Blogs
Life is like spaghetti – hard until you make it
August 2026
I heard this whilst listening to the music being played by the pool DJ in Tenerife. Well, I wasn’t necessarily listening to it, but it was hard to avoid.
It made me laugh initially; being such a ridiculous lyric. But then I started thinking about it.
Everyone’s life is hard in some way — even those we think have it easy. We rarely know what someone is dealing with behind the scenes.
And then I realised there was a flaw in the song. Because once you “make it”, life is still hard.
Perhaps that’s the point. Like pasta, life is best served al dente – you need a little resistance. An entirely easy life would probably be rather unfulfilling.
I decided to stop analysing European pop music at that point and tried to go back to enjoying the sunshine — only to be confronted by a woman who was convinced I had “stolen” her sunbed.
I hadn’t, and wouldn’t, of course. I explained that she was mistaken, and at the time I was admittedly rather annoyed by the accusation.
A couple of days later, I was walking through Masca – a tiny mountain village of fewer than 100 people – and I thought about the incident again.
Masca is beautiful and tranquil, but even there life isn’t necessarily easy. The village is dealing with the pressures of tourism, traffic gridlock on narrow mountain roads and limited local infrastructure.
And I thought: I have no idea what that woman was dealing with either. Perhaps she was simply having a bad day. Perhaps there was much more going on in her life. I’ll never know.
But it reminded me how easy it is to judge someone based on a single interaction, without knowing the bigger picture.
That matters in business too.
It’s one of the reasons I believe so strongly in relationships, trust and empathy – and why I’m proud of what we have built at Russell Bedford International.
Our network works because our people know each other, understand each other and appreciate that business can be hard in all sorts of ways.
Entrepreneurs and business leaders have enough challenges to deal with. Our role is to take some of the financial complexity away, so they can concentrate on growth and development.
And when they “make it” — life will still be hard. But we’ll still be there to help.
Now, if anyone needs me, I’ll be somewhere in the world, finding profound meaning in songs that really don’t deserve it.