Interview: Jorge Estera Sanza

After training to be a doctor in neurobiology and studying at the University of London, Jorge Estera Sanza returned to Barcelona to run the family’s furniture production business. When that had to close, he became director of ICI for South America for eight years, before returning to Spain once more to work for Osborne Domecq and Procter and Gamble. A seasoned business leader, he founded the ESEI business school in Barcelona in 1989 and has written four books on education and creativity.

The reason we are in deep recession is because our young people have not been educated to be managers, they’ve been educated to work in the services sector. We have to let children be creative so they can develop new ideas and become more entrepreneurial.

Teachers should be better qualified. The ideal (as shown in the Finnish education system) is to have them train for five years in university, then do a Masters and put the crème de la crème in primary schools.

As a teacher, you project a model of learning, like a parent. Children are willing disciples; they love a subject because they adore the teacher, so the better the quality of the teacher, the better it will be for their education.

There is a tremendous lack of humanity in the world today. Politicians and leaders have become very twisted, they like power and money too much. Democracy has been injured by such people. To be a good leader, you must have empathy.

One of the most important lessons I have learnt is to be humble. Whatever I learn, I am always willing to come back to point zero, to reorganise my ideas. I don’t believe there is one unique truth, there are just different perspectives.

My father was the greatest influence on my life. He was a tremendous businessman. My grandfather was a violinist and my father taught me to listen to classical music, to understand it.

I fail a lot. You have to accept failure because it helps form what will come next. My first school of thought was science, but after thousands of trials, it taught me to accept failure. I am good at golf, but in order to get good, I had to keep training and return to point zero. Only then do you do better and recover your rhythm.

I am a rebel. I rebel against a lot of things. I believe you should always do what you want to do, as long as you don’t hurt anyone and try and help others as much as possible.

I think Barcelona is one of the best cities in the world. When people are surrounded by beauty, they feel better. Walking between work and home, you see bright colours and feel the ambience, which means you arrive at home feeling happy.