To cite Martti Servo, the Finnish singer: ‘Who you are, it’s good to know. Then you can live, like a maestro.’ As the maestro of my own life, I’ve had the chance to try out all kinds of things. It is the only leadership position I have ever had the appetite for, let alone competence.

The field of aesthetics and the University of Helsinki entered the picture when I had already spent several years touring the world as a professional ice hockey player and returned to Finland motivated to study in addition to playing. Even though I recognised a natural philosophical inquisitiveness in myself, studying for me was free from self-interest and I didn’t expect my degree to lead to any particular job. It was a good counterbalance to ice hockey and helped me to form a new social network.

I’m grateful to my parents for giving me a basis for a life as an aesthete. My earliest childhood memory is from Barcelona, where we lived in the early 1970s. I’m sitting on the front seat of our white Mercedes-Benz, loading cassettes into the car’s Blaupunkt player, choosing from Burt Bacharach, Astrud Gilberto, Simon & Garfunkel and Stevie Wonder. Another thing that I remember about those years is the diverse and international circle of friends that my parents had. We never listened to Finnish schlager.

I differed from most of my fellow students by not living the student life, properly speaking. I had some income from ice hockey and that always needed to be sorted out first. As a result, my attendance at lectures was sometimes sporadic and I scraped through many exams, relying more on attitude than studying.

I dream of a more complex world and perfect pitch.