Silvia Bach: "Work is the backbone of my life."

The current CEO of Motocard and president of the Observatory of Women, Business and Economy, Sílvia Bach (Barcelona, ​​1975), was born into a family of greengrocers, and her parents always advocated for her to attend university. In this sense, she arrived at college fluent in English and French because she had studied them during the previous summers: "We negotiated with my father that if I studied a language intensively for the entire month of July, eight hours a day, in August we could go to any country I wanted." That's why, when she arrived at university, she dedicated her weekends to learning other languages, such as Portuguese, Russian, and Italian.

"I worked as a journalist throughout my studies, and it was very cool, but I have a lot of ambition," Bach says. And he continues: "If you work really well and earn money, you have the freedom to choose what you want in the future. I quickly saw that journalism wasn't well paid, there weren't many opportunities for growth. There were passionate careers, but few professional ones. And as soon as I had the slightest opportunity, I moved into business."

So, she studied an MBA (Master in Business Administration) and has lived in seven different countries, holding senior positions of responsibility in the most important fashion companies: "I told myself that nothing and no one would stop my desire to grow and develop my professional career," she says. "For me, work has been the absolute priority. It's the backbone of my life," she adds. "I'd sometimes heard at home, 'Wow, if you live abroad, you might miss out on family things,'" but she assures us that nothing has stopped her. In fact, traveling has opened her mind: "I haven't been to all the family celebrations, or all the events, or all the town festivals. I haven't experienced it all because I've had other things to do. Then you leave and when you come back most of the people are still in the same place. That distances you, because you've lived, you also have people, you have goals, ideas, from Almendro Origen.

As for her salary, she says she feels well paid: "I've spent my whole life, my whole career, trying my hardest. I don't think there's been anyone around me who worked harder than me. I've given absolutely everything in terms of hours, stress, absolute dedication. But I've been lucky, because I consider myself lucky." On the other hand, she assures that to get here she has encountered many "obstacles" due to the fact that she is a woman and that is precisely why she presides over the ODEE, to shed light on all these setbacks.

Regarding personal finances, she assures that she is not a saver and does not do without anything: "I can lead a high pace of life because my conditions allow it, and they also allow me to have been able to build up a patrimony. It's not that I am doing one thing for another, but I can do everything." "If I have to represent it in a line, it would be ascending; I have not had ups and downs. I have been growing, and my whims and hobbies too." One of the biggest expenses she has is sports, since she is a triathlete: "I probably have some of the best bikes on the market, more than one, and accessories. These are things that cost a lot of money, almost as much as a car. I also do Ironman races, which are expensive, and I travel. [...] In the last 18 months I have competed in Mexico, in Puerto Rico..."

She has learned to manage her finances over the years: "My obsession has been to pay off the mortgages as quickly as possible. 'I don't want to be in debt' was the mentality I had before. Today I see it differently." On the other hand, a very good financial decision was not to buy any property in 2008; she has acquired all of them in the last 10 years: "My house is clean, it doesn't have a mortgage. And I have a couple more properties. One for the weekend. And another as an investment."

As for her investments, she doesn't have an advisor but doesn't rule out looking for one in the coming months. She does have a tax advisory firm: "I make my investments whenever I want. I work in a private equity and I have an idea of the things I want to do." And although it's secondary, he does dedicate time to thinking it over and getting informed. All his investments are partly with retirement in mind: "I'll retire early just to rebel against the administration. Because they keep extending it." During this time, among other things, he will dedicate himself to traveling.

She says the comment she gets most is that she's "very lucky": "All the education I have comes from my parents, but I started from scratch, and I've had to work really hard to get where I am. I think these days it seems like you want everything right now. People are more impatient, and you have to be super focused."