The School of Greatness - 834 Rise Above Your Circumstances

Episode Date: August 9, 2019

WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE? We love to focus on why we’re not able to go after our dreams. Whether it’s our financial situation, our past, or the government, it’s much easier to blame an outside force than take responsibility. But what if there are no excuses? What if the only thing in your way is you? After all, you can’t change your circumstances. But you can change how you react to them. Life isn’t happening to you- you’re happening to it. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with Fabio Viviani where he shared how he became successful in America despite being in debt and not speaking English. Fabio believes that complaining only holds you back from going after what you really want. Learn how to succeed in spite of any circumstances in Episode 834. In This Episode You Will Learn: Fabio’s mindset (2:13) Fabio’s biggest pet peeve (1:45) Why Fabio lives his life like a “military tank” (2:00) How Fabio re-created his success in America arriving half a million dollars in debt and not speaking English (2:30) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/834

This is 5-Minute Friday! Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today. His name is Fabio Viviani. He grew up in Florence, Italy and at age 11 he worked nights at a local bakery since he was too young to officially join the staff. Worked with culinary superstars in Italy, and by the time he was 27, he owned and operated five restaurants in Florence, a farmhouse, and two nightclubs. Perhaps known for his television debut on Bravo's hit reality series Top Chef, he earned the fan favorite title.

His on-screen appearances have propelled him to become one of the fastest growing household names in the country. He's also the host of award-winning web series on Yahoo, one of the top 10 lifestyle and food shows on the internet. He sells his own line of ceramic cookware and is a proud endorser of brands such as Bertolli Olive Oil. He has authored three successful cookbooks, including a New York Times bestseller and has his own digital magazine. I call my mom every day. Say, Mom, how you doing?

Yeah, it's too hot. The house is hot. I'm miserable. Economy is shit. There is no money. No jobs. No jobs. I retired my mom and my dad five years ago.

Yeah, yeah. So they're retired. They don't need to work. Yeah. But they still complain about Italy not having a job. Right. You know, and it's too hot. Right.

That's great. It's too hot. Buy an air conditioning system. Buy something. You know, fix it. What are you going to do to react to your environment? You know, I was, it's funny because that's the biggest pet peeve I have is when people give me all kinds of excuses of why things are not happening for them.

You know, in life, I'm like, I treat my life like, think about a military tank. Full metal jacket, military tank. When you're a tank, things don't happen to you. You're happening to things. And the reality is that that's how you got to live your life. It doesn't matter what happened. It's only the way you react to what's around you that will define who you're going to be in life. You can grow up.

I came to this country with no English, a million and a half in debt. Because although we might not go there, my father had a very big financial distress three months before I left for Italy. And I sold my business in Italy before I left. I wanted to move to the United States for vacation. And I found myself paying my dad liability to the bank and be about to come to the United States. And instead of having the time of my life, because I was a millionaire, 27 years old. In Italy.

In Italy. Which is hard to do. Yeah. I saved a lot of money in Italy by selling all my business before I was taking the lifetime vacation of my dream and coming here and learning a new language, be the man for two years, not doing shit, nothing. And then you were to go back. Is the goal originally?

You know, my goal was to go back and figure it out. I got money. I could invest some, create business for myself. I created a business from scratch. I can do that again. And instead, what did I do? I came to the United States. I had a ticket ready. I went from having seven digits in my banking account to be broke because that went to pay my dad's liability, so they didn't lose the house. Now I'm in America, no English spoken, no money, a million mortgage because all the money I had wasn't enough to pay everything,

and I still signed the paper for my dad. So my dad is a six-year-old guy. He was completely stressed and down, and he said, it's not going to get out of it. I made it once. I can make it again. Plus, it's my family. You've got to take care of family. So now I'm in the United States, no English, not even broke

because when you're broke, you got no money. In debt. In debt. Yeah, yeah. And I didn't have a job and I didn't speak the language. So now, we got over 1,000 employees,

you know, multi-million dollar business. English, it's okay. Still struggling with it, but it's okay. You have 1,000 employees now? About 1,200. Wow.

And all your restaurants and all the businesses? All the restaurants, all the company, wine business, licensing. It's about 1,200 people now. Right, right. And we have a business in the A digit. Wow. And the reality, mid-A digit. And the reality is the question I always ask, what's your excuse?

I didn't speak a word of English. Yeah. Came here in debt, million dollars. Most people won't ever have a million dollars in debt in their lifetime. People freak out. They have like $20,000 student loan. That's easy. We can show you how to get rid of debt in two months.

In a day. Yeah, we did better than that. In a day, in two hours. Exactly. But the reality is that it's not circumstances. It's how you react to it. Hey guys, if you enjoyed this inspirational clip

from a past episode of the show, then you'll love the free book I'm giving away right now. It's called The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping. Again, check it out right now, themillionairemorning.com.