need more people to guide us by their example, not by their words. I am passionate about valuing the true superheroes who are the real people, the vulnerable ones. When you show vulnerability, you show that you are real, you build trust, people come to you to help you and you are better because you show your mistakes and your flaws.P. These are difficult times to talk about what you talk about. Of the collective, of being vulnerable, but at the same time when we look around us it is a super-individualistic world and social networks, for example, have exacerbated it. What do you think about how what you say impacts a world that is always telling us the opposite? A. You cannot be happy if you do not generate oxytocin because we are chemicals. When you are vulnerable, most people are going to shake your hand and help you. I have a nightclub, I have had many, imagine how dangerous the night is, because I have managed to have many other businesses and I have managed to get the institutions, the politicians, the police to take care of us, because everyone wants good, like that tribe. Those superheroes, bullies and these powerful people who are now superheroes, are the weakest in the world because they are not real, you cannot be strong 24 hours a day in a world where they value the bad. Being constantly on alert is big business for many. Talking about the bad is good business for many. Social networks are skyrocketing the level of suicides, because what young people are looking for is dopamine, likes, approval, and what they generate is being fragile. My book is an agitation for everyone, but I also do it in the conferences, I try to be an example. I have opened more than 34 leisure venues, I currently have six companies and I have opened more than 15 throughout my life, but I am the result of a lot of failures. I always tell people, don't believe what I tell you, first come, look and I do what I say. I do not pretend to be your guru, nor to be above anyone, nor to give lessons to anyone, I propose to share what I see. And since I have a great agenda of the most prestigious soccer players, of the 10 richest men in the world, of people who have earned a lot and earned little, of people on the street, these are my conclusions from life. It is a great business to do good, it is the best business in the world.P. There are people who write to him, who approach him, who go to his conferences in all parts of the world. What is the concept of success for them? What differences are there, for example, with people from Latin America, how do they receive these concepts about success? A. Latin America is wonderful, we are the Latinos themselves, those of us who don't realize it. The Latino knows how to live, he knows how to enjoy, he knows how to eat, he knows how to talk to his family, he knows how to relate, he knows how to hug. The other day I went to see the Tigres del Norte, I am a friend of Jorge, the singer. At the end he sang a song that talks about Latin America. At the concert there was only one flag: the flag of love, a single color. Success for Latinos, true success, is family, it is loving each other, it is living. We want to live big, but they put the opposite in our heads, they tell us that success is in having, in earning money, in being powerful, in commanding others. And I know many who command a lot, many who have a lot of money, many who are very powerful, and none, none of them believe that they are successful. They think that they are not, because they have a success based on dissatisfaction, which is one of the great evils along with loneliness. 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