Milan, accessibility, and knowledge that circulates (or does not)

One thing I keep noticing in Italy, and especially in Milan, is that some influential people or people with certain credentials tend to be much less accessible.

Important premise: I fully understand the value of time, and I too carefully choose how I spend it and with whom.

But that is not the point.

What I sense abroad

The point is that in many ecosystems I have spent time in abroad, I perceive a greater willingness to exchange ideas, information, contacts, and experiences, especially between people at different stages of their professional or entrepreneurial path.

In Milan I have often had that feeling. Perhaps because I have lived it for many years and have observed both the phase when I was trying to learn from people ahead of me, and the current one.

Travelling a lot and spending several months a year in places like Dubai, NYC, Marbella, Barcelona, Cape Town, London, and various European cities, I often notice a different approach.

Fewer implicit hierarchies and distance. More willingness to have a chat, make an introduction, or simply share an experience.

Not a binary judgment

I am not saying that abroad everyone is altruistic and in Italy everyone is closed.

But I have the sense that here there is still a certain tendency to protect information, contacts, and knowledge as if they were scarce resources.

Yet looking at my own experience, most of the most important opportunities came from people who shared something with me when they had no obligation to do so.

Advice. An introduction. A "talk to this person". Small things that, accumulated, change trajectories.

Strong ecosystems and top-down flow

Perhaps one trait of stronger ecosystems is precisely the ability to circulate knowledge from the top down.

Not as charity. As an investment in the fabric you operate in: more capable people around you, more shared opportunities, denser quality.

Protecting everything can look smart in the short term. In the long term, it impoverishes the network you belong to.

Open question

How do you see it?

Is it only my perception, or have you noticed the same thing?