What no system will teach you

The number one thing

Before I start talking about my system, I want to set out what this system cannot teach. First, it cannot teach the fundamental thing: the will to work. Without doubt the most important of all.

It cannot teach the will to work the 12 hours a day that are essential to develop any kind of business. I say it straight away, because people who buy a book or sign up for a course sometimes hope to find a shortcut inside that isn't there.

The myth of the automatic company

There are no automatic companies, especially when we are talking about SMEs. The myth of creating a company that, once it has a structure, magically produces millions in turnover with minimal effort from the entrepreneur is exactly that: a legend.

All the entrepreneurs I know, with companies in the real world, devote most of their time to growing the company, and every day they are mainly in the company or with their main customers.

If we move up a level and talk about large Italian companies, think of Urbano Cairo, who brought RCS into profit at a time when newspapers were in crisis, and keeps it in profit today: €54.8 million in net profit in 2025, with advertising falling and digital growing. Or Elisabetta Franchi, who doubled turnover in ten years, kept EBITDA around 30% and opened in Miami and Houston in 2025 and 2026. Both are examples of entrepreneurs who live in their company with the aim of growing it. Even with structured companies and top-level managers, their daily commitment never lets up.

Let's raise the bar again and cross the ocean. People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, in the early start-up years of their companies, companies that changed the world, often slept on the office sofa. When Elon Musk launched the Tesla Model 3 in 2018, he had a flood of orders to fulfil: production was struggling to deliver the cars and Musk took a sleeping bag so he could stay in the factory and solve his company's problems. Eight years later he is still there. In 2025 Tesla had the first fall in revenue in its history, and shareholders voted him a $1 trillion share package to keep him at the company for another ten years. Whatever you think of him, the founder is in the company.

There are no automatic companies. All the entrepreneurs I know, with companies in the real world, devote most of their time to growing them.

The entrepreneur's two abilities

As an entrepreneur, there are two essential things you need to develop.

The first is strategic ability: knowledge of the market, knowledge of the competition, acquiring up-to-date knowledge of marketing and sales through continuous training, building a network of professionals who fill your gaps, such as accountants and lawyers specialising in company law.

The second is the physical effort of the hours worked, both on the company's business model and inside the company. Especially in the start-up phase, or in times of crisis and market change, as happened in 2008, in 2011, in 2020 with the pandemic, in 2022 with energy and inflation, and in 2025 with American tariffs.

Only the first can be learnt.

In the classroom I add a third thing, which is not in the book: a clear vision of where you want to get to, and the ability to see when things are not working and be ruthless in cutting them. Inside the company, that means suppliers and employees. Outside, it means customers, who may be yours today but tomorrow, for their own reasons, will no longer be there. I cannot tie my whole life to customers who can disappear: I saw it during the retail crisis, when I was doing badly because my customers were doing badly. That is not how it should work.

What I can teach

I can teach a seven-step system, which is neither easy nor quick: a logical working method that starts from why you have to sell at high prices, by creating a brand at the high end of the market, supported by marketing designed specifically to communicate your high-end brand and the products linked to it. Then the fundamental role of modern distribution, of publicity (public relations) and of advertising (a role quite distinct from marketing), closing the system with the sale.

This system was born from thinking about my company's business model, trying to innovate the way we sell in our sector. I applied it before I wrote it down, and everything I have built was done thanks to this system. But the system comes second. First comes the will to get up in the morning and go to the company.

There is no formula here that works without work. For those willing to put in the hours, the seven steps, in order, are useful, because working hard in the wrong direction is the most expensive thing an entrepreneur can do.

From my book Direct from Milano and my classroom courses. Figures and examples updated to September 2026.