CHAPTER

9

In February 1996, two years after Gloria and I moved to Mexico and after nearly thirty years of marriage, she, for no particular reason, asked me to leave. She said she wanted each of us to have time and space to rethink the relationship. I had only been working for Ricardo Salinas for a short time and was trying to catch up in the business world after my three-year sabbatical. I had no idea what had hit me.

Not only had Gloria helped me spend my entire savings, she sued for alimony. And won. Grandfather Jorge’s words rang in my ears loud and clear like a dog being trained with a Galton’s whistle.

The lesson? Save while the cows are fat. Even if you have a steady job, don’t be complacent. Most importantly, don’t rely on anyone other than yourself: not your parents, your spouse or your employer, no matter what they promise you. Circumstances in their lives may change too, so nobody’s word is infallible. I thought my marriage to Gloria would last forever and I was relying on her income to support us in the future while I just short of drained my entire savings.

I ended up with the Fisher Island property, attached with a mortgage of half a million dollars and maintenance fees that were so high it wasn’t worth keeping, especially with the additional monthly alimony fee to account for.

In the beginning, Gloria had been okay with us moving to Mexico because I think she was ready for another change, but the reality of the situation was another matter. When we first moved to Mexico City we spent about a month at the Four Seasons Hotel, looking for houses with no luck until we found a house to rent in San Angel that needed lots of repairs and security, which the owner was willing to deduct from our payments.

Prior to agreeing to move with me, Gloria also wanted a house in Cuernavaca, a beautiful city about an hour outside of Mexico City. We saw a gorgeous abode in Architectural Digest and that was the one we got. But the problem wasn’t the house, it was Mexico. It was a difficult place to get used to, not to mention the fact that I was enjoying my job and spending more time working than with her. Remember, I had spent three years of a sabbatical almost always available to her and this was a big change.

So we had the two houses in Mexico, one in Mexico City, where we lived and a weekend home about an hour out of the city in Cuernavaca, a house in Vermont and an apartment on Fisher Island, Florida. When Gloria told me she needed some space, I moved to our place in Cuernavaca and commuted to work every day, which in Mexico City traffic meant spending hours of quality time with my steering wheel.

Shortly after our separation, Gloria moved to Nepal to live near our red-robed friend, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Gloria wanted to give him a donation and asked for my advice. I told her that if she was sure she wanted to give him money, she should do it as a monthly stipend and not as a lump sum, in case she changed her mind later. She did give him a monthly donation and she also changed her mind, but by the time Gloria came knocking at my door trying to reconcile our marriage, my life had changed irreversibly.

When Gloria first asked me to leave, I was stunned, but I was sure it would be on a temporary basis. I figured she just needed some time. However, the more time I spent on my own, the more I began enjoying my solitude. I felt as if an invisible soul had been sitting on my shoulders, bearing me down. Now it had vanished and I started to panic. After twenty-eight years of marriage, how could I be so serene, having lost my wife and having been banished from my own home?

I was still too scared to leave Gloria at the time. We had been married for so long that I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life. We had shared nearly every experience since college days and I felt like I owed it to her to stay in our marriage. More than anything, I was too wracked with guilt and panic. I knew that she was very emotional and I didn’t want to push the pendulum too far—but then she left me first.

I called Ninfa, Ricardo’s wife at that time, and asked for a referral to a psychologist. When I went to see him, he gave me a book he had written. As I read it, I felt like I was reading a case study on our marriage. It was both comforting and alarming that I had been blindly living for over two decades in an unhealthy relationship. Why I was so happy suddenly became crystal clear, and I realized that if she hadn’t asked me to leave the house, I would probably still be living in misery.

It’s natural for us to want to avoid confrontation and to stay in our comfort zone because we know that we can. If we put ourselves in unfamiliar situations that test our abilities, there’s always the possibility of being hung out to dry. However, without making changes, no matter what they are, we reach a plateau or even regress, stopping positive opportunities in their tracks.

Even the most seemingly powerful people stay in situations they would rather not be in to avoid confrontation. In business or relationships, they would rather endure an unhappy situation for the rest of their lives, instead of facing their problems head on and instigating change. Too many people stay at the same company or in an unhappy marriage because they feel that they owe it to their boss or spouse. You don’t owe anybody anything. Think of yourself instead of trying to please others. Being decisive and following your own convictions will garner you more respect in the long run. Make that decision you keep putting off until tomorrow, face what you would normally shy away from and you will feel a sense of liberation from a burden you didn’t even know was there.

It is always easier to go with the flow of routine and daily life, doing and thinking the same thing every day without even questioning it, despite the fact that, in many cases, something tells us that maybe we should find another way. The time my marriage lasted was a period full of conflict. However, today I can see clearly that divorce was a way of leaving my comfort zone and transform everything around me; my habits, my routines and my whole life.

Our separation made me realize that neither of us had been happy in the relationship and that you can’t stay in a situation that is clearly unhealthy, no matter what reasons you have. In the long term, our divorce was the best thing for both of us.

In January of 1995 I met Claudia I had just rented the house that needed to be totally refurbished, and I was working in overdrive at Elektra. Gloria refused to lift a finger. As far as she was concerned she hadn’t wanted to live in Mexico in the first place, so any problems the move caused were mine. I tried to juggle a full-time job, and doing up our new house, but there weren’t enough hours in the day. My secretary took pity on me and introduced me to her sister, Claudia, who she said could help.

Claudia came to the house one early evening and I flipped. She was beautiful: thirty years old, blonde long hair, thin body, great legs from start to finish, and with a very high spirit. Perky, flirty, positive, assertive, pleasant, with a cheeky smile that suggested there was something she wasn’t telling me. I was fascinated by her presence but I knew better than to follow my instincts.

Claudia was an interior decorator and knew the ropes, saving me from being taken to the cleaners. In Mexico they can spot a foreigner from a mile away but Claudia knew where to get the best deals on furniture and hooked us up with electricians, carpenters, a landscaper and all the other help we couldn’t find. She delivered everything we asked and from time to time I contacted her for other things that were needed—or not. I kept finding excuses to stay in touch but nothing beyond that happened. At the time my relationship with Gloria was going belly up, but my new job as the CFO of Elektra distracted me from my issues at home.

When Gloria threw me out I tracked Claudia down and asked her to help me find an apartment in town. Within days she had organized realtors, locations and all the necessary arrangements to help me move. I viewed a fully furnished apartment and took it immediately.

I was finally free to ask Claudia out on a date and the feeling I had when I first met her came back, strong. She was like a present or a reward after many trying years. Gloria was sure that I would be at her beck and call, and we talked a lot on the phone discussing the issues of our discord. Between the psychologist who pinpointed my situation to a tee and my seeing Claudia, there was no getting back.

It was a scary juncture in my life. The divorce was finalized on April 23, 1997, my 52nd birthday. We had spent our lives saving her money and living off of mine; the concept of divorce had never so much as crossed my mind, so I started this new life with empty pockets for the third time in my professional life. Gloria kept the house in Vermont and she had plenty of liquid assets that we had accumulated, plus a trust fund, plus more money she was to inherit imminently as her father was already in his late 80s.

If I had put up a fight, she would have raised hell and it would have affected the kids. They asked me to give her whatever she wanted and walk out, reasoning that I had the drive to keep going and all she had was her inheritance. Maybe I was stupid not to have demanded at least half, since I had made lots of money during our marriage, but I walked out with the greatest gifts of all: my kids and Claudia, whom I love and cherish and a job that held great prospects and where people appreciated my performance.

Even though my psychologist warned me that my relationship with Claudia would never survive, the more time we spent together, the better we got along and the more I wanted her beside me. I could feel that what we had was beyond a rebound affair and asked her to move in with me in September, 1996.

Claudia and I had lived together for more than two years when I asked her to marry me and become a family unit with our two soft-coated Wheaton terriers, Roxy and Tommy—pretty much the only possessions of ours Gloria was happy to part without. Claudia said “okay” but didn’t immediately jump to say yes because she was afraid that a change might blow up the good thing we had going.

My bosses took it well and congratulated me, along with all of my family. We had a low-key family wedding in June. It was a beautiful setting on the beach in Zihuatanejo with our parents and siblings and just a handful of friends. Claudia organized everything and lost more pounds than she could afford to.

She is a strong supporter regardless of what happens or what’s needed. She never complains about anything and always flashes that cheeky smile. She’s a great homemaker—everything in the house is always perfect or under construction.

We went to London for our honeymoon, but the honeymoon has lasted ever since. She has been a blessing, a great companion, supporter of everything I do, always positive and encouraging. And the sexual attraction is still going strong. We keep hours and days by ourselves, talking about whatever comes to our minds and enjoy as much of each other’s time as we can spare.

I love to buy her clothes, jewels and all kinds of surprises during my travels and keep her always in my mind, missing her presence. When I am home we have breakfast together always and sometimes also lunch; I come home for dinner almost without fail.

One day in 1996, I got up in the morning, looked at myself in the mirror and saw an old, balding man staring back at me. I couldn’t focus on anything but the few little horrible white hairs on the side of my head, so I grabbed my razor and shaved them all off. Afterwards, all I could think was, boy, do I have big ears! At least the new look took a few years off, so I’ve stayed completely shaven ever since.

Claudia and I first lived together in an apartment she found for me in La Colonia Florida. It was nice but the owner kept increasing the rent and there was nothing I could do about it. We finally moved, of all places, to the house I had first lived in when I moved to Mexico.

For years, Claudia and I had been looking fruitlessly to buy a house until one day in late 2002 while I was on a business trip in New York she called and said “I think I’ve found the house of our dreams and we need to make a move now as other people are competing for it too”. I told her to get her uncle Victor, a retired lawyer and a friend, to put a contract together and close it. She ended up closing the deal and I gave her the house as a present. Uncle Victor made sure the title was in her name! We remodeled the house and have been living there since with the new love in my life our new dog, Lou Lou, a pitch-black mutt we found at the tender age of 2 month on the streets of Mexico City.

I could say that the key to our relationship is that we put each other on a pedestal and in Claudia’s eyes I can do no wrong but I know that she will read this! Claudia is the first to admit that I’m far from perfect and she keeps me on my toes by reminding me that I am selfish and demanding. She thinks my motto is “Yo Yo Más” (Me Me More), which is true but she lets me get away with it—another reason for loving her even more.

Claudia gets along with my children, my parents and my brothers and has helped me with the relationship with them. None of them are a piece of cake. She talks to my kids as equals, being straight up with them, without making them feel like they’re being patronized. My grandchildren love her, as does my daughter-in-law, Leah.

Just after my wedding high, I once again found myself right in the thick of it at work. Back in 1996, my boss, Pedro Padilla, had started to suffer from vertigo and other horrible symptoms he couldn’t attribute. He was tired and overloaded with work, and yet Ricardo kept pushing him further and further over the edge until I felt he couldn’t handle any more. I scheduled drinks with Ricardo and, off the record, told him that he needed to give Pedro a break; he was the best guy Ricardo had and he was as loyal as a dog, but Ricardo was driving him nuts. Ricardo reassured me we wouldn’t lose him and Pedro finally got to the root of his symptoms. He was treated and resumed his relentless work ethic just like before.

Then, just before my wedding, in 1999, Pedro called to inform me that he was moving to TV Azteca to be the CEO. I congratulated him but also told him straight up that I would either make the move with him or call it quits as I was not going to work with Pedro’s replacement at Elektra. My gut was right as not before long that man was dismissed. I think Pedro was surprised and maybe flattered by my response as a week later he asked me to join him as the CFO of TV Azteca.

And again, my timing was impeccable. Just as I joined, the company was finding itself positioned right in the middle of a U.S. scandal. Back in 1994, the Mexican television broadcasting company, TV Azteca, had negotiated a deal with NBC in which they would provide us with programming and services and in return Azteca would offer them equity in the company at a discount.

TV Azteca claimed that NBC never provided the services, as promised, and NBC retaliated, with the case ending up at an arbitration court. When I joined the company they were in a standoff. NBC-GE was the Cinderella story of the U.S. industry and the odds did not look like they were pointing in our favor. Ricardo was determined not to back down but if we lost, not only would we lose a fortune, it would paint us in an unfavorable light just when we were planning to enter the U.S. market with a new network, Azteca America. Elektra’s prior fiasco with Goldman Sachs and the NYSE triggered alarm bells loud and clear and I knew that we should try to avoid the risk of having this black cloud looming over our heads for years to come.

Despite his protests, Ricardo was finally convinced to settle, NBC accepted our peace offering and in the end it cost us a lot less than tainting our reputation in the long term. Our relationship with NBC recovered and, even though it wasn’t the case, as far as the public was concerned we were once again working on the same team, and I was painted as the hero. When Ricardo bought TV Azteca, he delegated his other companies to executives in order to run the television network himself and see its success through to the end. It was his baby and the stakes were high. Everyone else under his direct command was terrified of playing devil’s advocate, so when I came along and stubbornly convinced him to see the long-term benefits of backing down, nobody could believe that I had managed to change his mind. It was the perfect start to my new position at the company.

Piecing together the puzzle is the same thing as problem solving, and getting the company out of difficult situations has proven to be my biggest strength—even if my headstrong ways have caused a little controversy, to say the least. Corporations tend to be set in their ways with company politics and policies they deem sanctimonious, and change is more often than not opposed. One of my strongest assets is also one of my greatest weaknesses: I don’t revere anything that stops me from moving forward—at Bacardi, Elektra and then with TV Azteca. Ricardo thought he was in the right and was too proud to back down but I had no issues with suffering a little humility for a few months if it meant emerging stronger in a few years, which is exactly what happened.

My next big challenge was when it came to launching Azteca America in the U.S. in 2001. In April 1999, before my arrival, Ricardo and Adrian Steckel, who was then the CFO of TV Azteca, had signed a letter of intent for Pappas Telecasting, the largest privately held commercial broadcast operator in the U.S. In exchange for the network, Pappas would give us 20% participation, a 20% share of the revenues with a minimum guarantee of $1.5 million per month.

It was an attractive opportunity for us because we wanted to enter the U.S. market and we had witnessed our competition, Televisa, set up a lucrative U.S.-Mexican network with Univison. By law we could not own more than 25% of any local stations, so we needed Pappas to locate and invest in affiliate stations that could distribute our programming.

However, the grapes turned sour very quickly when Harry Pappas could not fulfill what was agreed. He had committed to a certain distribution level that was never reached and he was unable to raise the funds needed to invest in additional stations after we had already invested a substantial amount into the deals and Pappas’ existing stations.

We got into a huge dispute that ended with us owning the network, running Pappas’ L.A., San Francisco and Houston stations under a lease arrangement, and Pappas owing us $130 million.

By 2002, we owned Azteca America outright which was useless without a distributor to run the show, and in order to be deemed a network we needed 70% on-the-air coverage and we only had 28% with Pappas’ existing stations. The biggest conundrum was that we needed to increase our coverage by distributing our programming to affiliates but most fullpower local stations were already tied to other networks and it was illegal for us to buy any stations, even if we could afford them. I wasn’t sure how to penetrate what seemed like a dead end until I met a young man named Howard Mintz. His family had landed on permits for low-power TV stations in multiple cities across the U.S. All we needed was for them to be built and put on the air. The Mintzes had no interest in investing capital but we could convince them to license the stations out if we could find somebody else to build and operate them.

It wasn’t an easy sell, asking someone to come along and not only build these low-power stations from scratch and operate them for us, but pay for the honor as well. The quality of the programming at the time was embarrassing, we had no ratings, there were no significant investment or promotion commitments on our part and the business was being run from Mexico by people who were inexperienced as far as the U.S. Hispanic market was concerned. It was nothing short of a miracle that we managed to find anybody willing to take on the risk, but I was convinced I could sell ice to an Eskimo, and…I did! I found an investor in Los Angeles who wanted to operate a chain of stations with Hispanic programming. He not only put up the money to build the stations the Mintzes had permits for, he found more permit and station owners similar to the Mintzes’ and from there more interested parties came trickling in.

Jumping one hurdle after the next, convincing investors, cable networks and local affiliates that in the long-term we could secure 20% of the Hispanic viewing market in the U.S. in May 2005, we reported close to 70% Nielsen coverage, establishing ourselves as the third-largest Spanish-language network in the U.S.

Just as all our ducks were lined up, Ricardo dropped the bombshell. He wanted to sell the company! The programming hadn’t improved and the business was still being run poorly by our team. Ricardo asked me to sell Azteca America to someone that could guarantee us a steady income and the rights to buy into at least 13% of the company. And he offered me $2 million if I could pull it off!

How could I possibly refuse? I searched for a buyer and found Council Tree Communications, an ex co-owner of Telemundo, that had made a fortune selling Telemundo to NBC. Over several months I negotiated the agreement and finalized the deal. All that was left was Ricardo’s signature, but I thought that this was a big mistake and told him so. We had overcome the worst of it, convincing local and cable stations to distribute our programming, attracting advertisers on a national level with almost 70% coverage of the Hispanic market. I told him that if he sold the company, he was going to be kicking himself in three years. Even with $2 million on the line, I told Ricardo that I would not sell the company but instead invest in developing it by putting a competent CEO at the helm and making some drastic changes. Besides, if the company did well, I would be compensated regardless.

Again, Ricardo listened to my advice and recruited Adrian Steckel, who had been Unefon’s CEO for four years, and made him President and CEO of Azteca America. I was made Chairman of the Board and financially we are now in the black. Time will tell whether or not it was the right decision.

I can safely say that every single company I have started at has needed to be restructured in some form or other, and achieving the final result has been a case of hustling each step up the mountain until you reach the top. Just as one piece falls into place another falls out, but with enough persistence and conviction eventually all the pieces will fit together, at least temporarily.

With Azteca America, even after we managed to secure distribution through the low-power stations, we didn’t have the cable and satellite distribution that advertisers require. The local low-power stations didn’t have deals in place with cable and satellite companies and weren’t covered by “must carry” regulations and therefore would have to pay for the right to put their signal on the air, which they finally agreed to. That was one step further and then we were greeted by an unpleasant surprise which took us two steps back. TV Azteca had signed an agreement with the satellite company EchoStar, prohibiting Azteca America from showing our programming on local cable or satellite companies. They sought an injunction to stop us from doing so and after copious legal expenses they lost and we still couldn’t get our programming on cable because the cable companies were too afraid of being sued themselves.

We decided to stick it out and wait for the expiration of the EchoStar agreement while obtaining commitments from cable companies. It was one hell of a sales job to convince not only the cable companies but also the distributors to invest in a local station and wait to enhance their local distribution until the expiration came around—but it was worth it. In May 2005 we reported the required Nielsen coverage, establishing ourselves as a national network. It was a landmark and advertisers were finally taking us seriously.

In June 2003, Claudia and I had just attended an event in Los Angeles for Robert De Niro with Ricardo and his wife and some of the board members from TV Azteca. We stopped off in Wyoming where neither of us had been before and upon my return I had a routine physical exam.

During an ultrasound, the radiologist called for the doctor, who returned with a group of experts to take a closer look. There was a big mass above my kidney, and after further testing, Dr. Ruben Drijanski told me that it was most likely malignant and I needed to be tested for possible surgery.

It was the last thing I had anticipated but I remained calm, or at least calmer than everyone else around me. The surge of anger I experienced was only because I was informed that it had been apparent in sonograms and ultrasounds in preceding years but my doctor had failed to notice it. I figured that I was not dying yet and even in the worst-case scenario there was not much I could do but undertake the process of trying to cure the cancer.

My doctor recommended that I check into the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale for treatment, so Claudia and I flew to Arizona immediately. After seeing my X-rays, the endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic told me that if I believed in God and the afterlife I should start preparing for it—not exactly what anyone would want to hear from a doctor. The results were bad but I hadn’t asked for a religious sermon. I blew my top, and luckily for both of us, after that I never saw him again.

The X-rays showed that the cancer in my stomach was larger than a golf ball and that it was gradually encompassing my adrenal gland, which could potentially be deadly.

Having spent my entire life fleeting from one moment to the next, this abrupt wrench in my path suddenly forced me to stand still. Stop. Dead.

Being so close to death that you can almost touch it, is an experience you never forget. After the anger subsided, and the reality that I might not live for the foreseeable future sunk it, I had an overwhelming sense of calm. It didn’t make me turn to religion like I know a lot of people do in moments of desperation. I don’t know how I remained so composed but for some reason instead I adopted a pragmatic perspective of the situation at hand. I had lived a good life up until then and felt at peace with the world. I thought, if it’s time to go then there’s nothing I can do to stop it, and although I was told I had terminal cancer, I knew that I still had at least six to twelve months to live, figure things out, and with any luck beat the disease.

Miraculously, the cancer hadn’t already attached itself to my adrenal gland or this story would have had a very different ending. Once the surgery was scheduled, my children and parents flew in for the operation so that we could all receive my results together and be there to support each other if the worst happened. The procedure was standard and, until tests could prove otherwise, it had gone as the doctors hoped.

I stayed in the hospital for a week after the surgery and because my immune system was so weak I got pneumonia. I was exhausted and run down; my positive outlook went down the drain and I suddenly realized what it would really mean if they couldn’t remove all of the cancer. Other than losing my children, the one thing that really made me angry and sad, and most of all afraid, was that I would have such little time left with Claudia. It suddenly felt like we had only just met and had so much more left to experience together, and I knew that I had to pull through. I wasn’t done yet.

Two days after they cut the cancer out, the pathology report came back with news that I had a rare type of cancer known as GISTs—gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The good news was that it appeared not to have spread and, as it had grown slowly, the chances of it coming back any time soon were reduced. Having thought I had terminal cancer, a GIST seemed like a gift from God.

I can’t even begin to explain how it feels to go from thinking you only have a few months left to live to finding out you can potentially live for years to come. Life seemed rosy once again and it really made me appreciate every second of the day. I was no longer afraid of not achieving enough in the future, but focused on what I was doing right now, making sure I spent quality time with my wife and children, and living life to the fullest, instead of ridden with fear about the things beyond my power to change.

During the remission process, I lost a lot of weight, but on the bright side I saw it as an opportunity to slim down and I’ve since managed to keep most of it off! Even though the Mayo Clinic assured me that all of the cancer had been removed, I got a second opinion from a famous expert of GIST cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Clinic in New York City. He concurred with the diagnosis and the treatment that would continue for six months, but after the first three months I had a nasty reaction to the drug Gleevec. We weren’t sure if there were any traces of cancer left in my system and the X-rays showed that there weren’t. The side effects of the chemotherapy and drugs were so debilitating that I couldn’t tolerate it any more. I couldn’t keep food down and found it impossible to focus on anything. After another month of enduring it, I insisted they let me stop the chemo.

I’ve had Pet Scans every six months for the first five years after the operation and since then I just have to have one annually. To date there have been no traces of cancer reoccurring.

During the whole process, I had a lot of support from my wife and family. Even though she kept a brave face, after the doctors confirmed that I had been cured, Claudia told me how terrified she had been of losing me and had often spent time secretly breaking down in tears. Not for a moment did she let me see her pain during my ordeal.

Ricardo was there for me throughout and called Claudia to ask her if there was anything she needed but I ended up only being out the office for a week during the operation and then in and out for 10 days after that.

My children are so relieved that I’m alive after being told I had no chance of survival that we have an annual “Luis is alive” vacation to celebrate. It’s the perfect emotional blackmail to get my family together!

I feel like cancer was my last challenge. In one moment in time, everything I’ve ever learned, in business and personally, came into play. In one fell swoop, it reignited all the fears I’ve experienced throughout my life: as a child growing up in a strict Catholic school, when I was forced to leave my homeland, Cuba, and then at university; when I extricated myself from Miami’s exiled Cuban community and my family; when I started each new career with almost zero prior experience; and then on a personal level when my children left home and my 28-year marriage disintegrated.

And I knew that if I could survive my laundry list of fears, I could beat cancer.

Life is what you make of it and unless you consciously shape your life, circumstances will shape it for you. You have to work, sacrifice, invest, and persist if you wish to get the results you want. My life in Cuba began as one of great comfort and promise, but it played itself out with more unpredictable twists and turns than the trail from Yu’an to Lhasa. I could have easily succumbed to my father’s preordained future for me, but even with tremendous fear and sometimes debilitating anxiety, I forged ahead, determined to leave my comfort zone and step into the unknown. At the end of the day, I arrived at the very top of the corporate world where my ideas and actions help shape economies and the lives of millions of people all over the world.

Everyone admires the bold, courageous and daring; no one honors the fainthearted, shy and timid. Look all around you—everyone is afraid. Fear was, and at times still is, my greatest enemy. But the strong act in spite of fear and use it to their advantage. Timidity breeds doubt and hesitation that not only weakens you, but is actually harmful to you. Knowledge, courage and sheer hard work are your only weapons against fear. However, in reality, without fear, there can be no courage, for fear provides the opportunity to be brave.

It’s so easy to get complacent in routine and habit, compromising unlimited possibilities that lie just beyond your comfort zone. For far too many people, the status quo is comforting because it’s familiar, but for there to be growth in your life, there must be change. If you seek improvement, you must seek change. You must see yourself and your environment not only as it is, but as it could and should be. You must seek the change necessary to make a better life for yourself and to make the world a better place.

If becoming a success was easy, everyone would do it. It isn’t—and they don’t. So you pursue hard work because great accomplishments come from hard work—and luck accompanies it. On your journey to success, plan to win and never stop improving yourself. Without apology, I play to win.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that however much or little you are prepared for the situation you find yourself in, if you surround yourself with experts, learn fast and persist, there are very few obstacles you can’t overcome.

When I started at Bacardi, I had no experience in management or branding, and when Ricardo asked me to be CFO of Elektra, I knew even less about finance, but in both cases I had a vision for what I wanted to achieve and forged ahead, somewhat recklessly at times, and achieved them.

***

It was two years after my cancer operation when Ricardo decided to make Adrian Steckel President of Azteca America. He asked me to stay on board but as more of a consultant and I knew immediately that I would have to reinvent myself or move out.

I could certainly help Adrian nurture the company’s relationships. By now I was good at them and he was more into delivering the numbers, something Ricardo always prioritized. That would be sufficient during the transition period but I needed to come up with an activity that would make a difference to Ricardo and be exciting to me.

After the very public attack by NBC and then later the incident with the SEC, Ricardo’s image was tarnished. Ricardo’s decision to go along with his attorneys’ request to keep a low public profile and not to respond to all of the accusations that were being hurled at him hurt him badly. There was a very logical explanation for what had happened, and ultimately it was resolved, but the damage had been done.

My instincts told me that the best way to overcome the negative press was to show the world who Ricardo really is—his personal, humanitarian side—and that became my next mission.

We also created a Website in which he could express his beliefs and philosophy on business and current affairs.

I scheduled for Ricardo tours to U.S. universities and other forums as a public speaker on leadership, bottom of the pyramid efforts with Elektra and Banco Azteca, immigration, US-Mexico relations, drugs, gun control, education and many other subjects that he is heavily involved in and has a strong point of view on.

He met privately with both mayors Bloomberg and Villaraigosa and many top business leaders, visited Washington D.C. and had lunch with six senators, something even the President of the U.S. rarely has the opportunity to do.

The public had been oblivious to his philanthropic efforts through his nonprofit organization, Fundación Azteca, so now when any news stories or events take place we hire a publicity team to raise awareness and show what he is doing for local communities and the world on a larger scale. In 2009, Ricardo formed a national music program for children modeled after Venezuela’s famous El Sistema. In nine months, the program’s first youth orchestra debuted and it already has close to 10,000 members and about 50 orchestras across the country and growing, a project that could easily have slipped under the radar without the right production and promotional team.

In two years, even though he was the same man, people’s perception of Ricardo took a 180-degree turn. At the same time we worked on building his entrepreneurial profile in the business world by communicating that Grupo Salinas’ extraordinary performance is due to Ricardo’s leadership qualities and ability to motivate his team to execute his visions—even when they don’t seem possible.

That is where I am today. I feel like it has been a sort of payback to the man that gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself in 1994, while at the same time I am blessed because I am helping to shape and spread out the profile of a person whose vision I share and have the utmost conviction in.

I don’t know where I will go from here or even how long it will take for this “comfort zone” to expire, but I don’t fear the future—it’s just another opportunity waiting to happen.