The lines that come closest to speaking his mind: most from the hundred-plus hours of No Alvo com Eron Falbo, the rest from the interviews below. Each links to the exact moment it was said.
Look in the devil’s eyes
If you wanna fly
And put his feet right in your shoes
For what you are
Is a star
So beat the drums
Written at the start of it all: stare down what scares you, walk in its shoes, and remember what you are. The closing lines carry the Thelemite teaching that every man and every woman is a star.
If you recognize yourself before the audience does, you have a very serious problem to fix before having an audience. Because it is the audience that crowns you. The king who crowns himself is a tyrant.
Speaking about when recognition counts: the applause you give yourself proves nothing, because legitimacy is granted from outside.
Se você se reconhece antes do público, você está com algum problema muito sério que precisa corrigir antes de ter público. Porque é o público que te coroa. O rei que se coroa é um tirano.
And what seems to be the end
Comes smiling like a friend,
Like the lawyer’s polished shoes
Designed to give bad news.
The paradox at the heart of the album’s opening ballad: what seems to be the end feels glorious, you think you are victorious, and the bad news the polished shoes deliver is that another gulp is coming, another baby-step of faith still to make. Bad news that is really good news: the baby-step of faith means always striving toward the difficult, even if only a little.
Humanity began around a campfire... It is storytelling around a campfire... something that not only unites people; it makes people what they are.
His theory of storytelling: fire and story are where the species became itself, and a guitar circle is the same ancient machine still running.
a humanidade começou em volta de uma fogueira... É storytelling em volta de uma fogueira... uma coisa que não só une as pessoas, como faz as pessoas o que elas são.
Like a woman’s slip
Before corruption by her dress,
The master’s whip
Without his slave would have nothing to suppress.
The outlaw song’s argument in miniature: power needs its subjects more than they need it.
The foundation of humor is being free in that moment.
Why the talk show ran without a script: humor cannot be planned, it can only happen to a person who is free in the moment.
A base do humor é você ser livre naquele momento.
Whether it exists or not does not matter. What matters is whether it works or not.
His pragmatic test for beliefs and practices: existence can be debated forever, effect cannot.
Se existe ou não existe, não importa. O que importa é se funciona ou não funciona.
It is one thing to theorize it... it is another to actually live the experience, and then it is not a question of believing or not believing, it is a question of identity, a question of having lived it.
On transcendent experience: theory stays in verbal debate, but what you have lived settles into who you are.
uma coisa é você teorizar isso... outra coisa é você viver essa experiência de fato, e aí não é uma questão de acreditar ou não acreditar, é uma questão de identidade, é uma questão de ter vivenciado
The world of the dead is not just what we inherited, the frightening spirits. The world of the dead, metaphorically, is your tradition, your culture, your ancestry.
From the Halloween special, unpublished until now: the dead reconceived as the living inheritance of tradition and ancestry.
O mundo dos mortos não é só como a gente herdou essa coisa de, tipo, espíritos assustadores. O mundo dos mortos, metaforicamente, é a sua tradição, a sua cultura, a sua ancestralidade.
The motivation was we’re looking at the stars, we’re looking at the microscope, because we’re trying to become better human beings, and we stopped doing that.
His grievance against modern knowledge, said to the world’s leading Stoicism scholar: the stars and the microscope began as instruments of self-improvement, and that purpose was lost.
People who had access to no information could now have access to data. Not to knowledge, but to data. Because knowledge, you must have a certain preparation to be able to receive.
On the internet age: it put data in every hand, but knowledge still demands a prepared receiver.
pessoas que não tinham acesso a nenhuma informação agora podiam ter acesso a dados. Não a conhecimento, mas a dados. Porque conhecimento você tem que ter um certo preparo para poder receber.
Complaining is useless, crying is useless... The best thing you can do is stay awake for the moment the window opens.
His advice on luck, said to a member of the Gracie dynasty: opportunity is a window that opens on its own schedule, and your whole job is to be awake when it does.
Não adianta reclamar, não adianta chorar... O melhor que você tem que fazer é ficar acordado para o momento em que a janela abrir.
Substances are never the problem... the problem is the emptiness you feel, the reason you go looking for certain things in life.
A line he repeated across the show about addiction: the substance is downstream of the emptiness, so fighting the substance misses the cause.
as substâncias nunca são o problema... o problema é o vazio que você sente, a razão que você busca certas coisas na vida.
Most fights at family dinners are happening because people think they have enough authority to say what is right.
On why arguments explode among people who love each other: everyone at the table assumes the authority to declare what is right.
A maioria das brigas nos jantares de família estão acontecendo porque as pessoas acham que têm autoridade suficiente para dizer qual é o certo.
Education is knowing how to love the good... there is a good, there is such a thing as a good thing, and learning to love it, that is education.
The definition of education he says he took from Plato for the rest of his life: not information, but learning to love what is good.
educação como saber gostar do bom... existe um bom, existe uma coisa boa, e você aprender a gostar disso, isso é educação.
But I hold no opinion
Of new confederates losing battles to new unions
Or new religions slaying children for dominion
Let me just concentrate on making my first million
His refusal of the opinion wars, in verse, twelve years before the wealth practice: skip the recycled battles and do your own work.
For the first time in history, society is holding the gearshift.
His reading of this century, in one line: for the first time, society, not the state, is driving.
Pela primeira vez na história, a sociedade está com o câmbio.
We are not thinking about the market; we want to help the market think, if possible.
Said at 28, releasing his debut: the record was not made to chase the market’s taste but to raise it.
Não estamos pensando no mercado, mas queremos ajudar o mercado a pensar – se possível.
We are bringing into planning a layer that comes before the investment. Jurisdiction is the foundation of everything else.
The thesis of his wealth practice: where you stand legally comes before what you buy, so jurisdiction is chosen first.
Estamos trazendo para o planejamento uma camada anterior ao investimento. A jurisdição é a base de todo o resto do patrimônio.
The sophisticated investor does not react to the event. He anticipates the cycle.
On managing wealth through geopolitical shocks: the event is noise, the cycle is the signal.
O investidor sofisticado não reage ao evento. Ele se antecipa ao ciclo.
I do not believe that what is right for Brazil is the center, and I do not believe it is the left or the right. I believe it is upward, onward, ahead: a new Brazil.
Closing an hour with the former senator on education: his refusal of the left-right axis in favor of a vertical one.
eu não acredito que o certo do Brasil é o centro, e não acredito que seja a esquerda nem a direita. Eu acredito que é em cima, avante, adiante, um novo Brasil.
Filmed conversations and studio footage, in the order they were shot. These are the rooms many of the quotes below come from.
Footage from the London sessions at Konk Studios, the studio of the Kinks’ Ray Davies, where Eron Falbo recorded “I’ll Be Fine” and John Lennon’s “I Found Out”.
On the set of the “Beat the Drums” music video, the single named best release of the week on BBC radio.
Behind the scenes of the 73 sessions in Nashville with producer Bob Johnston, the same film that plays on the Praise page.
A 26-minute interview in Portuguese on the whole arc: starting out in Brasília, what makes a musician professional, Nashville and London, and what carries an artist through. Filmed at the studio of Gênesis de Gênios, the business school for artists Eron Falbo ran with Manoel Barenbein. The filmed quotes below come from this conversation.
A 90-minute masterclass conversation between Eron Falbo and Manoel Barenbein, producer of Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis and of records for Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben and Chico Buarque, for the students of Gênesis de Gênios.
Interviews given to newspapers, magazines and portals, 2013 to 2026. Many of the wealth-era pieces printed only a line or two of a longer conversation.
Written by him rather than spoken to a reporter.
Lines he wrote and recorded: the single “Beat the Drums” (2011) and the album 73, produced by Bob Johnston (2013). Covers are not quoted; these are his own words, set to music.
And what seems to be the end
Comes smiling like a friend,
Like the lawyer’s polished shoes
Designed to give bad news.
The album’s opening ballad follows a doubter through a party, a jury and a bar, taking faith one small step at a time. This verse is its paradox: what seems to be the end feels like victory, and the bad news is that another baby-step of faith is still to come. Which is the good news: always strive toward the difficult, even if only a little.
For God has not forsaken man
If she has made
A baby-step of faith.
The closing lines, where the song quietly gives God the pronoun “she”.
Like a woman’s slip
Before corruption by her dress,
The master’s whip
Without his slave would have nothing to suppress.
An outlaw strut named for the boy who crossed America strapped to his mother’s back on the Lewis and Clark expedition. The verse is the song’s argument in miniature: power needs its subjects more than they need it.
There’s more than just one way,
For you to pay
The price of your well-earned autonomy
And that’ll be the day!
Say all the mice, whose vices need astrology.
The same song on freedom: autonomy is earned and paid for, and the boss does not list every way to pay. The last word goes to the doubters, the mice so timid they outsource even their vices to the stars.
But I hold no opinion
Of new confederates losing battles to new unions
Or new religions slaying children for dominion
Let me just concentrate on making my first million
The song’s speaker waves away every recycled war of opinion, the new confederates and the new unions, and turns to his own work. The refrain around it borrows Brando’s “I could’ve been a contender”.
Ah, the tolling bells that call the minds
To come and find the answers they’ll forget tonight
On the halls where answers are handed out and forgotten by morning.
I want warriors to learn how to run
And be proud of the battle not fought
The album’s closing litany of impossible wants. This one inverts the warrior’s code: the rarest courage is pride in the fight you walked away from.
But the telescope has told us to measure
What the microscope begins to explain
The song’s cosmology in one couplet, rhymed a decade before he told Massimo Pigliucci the same thing in conversation: the instruments of knowledge were meant to serve understanding.
You’re a decent a person
You’re just not certain
There’s a Jesus trapped in there
But you’re not so far
Sitting in your car
Going no place anywhere
An exhortation to the stalled decent person: goodness trapped inside, idling in traffic. The cure the chorus prescribes is to make noise about what you feel.
Look in the devil’s eyes
If you wanna fly
And put his feet right in your shoes
For what you are
Is a star
So beat the drums
The bridge into the chorus: courage means staring down what scares you and walking in its shoes. The payoff carries the Thelemite teaching that every man and every woman is a star.
From the years of 73, Nashville and London.
It was like the Beatles in Hamburg.
Era como os Beatles em Hamburgo.
Bob and I talked for four months. He didn’t want to hear my songs until he knew me. He even asked whether I believed in God.
Eu e Bob conversamos durante quatro meses. Ele não queria saber das minhas músicas até me conhecer. Até se eu acreditava em Deus ele perguntou.
If I became known abroad but not in Brazil, it would be very sad.
Se ficasse conhecido no exterior mas não no Brasil seria muito triste.
Not everything in life is chance. I was a bit opportunistic and a bit lucky. But the deepest explanation is that he was waiting for the record and the record was waiting for him.
Nem tudo na vida é por acaso. Fui um pouco oportunista e um pouco sortudo. Porém, a mais profunda explicação é que ele estava esperando o disco e o disco estava esperando por ele.
I didn’t want to express myself. I wanted 73 to express itself, and only with Johnston would that be possible.
Eu não queria me expressar. Queria que ‘73’ se expressasse, e só com o Johnston isso seria possível.
We are not thinking about the market; we want to help the market think, if possible.
Não estamos pensando no mercado, mas queremos ajudar o mercado a pensar – se possível.
For us, it is an ideal we have not yet reached... a human sound, played by humans to touch humans, with attention to detail.
Para nós, é um ideal que ainda não atingimos... um som humano, tocado por humanos para tocar humanos, com atenção a detalhes.
It is an old tradition to write with the dead; see Led Zeppelin and Robert Johnson.
É uma tradição antiga fazer parcerias com pessoas mortas – vide Led Zeppelin e Robert Johnson.
The record is “credited” to Eron Falbo, but it belongs to many people!
Por isso, o disco é “atribuído” a Eron Falbo, mas é de muita gente!
I had no studio experience. I convinced myself that I would need a great producer to guide me through the process. I started researching and aimed at the best I could imagine. And it worked out very well.
Não tinha experiência de estúdio. Eu me convenci de que precisaria de um ótimo produtor para me orientar nesse processo. Comecei a pesquisar e mirei no melhor que poderia imaginar. E deu muito certo.
Everything flowed through chemistry. The musicians he called heard my demos only once. Then Bob asked us to do a jam session based on the demos, and we recorded the best moments.
Tudo fluiu por química. Os músicos que ele chamou, ouviram minhas demos apenas uma vez. Aí o Bob pediu para fazermos uma jam session baseada nas demos e gravamos os melhores momentos.
Bob Johnston was the name I read on the backs of records when I was 18.
Bob Johnston era o nome que eu lia atrás dos discos quando tinha 18 anos.
The beatniks were my first literary identification; to me, they were the only ones as lost as I was.
Os beatniks foram minha primeira identificação literária; para mim eles eram os únicos tão perdidos quanto eu.
I went to his office in Chelsea and there he was, holding his cane. He looked like a comic-book villain.
Fui ao seu escritório em Chelsea e lá estava ele, segurando sua bengala. Parecia vilão de história em quadrinhos.
The difference between an Olympic boxer and a professional boxer... using that analogy, I consider the professional musician to be the one who objectively earns money from his music.
A diferença entre um boxeador olímpico e um boxeador profissional... usando essa analogia, eu considero que o músico profissional é aquele que ganha dinheiro objetivamente com a música dele.
My imagination was not educated enough to imagine it was possible to get as far as I got.
Minha imaginação não era educada o suficiente para imaginar que era possível chegar tão longe quanto eu cheguei.
In the middle of a war between arrogance and humility. You doubt yourself the whole time.
No meio de uma guerra entre a arrogância e a humildade. Você duvida muito de si o tempo todo.
The great challenge of the artist... is to wake up every day and convince himself that what he is doing is good... that people want what he is making.
O grande desafio do artista... é acordar todo dia e se convencer de que o que ele está fazendo é bom... que as pessoas querem aquilo que ele está fazendo.
It is very hard to keep laying these little bricks... until you see there is a wall lifting you, protecting you, building you as an artist.
É muito difícil você continuar fazendo e construindo esses pequenos tijolinhos... você vê que tem uma muralha que está te alavancando, que está te protegendo, que está te construindo como um artista.
It is important to separate the contextual from the timeless. But if you can find the timeless and put it into your path, I think success becomes much more likely.
É importante separar o contextual do atemporal. Mas se você conseguir encontrar o atemporal e você conseguir botar isso dentro do seu caminho, eu acho muito mais provável você atingir sucesso.
Never give up... you need an almost miraculous perseverance.
Nunca desista... você precisa ter uma perseverança quase milagrosa.
If you join that passion and perseverance with realism, with dedication, with study... if there is any justice in this world, it is impossible not to succeed.
Se você juntar essa paixão, essa perseverança, com o realismo, com dedicação, com estudo... se existe alguma justiça nesse mundo, é impossível você não ser bem-sucedido.
From the years of No Alvo com Eron Falbo, the talk show that grew from Instagram lives into a podcast of more than 100 interviews.
My priority is getting off the script. I like good conversation, and I make sure my guests feel so at ease that they end up telling things they had never told anyone.
Minha prioridade é sair do script. Gosto da conversa boa e faço questão de que meus convidados se sintam tão à vontade que eles acabam contando coisas que nunca tinham falado para ninguém.
I wanted to inspire other people at a moment when everyone was very depressed, disillusioned with government and politics, and freedom of expression was being put in check.
Queria inspirar outras pessoas num momento em que estava todo mundo muito deprimido, descrente do governo e da política, e que a liberdade de expressão estava sendo posta em xeque.
If the pandemic has one good side, it is that borders fell.
Se tem um lado bom da pandemia é que as fronteiras caíram.
Today the premise of the show is to take the audience and the guests out of their comfort zone, but at the start the idea was to help my friends, who were desperate, depressed and isolated because of the coronavirus.
Hoje, a premissa do programa é tirar o público e os convidados da zona de conforto, mas, no início, a ideia era ajudar meus amigos que estavam desesperados, deprimidos e isolados por causa do coronavírus.
I lived it enough to have graduated and lost the enchantment of that fantasy. That was one of my greatest achievements; it gave me maturity and serenity. I often bumped into Amy Winehouse in London pubs.
Vivi isso o suficiente para ter me graduado e ter perdido o encanto por essa fantasia. Essa foi uma das minhas maiores conquistas, me deu maturidade e serenidade. Muitas vezes esbarrei com Amy Winehouse em pubs londrinos.
What is a target? Something you badly want to hit. But in real life, the apparent targets deceive. And we have to work to find the target, long before trying to hit it... We interview unique people who help us find the unique within us.
The credo of the whole program, scripted by him: finding the target is the work; hitting it comes later.
O que é um alvo? Algo que você quer muito acertar. Mas na vida real, os alvos aparentes enganam. E temos que ralar para encontrar o alvo, muito antes de tentar acertar... Entrevistamos pessoas únicas que nos ajudam a encontrar o único dentro de nós.
Our society today is living too much in the light, living in the summer, in the conscious, and thinking that this is conscious, when in truth it is being steered by forces it does not know.
Talking about the wheel of the year: a culture that keeps only the summer festivals loses sight of what moves beneath.
a nossa sociedade hoje em dia está vivendo muito na luz, vivendo muito no verão, no consciente, e achando que isso é consciente, na verdade, sendo que está sendo muito influenciado por forças que eles não sabem.
We wear masks so the bad spirits will not recognize us. But it is not only bad spirits in there. Inside the unconscious, we have everything. And we are ignoring the good along with the bad.
His reading of the oldest Halloween custom: by hiding from what frightens us in ourselves, we also lose what is precious there.
a gente usa máscara para que os espíritos ruins não nos reconheçam, né? Mas não é só espírito ruim que tem, né? A gente tem, dentro do inconsciente, a gente tem tudo. E a gente está ignorando o bom com o ruim, né?
From his work in jurisdiction planning and wealth strategy, with Multipolitan and Bridge Legacy.
We are bringing into planning a layer that comes before the investment. Jurisdiction is the foundation of everything else.
Estamos trazendo para o planejamento uma camada anterior ao investimento. A jurisdição é a base de todo o resto do patrimônio.
If the family does not include international alternatives, it is 100% exposed to Brazil’s political risk. But long-term planning as it used to be done no longer works; the complete architecture of the wealth has to be redesigned, according to each family’s need.
Se a família não incluir alternativas internacionais, fica 100% exposta ao risco político do Brasil. Mas o planejamento de longo prazo como era feito antes já não funciona mais, é preciso redesenhar a arquitetura completa do patrimônio, de acordo com a necessidade de cada família.
Crypto wealth no longer belongs exclusively to the traditional financial centers like New York, London or Singapore. It is borderless, fluid, and it is finding new homes where innovation and regulatory clarity meet.
A riqueza em criptoativos já não pertence exclusivamente aos tradicionais centros financeiros como Nova York, Londres ou Singapura. Ela é sem fronteiras, fluida — e está encontrando novos lares onde inovação e clareza regulatória se encontram.
What is driving the exodus is not simply the tax percentage. It is the combination of rising taxation, regulatory unpredictability and loss of structural efficiency. All at the same time.
O que está provocando o êxodo não é simplesmente o percentual de imposto. É a combinação de tributação crescente, imprevisibilidade regulatória e perda de eficiência estrutural. Tudo ao mesmo tempo.
Planning has stopped being optional and become a condition of preserving wealth.
O planejamento deixou de ser opcional e passou a ser condição de preservação patrimonial.
The sophisticated investor does not react to the event. He anticipates the cycle.
O investidor sofisticado não reage ao evento. Ele se antecipa ao ciclo.
The conflict itself may be temporary. The structural change in countries’ fiscal and strategic priorities is what creates lasting impact.
O conflito em si pode ser temporário. A mudança estrutural nas prioridades fiscais e estratégicas dos países é o que gera impacto duradouro.
Dubai has become an alternative for those facing difficulties in citizenship processes in Europe. With a clearer migration system, based on merit or investment, the country gives confidence to those seeking stability and opportunities.
Dubai tem se tornado uma alternativa para quem enfrenta dificuldades em processos de cidadania na Europa. Com um sistema migratório mais claro, baseado em mérito ou investimento, o país passa confiança a quem busca estabilidade e oportunidades.
When governments start signaling extraordinary or unpredictable changes... capital does not respond with confrontation, but with reorganization. Families, in practice, start “voting with their feet”, choosing jurisdictions that offer predictability, institutional stability and respect for long-term planning.
Quando governos passam a sinalizar mudanças extraordinárias ou imprevisíveis... o capital não reage com confronto, mas com reorganização. Famílias, na prática, passam a ‘votar com os pés’, escolhendo jurisdições que oferecem previsibilidade, estabilidade institucional e respeito ao planejamento de longo prazo.
Young HNWIs are not only looking for assets different from the traditional ones, but also for diversification of investments across different countries, tied to the pursuit of multiple residencies and citizenships. The view is that, in an unpredictable world, holding multiple residency or citizenship provides stability and access to safe environments.
Os jovens HNWI não só buscam ativos diferentes dos tradicionais, mas também a diversificação dos investimentos em diferentes países atrelada à busca por múltiplas residências/cidadanias. A visão é de que, em um mundo imprevisível, ter residência ou cidadania múltipla fornece estabilidade e acesso a ambientes seguros.
It is not just the numbers that change; it is the mentality. Wealth today is mobile, plural and sensitive to social and environmental values.
Não são apenas os números que mudam — é a mentalidade. A riqueza hoje é mobile, plural e sensível a valores sociais e ambientais.
Brazilian high-income families are facing an unprecedented tax offensive on their assets abroad.
As famílias brasileiras de alta renda estão enfrentando uma ofensiva tributária sem precedentes sobre seus ativos no exterior.
Lawyers, bankers, asset managers and tax specialists are excellent in their specialties, but rarely does anyone look at the wealth as a whole. Our role is to be that strategic link, ensuring every decision makes sense within a single long-term vision, aligned with the family’s values and legacy goals.
Advogados, banqueiros, gestores e tributaristas são excelentes em suas especialidades, mas raramente alguém olha o patrimônio como um todo. Nosso papel é ser esse elo estratégico, garantindo que cada decisão faça sentido dentro de uma visão única de longo prazo, alinhada aos valores e aos objetivos de legado da família.
Today, protecting wealth is not just a financial question. It involves governance, global vision, risk management and preparation for scenarios of uncertainty.
Hoje, proteger patrimônio não é apenas uma questão financeira. Envolve governança, visão global, gestão de riscos e preparo para cenários de incerteza.