Diego De Nicola

I’m a philosopher, entrepreneur, keynote-speaker and school-founder.

Diego De Nicola is a philosopher, entrepreneur, public-speaker and high-performance coach. He speaks seven languages and studied at Stanford and Arizona State University, where he graduated with Honors and Magna Cum Laude in Economics and Philosophy. He is also an endurance athlete (multiple Ironman Finisher and Marathon runner) and father of three.

He founded his first company at the age of 24. To this day, he has founded and successfully managed 4 companies in completely different industries. In addition, in 2021 he started implementing his greatest vision: "revolutionizing the school system". On September 1, 2021 he founded his first private school with a completely new and extremely innovative school system in the city of Zurich: School of Tomorrow.

His vast variety of interests and his experience in many different fields have given him the skills to not merely understand, but much more to synthesize, simplify and convey complex concepts and ideas in an easy, readily understandable and immediately applicable way. Diego uses these tools on a daily basis in his work with professional and olympic athletes, elite teams, and high performers from a wide variety of fields.

Diego is a family man and a proud father of three kids. His mission is to empower people - independently of their situation and background – and lead them to reaching their success and live their fulfillment.

His motto is the latin phrase: "ad finem et ultra" (to the finish and beyond)

Diego's personal thoughts

What does it really mean to “know yourself”?

The famous oracle of Delphi – dating back to the time were Socrates & co. were roaming the markets of Athens – boasted a famous inscription at its entrance: “know thyself”! Hmm… that simple? Today, more than 2500 years later, this inscription still haunts the minds of thinkers, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, writers and ordinary people – myself included!

As trivial as it may sound at first, the depth of these two words are seemingly endless. What does it really mean to “know yourself”? Can you possibly ever know who you really are? No matter what we do in life, where we come from and how active or lazy a life we live, we keep constantly changing. So, if we now try to capture our essence, our existence and our real self – yet this one keeps changing – it would be as vain an effort as trying to hold on the present moment, while the present moment keeps constantly escaping into the realm of the past: impossible!

But in all seriousness now… weren’t you expecting some words about me – the author – in this section, given the fairly self-explanatory title? Well… this is me. And these are the kind of things, which – believe it or not! – fascinate and intrigue me. Am I so self-assured that I expect to be the one to find “the answer” to these and similar questions, although many have been trying to do so for centuries to no avail?

No, quite the opposite. I have put my mind at ease and accepted that there is no single, universal or even correct answer.

Nevertheless, even though a conclusive answer may never be found, the process of questioning is well worth it!

For this reason, it is my humble attempt to question answers, to challenge accepted beliefs and experiment without prejudice.

Furthermore, I have a passion for sports! An active lifestyle is essential to my wellbeing. Besides soccer – which has been an integral part of my entire life – I have been an active endurance athlete for many years, specializing in marathon and ironman-triathlon.

In short, I am a philosophical entrepreneur, an endurance athlete and an applied theorist. I have an insatiable hunger for knowledge, a passion for personal and interpersonal growth and the drive for permanent progress. It is my attitude and my purpose to live life with enthusiasm, excitement and thankfulness – and to pass all of this on, to as many people as possible. No, I’m not trying to change the world… I’m merely giving it my best shot in doing my part.

I hereby invite you to join me on this journey and to take part in the adventure. Should you have any ideas, questions, interests, suggestions, desired topics or just want to say hi, please contact me! I’m happy to hear from you! In the meantime, welcome to Athletic Socrates!