Born into a working-class family of 9 siblings, his childhood was spent in the neighbourhood like that of most kids his age: playing in the Repla when he came out of La Salle or eating pipes and chatting for hours with friends on a bench in San Miguel. It was clear to Lázaro that he wanted what his father and all parents at that time called “to be somebody”. 

When you leave the neighbourhood, you always aim for more. Although I never set myself a specific goal, because I think that life doesn’t have to be a race. It is a sum of stages that you have to go through. I started working serving coffee, my next step was to get a place at a typewriter, the next was to take the telephone, and so on, step by step. You don’t want to climb to the top without taking those steps. It is true that you always have a dream in your head, but the important thing is to savour each stage of your life, each step, and celebrate it. Learn at every moment and enjoy the journey without becoming too obsessed with the goal. 

When you were less than 18 years old, you joined a multinational company, Nestlé, and you climbed all the steps to become President.

Everything is a process. Nothing simply happens. I always tried to love what I did. First, I loved serving coffee, then I loved answering the phone, I loved typing, then doing the accounts, later I loved dealing with purchasing, trade unions… I loved everything I did. I was very aware that I had to prepare myself along the way, both to do it well and then to continue to grow.

There is trust. Give us the recipe.

I always emphasise. First: Passion, because loving what you do is very important. Second: Preparation, to do it well. Third: Effort, because without work nothing is possible.

Don’t get discouraged if the result doesn’t come right away because luck will come sooner or later. But when luck comes, Passion, Preparation and Effort -with capital letters- must be there, because then you are going to achieve it and, above all, succeed. This is true in all aspects of life.  

All this without a university degree or a master’s degree to begin with. Don’t tell me that you were also one of those who cheated in exams. 

I have had to do some cheat sheets, like everyone else. But only a few times because I liked to study. It is true that for personal reasons, I had to work and could not take a university degree at that time, although during my professional life I have been preparing myself a lot, honestly, at international universities. But when I was starting out, I didn’t have any university degree, which was a handicap for a neighbourhood boy like me. I made up for this initial lack of solid preparation with many specific courses related to what I was doing at the time and, fundamentally, languages. A person who wants to do international business has to speak at least perfect Spanish, English and French, and if he or she also speaks other languages, even better.

A lot of professional standards for a kid from the suburbs. Is it digestible?

Always. One of the most important things for me is to know where you come from and to have your feet on the ground. I’m still the same boy who, when I was 16, used to put up hammocks in the San Sebastian baths. I have the same principles. I have treated people the same when I was serving coffee as I did when I was the President of 25,000 people. 

I think you digest and lead better when you are very conscious of where you come from and what you have done. Today a leader must be a leader in whom you can reflect and identify yourself as someone who is like you.

Complex or incentive?

For me, my origins have been a total incentive. Because of them I am what I am.

Your CV is undeniable, what do you have that others don’t to get where you are?

Nothing. I’m nobody special. I think there are a lot of people much more talented than me, who could have gone further than me, doing what I have done. Now, you have to put in the effort.

Passion, Preparation and Effort. I will not stop insisting. Anyone who does these three things will make it. Now, let’s not make excuses. Don’t fall back on “the teacher doesn’t like me”, “the boss doesn’t count on me”, “I don’t know what”, “I just have bad luck”, “I just…”. Luck is the same for everyone and when it comes, the difference is how it catches you.

And not being afraid to take risks. 

Of course. And in that, once again, I think origin helps. It took courage to be sent to Brussels at 17 below zero and with daily rain, with two children of 4 and 5 years old, my wife not knowing anyone and not speaking French because they had never left Barcelona. Professionally it went very well for me, but as a family it was a major sacrifice. Seeing my wife cry and hearing that she sometimes wonders what we are doing here is hard. The beginnings were the most complicated. I was a 31-year-old kid, with bad French, who had to deal with super-solid, well-prepared directors who looked at you as if to say: “What’s he doing here?” So, you have to show more than anyone else.  

Behind every great man is an even greater woman?

I am sure of it. There is no doubt in my mind. I think that, at that level, balancing your professional life with your personal life is impossible without a partner who supports you unconditionally. I have been married for 36 years and I consider us to be a pair, a unit in which we complement each other.

Until you leave Nestlé in 2021.

In the last 10 years I have taken more than a thousand flights. Sometimes, I woke up and wondered where I was. I didn’t know where I lived while my family stayed at home. I have missed many unrepeatable moments in my children’s lives. There comes a time when I say to myself “Lazaro, we have to stop”. It’s not just the plane, it’s the time change. Today I go to Korea, then to the United States, back to Nigeria, to Europe, and then to Japan or South Africa. Although I am in good health, my doctor reminded me that the body suffers at every take-off and landing and that at 58 I was no longer a young man. At the time, I thought I had had a nice career, I had completed 40 years at Nestlé, I had reached an important position of responsibility with thousands of people under me and a presence in more than 45 countries.  I was theoretically doing well, but I decided to put the brakes on. Now, I basically teach what I have learned. I am a consultant for various companies, and I also give motivational rather than professional talks to young people, especially in Dubai and Spain.

Always linked to the neighbourhood.

I insist, for me the origin is so important that my best friends today are the same ones that, more than 52 years ago, started the 2nd year of EGB in La Salle Barceloneta with me. We go on holiday together, we meet up for aperitifs, for dinner. They are part of my life and I am part of theirs. I could never give it up. As if that weren’t enough, our partners also get on wonderfully. Lucky us.

I am very proud of this relationship. We share joys as well as problems, we help each other. We cultivate friendship as you cultivate love with your partner. Perhaps the most common thing would be to have, let’s call them professional friends. Of course I do, but those are friendships from another life. My friends with a capital letter are the ones I’ve always had. To really enjoy myself I have to come to Barceloneta with them because that’s when I realise that I am me.

We are a country with a very high level of “ni-nis” (meaning a person, who “neither studies nor works”) and school dropout rates.  In our youth, as in the present, we have lived with boys and girls without dreams, without illusions, who saw no way out. You knew some of them because they grew up in the same context as you, with the same possibilities and resources. From your own experience, I think you are a very appropriate person to give them a motivating message. Go ahead, Lazaro:

In life you have to be happy. That is the most important thing. And to be happy if you are going to work in something that is going to take up a large part of your time, you have to be sure that you are passionate about it. That you love what you do. If you do something you don’t like, you will live a large part of your life with frustration, and this will probably not allow you to succeed. So the first thing to do is to try to find out what you like. When you identify it, prepare for it. And when you are well prepared for it, keep striving for it. And don’t get discouraged if your goals don’t come at the moment, because they will come. 

No one can tell you that you are inferior to others. What you have to do is to find your way and if problems arise, try to solve them. Talent does not come from birth, talent is made, it is worked for. Identify what we are passionate about and Passion, Preparation and Effort. I am not smarter and I was not born with more talent. I have only applied these 3 principles in my life. Without setting limits for myself, step by step.

What do you want to be? Waiter in a Mcdonald’s, engineer, salesman, fireman, entrepreneur… Be what you want to be and be passionate, do your best and live the path. The effort is often more satisfying than the goal.