Gianluca Vacchi

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INTERVIEW WITH GIANLUCA VACCHI

Entrepreneur. Social media star. DJ. Producer. These are all but a few of the many different ventures that this man has under his belt. Gianluca Vacchi is a world renown personality; an individual known a lot for his social media presence. Whether it is Instagram, Facebook or Tiktok, the man has racked up a combined total of 36 million followers on his platforms for his creative and comical short clips which showcase his dance moves, his humour, as well as an insight into his personal life. In an interview with the acclaimed internet sensation, we take a look at not only what people see on his social media accounts, but what makes him the person that he is from behind the scenes as he discusses the past, present and future of Gianluca Vacchi.

Gianluca recounts the origins of his entrepreneurial history that dates back to his grandparents ventures in the machinery packaging industry. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs that made their first fortune in between the Second World War.” This family of entrepreneurs grew their business when the Vacchi family decided to invest in the building construction sector in the 1980s, a sector that was on the decline. Up until this moment, a young Gianluca Vacchi was a professional skier, who transitioned his life into his family’s business and became an entrepreneur. The switch did not just happen overnight, he had stated how his dream was to become a businessman.

In his 20s, Gianluca along with his cousin, made a series of smart investments to gain ownership of their family business, which saw Gianluca transforming the company as head of investor relations and later strategic development. By the age of 29, he decided to take a step back from his active involvement in managing the company and relinquished his managing responsibilities to his cousin. From here Gianluca would spend the next twenty years in private equity where he would buy and sell companies for profit using the funds he had earned over the years.

“I have created startups, I have had turnover cases, I evaluated growth potential. In total I had companies in 12 different sectors”.

Having reached his 40s, after heavily exhausting the entrepreneurial world, working tirelessly day by day, Gianluca Vacchi did not feel the same energy to manage his companies and felt that there was a need for a change in his life. “My life was not moving my curiosity anymore. I am not a money driven person, so I realised what I was doing was not something that made me excited.” Around the same time, Gianluca was introduced to the world of social media. For a person who had no idea what Instagram was when first told about it by a friend of his, he slowly realised that by incorporating elements of his personal life and life philosophy, and fusing that with the social media trends and interests, he could become an entertainer.

“I started to show the way I was living, but not the way I was living because of social media, but how I was living before social media in my life because I was always living like this.”

I have created

startups, I have had turnover

cases, I evaluated growth potential. In total I had

companies in 12 different sectors.

He would soon in a short period of time gain worldwide recognition, as he simply put it ‘living the philosophy of his life’. “My life was always driven by the idea that we do not have enough time to live a life that someone else wants us to live.” He commented on the fact that he did not want to be a traditional individual fitting into a preconceived norm, but wanted to rewrite the rules of life. “I began to show that in life you can show something serious by doing something silly.” His mix of trivial, mundane routines, coupled with a humoristic element, whether it was a dance or acting comical, allowed him to be an inspirational character to his younger audience who were tired of their day to day.

“You can mix serious stuff with silly stuff, doesn’t make you a stupid guy. It only means you have a sense of humour. It only means that you are not scared of what the others will judge about you.”

With fame, comes success; however, it also brings its fair share of criticism. Many people online have taken shots at the rising social media star, questioning his decision making and his overall persona that he embodies on the internet. Gianluca Vacchi does not let these comments faze him as he had stated that he does whatever makes him happy. “People who don’t laugh are not serious people.” He adds that he will never intentionally disrespect anyone, however, disregards those who complain about him only because it does not align with their idea of normality.

This newly found success opened the door for him to express his artistic nature, and pursue his desire to be a DJ. Vacchi and his family have been brought up in a musical lifestyle, all of whom play the piano, therefore music was always a part of his identity. He took it upon himself to express his talents with his fans and reach a new level in his life. “Popularity can give me a stage, but then I must deserve to stay on that musical stage.”

His various ventures paired with his personal life add up to his daily schedule and he continues to add more to it. Vacchi and his partner, Sharon Fonseca, have recently introduced a baby girl, Blu Jerusalema, into the family. Despite being a busy businessman, musician and father, he commented on how delegation of work is a key attribute to his success. Along with that, being able to dream big, to allow yourself to push forward and feel that you can achieve something bigger than what you already have is another of his key attributes. To put it in his own words: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Gianluca Vacchi is clearly a man that goes against all generic, societal norms when it comes to work ethic, entertainment and way of life; yet why should that matter when all that he does brings joy into his life and his millions of fans? His larger than life persona may give one an insight into his daily affairs and what you may assume it is like to be Gianluca Vacchi, but he does not forget his roots. As part of his life philosophy, he believes that you must be responsible in your decisions as ultimately you will be alone to do them. Inscribed on his body are the words ‘The Hermit’ which pays homage to the countryside home he lived in by himself. It is what inspired the philosophy that he has outlined with regards to responsibility. He also pays tribute to his father who he believes is one of his biggest inspirations in his life. As a parent figure, he was very strict with Gianluca’s decisions until he was of a mature enough age to be responsible. Gianluca mentioned how his strictness helped him to be shaped into the man he is today. “He was a strong man, but everything I was doing, I was doing for him.” His respect for his father led him to even tattoo the final words of the final letter his father sent to him.

With his social media lifestyle being a mainstay in Gianluca’s life for the foreseeable future, the world of entrepreneurship has not fizzled out of his life entirely. Currently, he is working with a company called ‘Cashback’ that creates special agreements with a number of companies. Through these agreements it allows for a savings platform to send cash back to your account when you purchase from select retail stores that use this system. Through such a scheme, people can become members to gain more out of the system. Apart from his present projects, Gianluca himself states that he does not know what his future has in store for him, but he will do whatever he wants to as long as it “sparks his curiosity and interest.”

ENSURING NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND: THE EU’S COHESION POLICY

Over the past months the dominant narrative concerning the European Union has been one of fragmentation. Two factors come to mind: the initial botched response to the coronavirus pandemic where Member States rushed to close off borders in panic in an uncoordinated approach, and the North-South, West-East squabbles on migration. Both clear signs of a community which is finding it harder to mobilise collective action, particularly as it finds opposition from strongmen, populist leaders across the continent. To top it all, one of its most challenging, but important members, the United Kingdom, has formally terminated its membership of the Union at the end of last year.

Yet, there is another story about what European integration is all about.

A story which brings together 27 Member States with different languages, traditions and cultures, a mere 70 years after fighting out against each other bloody wars for the best part of their existence. A cursory look at European history shows a continent that has lost too many lives because of conflict. Today, we take peace and stability as a basic tenet of our continent.

This unity has been challenged by some rough times throughout these past decades, such as the huge energy crisis in the Seventies, the divisions on War in Iraq as well as the economic and financial crisis of 2008-9. Yet, the European project, continued to grow, as increasing millions of citizens travelled across the continent for work, leisure, education and business.

Amongst the reasons for this success, one in particular strikes out: the EU’s Cohesion Policy. This is the concept by which the EU is not solely interested in improving the bloc’s prosperity – something which very few would care to deny it has achieved – but rather to ensure that no country, region or territory is left behind.

The Cohesion Policy seeks to address development disparities by ensuring financial support that targets transformation and covergence. The EU’s Economic and Social Cohesion Policy is the principal tool through which the Union seeks to improve the quality of lives through hundreds of thousands of projects all over Europe that receive funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund.

These funds have already made a huge, visible differences in our daily lives in a mere 16 years of Maltese membership in the EU. Malta has used more than €1.5 billion on a variety of initiatives which have improved our educational and health facilities, restored historical sites to their original beauty, trained thousands of individuals in accessing a better – or even a first – job and supported numerous businesses in their road towards innovation, internationalisation and growth.

However, the benefit of these projects goes beyond mere economic growth. European values – freedom, democracy, gender equality and non-discrimation are all placed at the centre of projects financed by EU Cohesion policy, thereby ensuring that such values are spread among a greater cohort of the population.

Despite the long-term objetive of these funds, the Cohesion Policy was quickly adapted to Europe’s most pressing needs, when, at the onset of the pandemic, the European Commission green-lighted Member States in adapting funding available to them to tackle with immediacy issues relating to the current pandemic.

Thanks to the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, Member States were able to address three key priorities in the fight against the current emergency and its economic consequences: investment related to healthcare, support to short time work schemes, and support to the SMEs working capital.

As Europe recovers from the serious economic hit that the pandemic will have caused in 2020, economic regeneration will be fundamental to ensure recovery and avoid that what started as a health crisis lingers into years of social trouble. At this juncture, the EU’s Cohesion Policy – with a significantly strengthened budget – represents the perfect opportunity to strengthen European Integration, supporting economies to rise back from the ashes, addressing the fundamental long-term challenges of the European Union, and finally delivering in practice on the mantra of a Europe that wants to be closer to its citizens.