Paolo, you went from needing a bottle of gin a day to function to completely cutting out alcohol overnight. How did you manage to make that change?

That’s a story that’s close to my heart, and it’s not just about cutting out booze. It’s about a shift in perspective, a radical decision to take back control of my life in one moment of absolute clarity.

You see, the drinking wasn’t just about the alcohol. It was about numbing myself to the pressures, the grind, and the emptiness I was feeling at the time. It was the go-to escape hatch. I’d convinced myself that I needed it to function, to keep up with the chaos of my life, to get through the stress of running businesses, managing expectations, and navigating personal struggles. A bottle a day became my way of silencing the noise. But the thing is, the noise doesn’t go away—it just gets buried, and eventually, it catches up with you.

I hit this point where I realized that the gin wasn’t helping me function—it was destroying my function. And it wasn’t just affecting me; it was impacting the people around me, my work, my clarity, and my ability to be truly present in life. There was this moment—call it a moment of deep clarity or just a raw confrontation with myself—where I understood that if I kept going down that road, I was going to lose more than just my health. I was going to lose myself. The realization hit me like a freight train. It wasn’t a slow buildup; it was a snap decision, like flipping a switch.

In that one night, I made the call. No more. Not a gradual tapering down, not a “let’s take it easy and see how it goes.” I knew that for me, it had to be all or nothing. I decided that if I was going to take back my life, it wasn’t going to happen in increments. It was going to happen in one decisive moment. That’s what worked for me—the radical, total break. The power of that decision wasn’t just in not drinking. It was in recognizing that I had the power to change everything about my life, instantly, if I chose to. The gin was just the symbol of a bigger transformation I needed to make.

The next morning, it wasn’t just that I woke up without a hangover. I woke up with this sense of freedom, this feeling that I had stepped back into the driver’s seat of my life. I realized how much clearer my mind was, how much more energy I had, how much more alive I felt. The contrast was immediate. It was like all the things I had been numbing myself to—my ambitions, my creativity, my relationships—they all came rushing back with intensity. And I thought, "Why would I ever go back?"

So, how did I achieve it? I made a decision. A real one. It wasn’t about willpower or resisting temptation—it was about deciding, deep down, that I wanted a life that was bigger, clearer, and more powerful than anything alcohol could offer me. It wasn’t easy, but it was simple: I made a commitment to myself that my life, my creativity, my presence in the world was worth more than any escape a bottle could offer.

It’s not about demonizing alcohol for everyone, but for me, the change wasn’t just about cutting out gin. It was about stepping into a new version of myself. And that’s the key—whether it’s alcohol or any other crutch, the transformation comes when you decide that you’re ready to be the best version of yourself, no half measures, no excuses. Just clarity and commitment.

That’s how I did it.