Guild Talks – Hannes Võrno

In a world that is quick to judge, conversations with truly courageous people have become increasingly rare.

Hannes Võrno is one of those people

– A man who has lived boldly, spoken honestly, and carried the cost of both. He has been pushed aside by the herd mentality, labeled, and cancelled by a cancel culture that so often deserves to be questioned itself.

It is precisely for this reason that we are honoured to have Hannes as the first guest of Guild Talks – our new interview series featuring inspiring men, each wearing our made-to-order suits. In this conversation, Hannes wears a three-piece blue suit crafted from soft Loro Piana wool, a quiet reflection of the elegance and integrity that still live beneath the noise.

We all make mistakes. “To err is human — to forgive, divine.” But what exactly was the error? And who decides? After all, everything delivered through the machinery of modern media may just as easily be truth – or illusion. We don’t always see what is; often, we see what we are shown.

This conversation is about finding one’s own voice when the world tries to silence it. About walking through life with dignity and style. About rediscovering the reasons to smile — and the courage to be oneself.

What does success mean to you in today’s world?

Hannes: That’s a good question. Success is such a tricky and flattering trap. People – I’ve done it myself, twisting it around in my mind – have somehow created the image that success means being known and being recognized. The more followers you have, the more people know you, the more famous you are, the more “successful” you’re considered to be.

But I think it’s actually the opposite. A truly successful person is someone who knows themselves deeply and understands who they are. It means I can wake up in the morning, go about my day, and speak my truth – say what I think, what I want to say, and to whom I want to say it – without fear. That, for me, is success. Reaching a point where I truly know myself. How many people know me isn’t a measure of success; that’s just a surface-level effect.

“I can say what I think, what I want to say, and to whom I want to say it – without fear. That, for me, is success.”

Don’t follow me – follow yourselves. Don’t chase success; understand who you are. Don’t chase fame; understand yourself. That’s the message I’d dare to share about success. It’s a modern topic, but it’s not a new one. People have always had the urge to achieve, to reach a goal, to feel more valued in the eyes of others.

I remember an old interview I read on a plane. A grandchild interviewed a grandmother, who had just turned one hundred. The grandchild asked, “How have you always been so lively, chic, and cool, always happy and cheerful, and now you’re one hundred? How did you manage that?” And the grandmother replied, “Look, whenever I’m having a bad day, I put on my best clothes and go outside. And good things always start to happen.”

Has your style or way of dressing ever opened doors for you in life?

Yes, I believe it has. This was about twenty years ago when I worked in television, my style definitely opened doors for me. When I went to the CEO’s office to negotiate my salary for the upcoming season, the conversation began to drift as usual.

So I thought, “Alright, then let’s do it like this: I’ll take the salary you’re offering. But I want a stylist, a costume designer, and a wardrobe assistant.” Meaning they would need to hire three additional people – and before every show goes live, I want to try on which trousers I like, the jacket, the shirt, the tie. In short, the stylist would have had to show up every time with a car full of racks and clothes for me to choose from. Otherwise, I wouldn’t feel comfortable, and they’d get a lousy host, which they already had enough of in the building.

The other option was simple: pay me a proper salary, and I’ll wear the clothes I already have – the pieces I have made for myself, the tailored suits, and the great finds I’ve picked up at good shops. And that’s what happened. My salary included the responsibility to dress well. In my entire TV career, I’ve never had a stylist, costume designer, or consultant. I’ve always done that work myself. So yes, doors have opened – I’ve walked right up, shoulders back, and asked for what I’m worth.

What is the most significant inner pain of Estonian men — the one no one talks about?

I think it’s connected to a certain fragility that stems from having to cope with things one doesn’t want to discuss with anyone except the closest person or one’s very best friend. And I think the fact that a man’s best friend is usually not his father but someone else – some friends from the street, schoolmates, companions or comrades with whom he does business with – means that there is always a small need for a “mask,” or a need to protect yourself or your truth from certain things that perhaps don’t exist between a father and a son. And for a very simple reason: between a father and a son, there is never any jealousy.

“The greatest lack we have is precisely a very good connection and relationship between fathers and sons.”

And I believe that this is one of the most critical aspects for the mental health of men in Estonia and around the world — having an excellent relationship with one’s father. Even if the father has passed away, like mine, this contact and the memory and the understanding of what the father’s role is at the moment a boy grows up — and in a man’s life in general — is so extraordinarily important that you can’t look past it or around it.

This means that a father has no reason to be jealous of his son for being younger or more capable. Likewise, the son does not need to envy the father for already having everything, for everything being allowed to him, and so on. So in a healthy father–son relationship, there is no jealousy. And I think the greatest lack we have is precisely a very good connection and relationship between fathers and sons.

What has been your most significant moment of breaking or growth, and what changed afterward?

I’m not saying this for the first time. I’ve said it before, always with great joy and courage. It was a moment of recognition when I connected with my Creator – the Source, the original spark, or however one wants to call God. For me, it was a meeting with God. And in that moment, I probably spoke the most beautiful words of my life – that a meeting with God is a moment that changes your life forever.

And now, everyone can reflect on what that means. At that moment, I felt an absolute, almost apocalyptic sense of liberation from all fear. It was a moment after which I no longer needed to fear anyone or anything. And these aren’t just words for the sake of words – it simply is that way.

This moment of breaking didn’t mean, for example, some cliché “alcoholic hitting rock bottom” story, where I’d have to fall entirely to the bottom to find a way back to the surface. It wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about a broken relationship, a dissolved friendship, or some new life situation – although those can undoubtedly hurt. Even the loss of a beloved pet can profoundly impact a person’s life.

What created this moment of recognition or breakthrough for me was realizing that I don’t have to end up in prison to meet Jesus in a cell and start talking about how I’ve “improved” and how God came to help me. No. Today, I would rather say that when I drink good champagne, eat some truly fantastic food, and am surrounded by good people, quietly – even if I laugh and joke – I can, in that moment, say to myself: “Thank God! Thank you, Old One, for arranging this just this way.” That recognition, that some things in life – the really, really good things – are arranged by Him.

And that’s what my breaking moment was: realizing I don’t have to fall, become a broken person, to find something, then again. It was a moment when it felt like Godfather’s hand on my shoulder, that said, “This is an offer you can’t refuse.”And that is an incredible feeling.

“This moment of breaking didn’t mean, for example, some cliché “alcoholic hitting rock bottom” story, where I’d have to fall entirely to the bottom to find a way back to the surface. It wasn’t about that.”

On truth and illusion – whatever your soul wishes to share.

Alright. Truth and illusion are two distinct yet beautiful and clear concepts. Truth is like silence: it either exists, or something is disturbing it. Even a slight hum means it’s no longer silent. And truth works the same way. If something is true, then it simply is. If there’s something that needs to be defended with endless extra adjectives, explanations, diagrams, and someone fighting tooth and nail to justify it, then it’s no longer the truth. To me, truth reveals itself through its ability to exist quietly. That’s its defining feature.

Illusion, on the other hand, is the complete opposite – illusion is loud, almost screaming. An illusion cannot exist unless you actively create it, maintain it, feed it. And in that sense, the difference between truth and illusion is like the difference between man and woman, or life and death. They belong to entirely different dimensions.

So yes. Illusion shouts – but truth is silent.

What is your dream Estonia like? What could we change to make living here better?

There’s nothing really wrong with Estonia. It’s an incredibly cool place, in the sense that we get to experience both the good and the bad, geographically speaking. We have these fairly tough neighbors who keep us, so to speak, always a bit like… with our strings pulled tight and tucked neatly under our belly, you know? And we have very awesome people in Estonia, a charming nation.

What’s missing from the ideal is that we learn to smile genuinely again and respond to a smile. That’s something that may seem so trivial and ridiculous to some. But try it! Go and see what mood you get into if, without fearing to look stupid, you smile at people who pass you by. See what happens. Those who smile back – you know you get an entirely different understanding of the whole world! So I think that’s an expeditious and short answer to what’s missing from the ideal Estonia, because I don’t see it anymore as some fantasy, like I might have thirty years ago: “Well, I’d like Estonia to be like a little Switzerland, where everywhere are tiny blue-black-white flags, and we make the world’s best wooden spoons or something. And then we have all these natural products and little huts buried in the forest where there’s no electricity, but everyone comes for retreats.”

All of that exists now, and it’s all very nice. But I think it’s more about finding each other. And we don’t need to go searching through all kinds of genis and church records and some aristocrats’ papers for our bloodlines – like, “Maybe some nobleman did actually fuck with my ancestress,” right? I would rather see something like: I’m completely and primordially proud that, looking back seven generations, there’s none of that foreign stuff mixed in! Not that I’m hostile toward any people, but I want to say that I’m, so to speak, a pure Estonian. I don’t have a single Jew, Turk, German, Pole, or anyone from anywhere. I can’t find any such data – maybe it’s there, but I can’t find it – and that gives me the freedom to say that I don’t need to look for my roots in some baron’s poem books. I don’t care about that. I want to be genuinely proud of Who I Am. Just like Scottish men wear their skirts without underwear on their hairy legs and balls. Or the Irish drink their whiskey and say it’s better than the Scots’. It’s a kind of mental toughness that gives you the strength and power, and I would love to see that in Estonia – that would be ideal.

Let’s be proud of who we are. Not everyone is given what Estonians have. We are one of the coolest people in the whole world.

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