Jacopo AVOGADRO

Head of Operations, Sub-Saharan Africa
University of Peace
United Nations
  • 01:07 Openness to the world and curiosity lead to new opportunities…
  • 09:55 Don’t forget the touch of madness to achieve your goals!
  • 11:20 Trust your 6th sense to surround yourself with the right people
  • 15:51 Convincing is about communicating your passion!
  • 19:01 Cultivating your passions through observation…
  • 21:27 Be honest with yourself, to be honest with others
Stella BIDA, in conversation with Jacopo AVOGADRO, Head of Operations, Sub-Saharan Africa, University for Peace, United Nations

Summarised conversation transcript

This is a summarized version of the conversation. You’ll find even more details and tips shared in the video.

Jacopo AVOGADRO is Head of Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa for the United Nations University for Peace.

STELLA BIDA: Hello everyone, and welcome to this new conversation. Today, I welcome Jacopo Avogadro, an extraordinary person I met last year. He is the Head of Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa for the United Nations University for Peace. But he is much more than that! I look forward to discovering his values with you over the next few minutes.

Jacopo, welcome! I’m glad to see you again!

JACOPO AVOGADRO: Hello Stella, me too! It’s truly a pleasure and an honor to be here today.

Openness to the world and curiosity lead to new opportunities...

STELLA BIDA: You’re a multidisciplinary, multicultural, international person… What made you wear “several hats” like that throughout your life? Where does this desire to touch on several disciplines during your career come from?

JACOPO AVOGADRO: Actually, I think it’s in my DNA. I’m the son of nomads. My parents were diplomats, so there was no way for us to put down roots anywhere. Our roots are those you can find within the family, but for the rest… we were always on the move! I admit that as soon as I finished my undergraduate degree, I couldn’t stay in one place. And so I kept moving, and by moving you meet people. And that’s how opportunities open up.

When you have the passion to do something, you believe in it. I’m convinced that a little healthy madness inside each of us allows us to move forward and not stop resting on our laurels… And then a great deal of curiosity, of course. You have to be curious in life!

Don’t forget the touch of madness to achieve your goals!

STELLA BIDA: What is the common denominator of Jacopo’s success in all his adventures?

JACOPO AVOGADRO: I don’t know if there’s only one common denominator. But, once again, I think we can sum it up in the concept of curiosity with a little bit of madness. Even if you fall, it doesn’t matter, you get back up! If you’re curious enough with that little bit of madness, you can do it, even if you hurt yourself when you fall. We all make mistakes. The important thing is to understand that you made a mistake and that, after that mistake, you learn.

So I think that’s it, if I can put a common denominator, it’s surely curiosity with a little grain of madness.

Trust your 6th sense to surround yourself with the right people

STELLA BIDA: How do you surround yourself with the right people?

JACOPO AVOGADRO: Million-dollar question! I think you have to trust your sixth sense; it makes things easier. You need empathy, knowing how to “put yourself in someone else’s shoes.” You also need to understand how others interact with you, as individuals are all different from one another. That’s what makes us rich! If we were all the same, it would be really sad. I always say that it takes all sorts to make a world. Another important element is having good teachers, people who can teach you how to acquire a culture of curiosity. We always come back to it: alone, you go nowhere.

Convincing is about communicating your passion!

STELLA BIDA: You’ve worked in several different disciplines – the corporate system , aerospace, defense, security, technology, etc. – What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started in a completely new field? Especially when no one believes in it except us…

JACOPO AVOGADRO: By avoiding repeating the elements I just described – If all this is transmitted by a passion and we manage to communicate this passion, we also manage to convince. Afterwards, obviously, we will have to bring results… When we launch into an activity, we obviously have to study it. We have to be able to be as much as possible “boss” of what we are going to say. So, we have to know how to communicate, by knowing the subject… Otherwise we are not credible.

Cultivate your passions through observation...

STELLA BIDA: If you were having a conversation with your 10-year-old self, what would you say?

JACOPO AVOGADRO: I cultivated many of my passions by watching. For example, the work I’m doing in an apartment we own, I do most of it myself, for a very specific reason. I always have this conviction that I’m better than the tradespeople could do. Because the project I’m working on is mine. So I put a care into it that someone else wouldn’t. But how do I manage to do all that: the plumbing, the electricity, the walls? I learned by watching. When I was ten, I loved watching the workers work. None of the workers were annoyed when I watched them, and occasionally asked them a question.

So if I had to say something to ten-year-old Jacopo, I would say, “Very well, keep it up, because this will probably be transmitted at different levels.” I could also say, “Be careful, though, be meticulous in how you manage things!” But if you have that little bit of madness, you won’t listen to that kind of advice…

Be honest with yourself, to be honest with others

STELLA BIDA: What are the three main values that you strive to pass on to your children?

JACOPO AVOGADRO: I believe you must always be honest with yourself. Because if you’re honest with yourself, in the end, you’re also honest with others. Even if sometimes it’s difficult, because the society we live in makes it so…

The second value is stubbornness: you must not give up. You have to go for it and be aware that there will be difficulties, that people will try to prevent you from getting where you want to get or from doing what you want to do… So you have to believe in it and persist, understanding that there comes a time when there is a stop loss, as they say.

Then, probably also, another value, which is somewhat related to honesty with oneself: you have to be yourself. You should never want to look like someone else. You are what you are, you are the result of great cooking, but you have to be yourself. If you are yourself, you will be perceived as yourself and therefore you will have less difficulty. So you have to remain yourself.

STELLA BIDA: Thank you very much, Jacopo, for sharing this. I’m very happy that you accepted this invitation.

JACOPO AVOGADRO: It’s a great pleasure, Stella!

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