The example of Ernesto Pellegrini, a great social entrepreneur who had not forgotten his roots

Ernesto was a deeply good person. I realize that in telling him someone will think that he is wrong. Because goodness today rhymes with naivety. It is not a dowry with which we would define a great public figure. And it has become, the goodness of mind, even a variant of human weakness. Unforgivable especially for those who do business. Pellegrini was a great social entrepreneur In the sense that he never thought, not even for a moment, that his fortune was not also due to above all at the work of his collaborators.

And he was a responsible citizen why He has always considered his duty to help those who need and commit himself to returning the conspicuous part of the dividends of their success to the community. Because without that community he, the son of a greengrocer on the Milanese outskirts, would not have become what it was, he would not have achieved many industrial, financial and sporty goals.

Each of us, whatever his position, should never fall into the self -centered trap of deluding himself to be enough for himself, perhaps feeling citizen of the world and forgetting his roots. Unfortunately, however, it happens frequently. Indeed, it is even a pride. Pilgrims those roots not only had never forgotten them, claimed them with pride And humility. The pride of having done himself with an abnegation in almost missionary work.

The work that gives dignity to people completes its civic formation, and does not take advantage of them. And the humility to always feel debt with othersalso the result of his faith. Not formal, authentic, popular. He has not used his influence and his fame to accredit his projects but to promote vast philanthropic activity. He had had many imitators, and not just facade admirers, the country would be different and better.

Its foundation, of which he is CEO Giuseppe Orsi, helped over 15 thousand people in difficulty in eleven years of activity. He intercepted family fragility by identifying the early signs of new poverty and marginalization. Often of Italians who are ashamed for the loss of economic autonomy.

Pellegrini has set up the canteens of millions of Italian workers. Has dedicated its own Solidale restaurant (cost one euro, to Lorenteggio, Milanese suburbs) in Ruben, the unfortunate helper of his parents’ shop who found death, for cold, alone on a bench. He has shown that it can be growing in size and innovate by taking care of all the details: from technology to organization. Without forgetting the most important of the details, which is not a detail, that of the human relationship.

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