There are some things that can completely change you life. When I was 20 I fought the longest and hardest battle in my life, and guess what? I won... I wanted to name this category "Chronicles of a Death NOT Foretold" for 2 different reasons: This writing is meant to be a chronicle of my story, from June 2002 to January 2003. Facts, people, thoughts and feelings of the hardest battle that a man can fight: fighting for his life. The second one is because "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is one the most famous books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the most famous Colombian writer, one of those Colombians that we can really be proud of. Even if maybe my memories are "covered" by some layers of dust of 3 very hard and intense years, what you will read doesn't want to make you cry or think as "another sad story" (cause believe me, in some parts you'll laugh) is just a transcription of my memories...

Chapter I: "One Night..."

Max Ralli,
Alias "The serious"

NOTE:
Actually I'm not the author of his actual nickname in the office (I guess the author is Francesco) sometimes he really is...

First of all let me say that I'm only child but if I have to say who's my brother in this world, well no doubt is Max.
We know each other since we were just kids in primary school, I practically grew up in his house, every afternoon after school I used to go to his place where we have playing every possible game and building every possible thing for something like 10 years.

He is really a special person is brilliant, damn smart and also he is really a guy with a very big heart.
Just to give you an example, one day when I was in NY in July 2002 at the Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center he received a call from my mother telling him that she was not sure about what was going to happen to me since in those days we didn't have a clear idea about my destiny, and 3 days later in the afternoon I saw the curtain of my room in NY opening, well was Max that in 3 days arranged a trip to NY to visit me...

Oh, I forgot, just to give you an idea about who Max is; that day when I saw him I hugged him and he told me: "Dan you're hugging me too hard"
He came back also in September to spend few days with me before surgery, and you can't even imagine how important was for me to have him there while the surgeon was explaining me what he was going to do to me, believe me, is really hard when you have somebody in front of you telling that is going to open you and try to safe your life, specially with all the risks involved...(and to be honest there were lots of)

We have been traveling around the world a lot we have visited a lot of places together: USA, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, France, Luxembourg, United Kingdom etc. etc.... You can have a look at this "dynamic duo" here...

Very often I use to say that we are different faces of the same coin, because if you know me and Max, you will discover that we are really the "Black" and the "White". He is the guy who writes, I'm the guy that speaks. (whoever know me knows also that sometimes I speak too much)

Quoting a very famous philosopher of the 20th century, these are just some "analog thoughts in digital world" to say how great you are!!!

With a Colombian mum and an Italian dad, I'm surely a mix of different cultures. I was born in Colombia but I have lived in Rome most of my life, in a very nice neighborhood in the center of the city, near the Vatican.
Even though I live in the Eternal City, I have never wanted to lose my Colombian roots, not only because half of my family still lives there, but also because I have always thought about my "half-half" nature as a very important part of my identity.

When I was 4 years old, I lived in Miami for almost a year, and in those days I was barely speaking. (I started talking very late, but everybody who knows me also knows that since those days I never stopped.) Perhaps it was the mix of different languages (Italian from my parents, Spanish from my relatives, and English from the rest of the world) that kept me from speaking up at a very young age. But once I started talking, all those languages came out. Years later, I knew that my parents had been lovingly making fun of me because every sentence I spoke had words from three different languages.

I studied in the same school from kindergarten to high school. It was a Catholic school, but most importantly, it was the place where I discovered my love of learning and knowledge. It was also where I met Max, in the first grade. Some people enter your life and change it unexpectedly, forever, and with Max, this was surely the case.

We grew up together, playing soccer in his house garden. Years later, in that same garden, we brainstormed ideas and made the most important decisions for our business. We have always had a passion for business and ideas, and have been thinking up and creating businesses together for years. Some businesses did well; some were popular but we didn't yet know enough how to make money from them. And then it started. . . and it hasn't stopped yet. 'It' is the domain name industry. 'It' is DomainsBot. 'It' is the culmination of everything we've dreamed of and have worked towards.

I have always been a good student, specially cause of my speaking skills: Story, philosophy, arts and Latin were my specialties. But I always had a great passion for science and technology, in particular airplanes. I always tried to be a "Multilateral" man which id the definition of the renaissance philosophy: Men don't have to focus only in one thing but having a 360° knowledge.

I started studying aerospace engineering at La Sapienza university in Rome, but those were the days when I was starting up my business life, unfortunately in 2003 I had to abandon my dream of being an engineer right after that I came beck from the US after my cancer.
But I started now a new life, when I discovered my passion for business I decide to give a new turn at my "university life" and this year I restarted my carrier studying Economics and Business Management at Tor Vergata University in Rome... I hope to finish my studies in 3 years and in the meanwhile I will have the opportunity to take advantage of my studies applying them directly in actual business.