Services

Spirit of Self-sacrifice

e are currently experiencing a difficult economic situation in Spain. Financial crisis, unemployment, lack of confidence in investment, low expenditure and withdrawal of financial institutions. Many and varied reasons can be pointed out to be the cause of this situation. However I would like to talk about a point that influences both the cause as well as the solution.

For some time now we have been living through a crisis in values. The pronunciation of the individuality of the individual (forgive the repetition) has taken us to an intensification of selfishness, of comfort above all, the arrogance of the “ego” and “I” above the rest in general, a distrust in the common good, a person’s word has lost its value. All this has left us in recent times in a culture where people think “what can I receive” without thinking “what can I give to others”. Therefore placing egocentricity and excessive complacency above and before the general interest. This has made us forget the values that are in crisis

or put them into second place. That a person’s word has value and that the person who has given their word will strive with their efforts accordingly and stand by it, with a feeling and conviction to see what it is that one can give and how one can help others. All this takes us to an essential point: spirit of self-sacrifice; to abandon excessive complacency which is a dangerous culture that leads us to think that we can receive things easily without having to fight for them, taking us to the breaking point between production and welfare state and at the same time affecting the culture of values. From everything that I have learned during my youth, during my education, I can say that the most important, what has made me become the person (and the professional) that I am today, was not something that I learned at University in the degrees that I studied, it was something that my father taught me: “To value what you achieve, you must have fought for it, and have put all your effort in before achieving it”, “Sacrifice always brings its reward”. I grew up in a humble middle class family, however the treasure that my father taught me, what he gave me with this, has been the most valuable thing for me, more than any material assets in the world. The spirit of self-sacrifice, perseverance,

effort and being consistent are essential values that must exist in a culture. We have to recover the admiration and trust in those values so that our society, our culture and our economy will advance; and come out of the current crisis. Each of us must understand this in order to be able to restore the essential values in our society in general. It is not as important to think of what we have, as it is to see why we have it. Appreciating those who fight, those who strive, and those who do sacrifice themselves in order to reach their goals. Restoring meritocracy in our society, in our culture.

When in 1991, I was the under-16 Andalusian Champion in Chess for the first time at the age of 15 years old, what I most valued was the many hours I dedicated to practicing (8 hours a day in winter and over 10 hours a day in summer). When in 1993, I obtained the title of Juvenile Andalusian Champion in the under-21 category, I reiterated my conviction. The titles were not important in themselves, what I valued the most were the many hours, days, months in which I had practiced and worked so very hard to achieve them.

Throughout those days and months, what moved me was reaching the goal; but once I had, the dream of reaching my goal was replaced by the satisfaction of knowing that sacrifice had brought its reward. And having this, the ability and spirit of self-sacrifice, you can start thinking about the next goal. Obviously, not all goals can be reached with the spirit of self-sacrifice alone. However, even when goals are not achieved, there is no better consolation than knowing that you have fought, strived and truly done your best, and that you have done everything that depended on you; effort, will and sacrifice.

My studies and my preparation are based on the above. The Legal Profession must be understood from the thought and perspective of what can I do for society instead of what can society do for me.
My education and my way of understanding life, stems from the treasure that my father taught me in my childhood and leads me to understand my profession from the aspect of the essential values that our society must recover: the spirit of self-sacrifice, tenacity, effort and perseverance.
Del Prado & Partners Solicitors was born and consolidated on the basis of all of the above. The professionals and members of my Law Firm must be faithful to those fundamental values which are essential to serve the clients that need us.

My Law Firm, with all our efforts and spirit of self-sacrifice strives to the maximum to achieve the goals of our clients.
The aforementioned involvement, effort and spirit of self-sacrifice, is our philosophy, our culture and our way of seeing things.

Del Prado & Partners Solicitors, the best for you ….Always!!

José S. Del Prado Montoro
Senior Partner / Managing Director
DEL PRADO & PARTNERS SOLICITORS