In this episode of the School of Greatness podcast, host Lewis AI interviews Italian‑born chef and entrepreneur Fabio Viviani. The conversation traces Fabio’s early life in Florence, where he worked nights in a bakery at age 11 and later owned five restaurants, nightclubs, and a farmhouse by age 27. Fabio recounts his decision to move to the United States, selling his Italian businesses to cover his father’s debt, arriving with no English, no money, and a million‑dollar mortgage. He describes the psychological "tank" mindset that helped him view challenges as opportunities, leading to the creation of a multimillion‑dollar restaurant and wine‑licensing empire employing about 1,200 people. Throughout the interview, Fabio emphasizes that circumstances are less important than one’s reaction to them, urging listeners to discard excuses and adopt a proactive attitude. The episode also contains sponsor messages from TransUnion, Northwestern Mutual, and Bank of America, as well as a promotional plug for the host’s "Millionaire Morning" free book and a brief ad for a telecom provider.
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This is five 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. 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 New York Times bestseller and has its own digital magazine.
One of the best parts about my job as a podcast host is getting to know people on a deeper level. And I love discovering the interests my guests have that they don't always talk about. You know, the world class athlete whose favorite pastime is painting or the billionaire who still plays a weekend garage band. And the truth is everyone has layers and people are rarely as simple as they appear on the surface. For marketers, that complexity can make the job even more challenging. After all, how can you reach your customers if you don't really know them? That's where TransUnion's marketing solutions come in. TransUnion brings clarity to marketing chaos by delivering a 360-degree view of your customer, helping you deepen your insights, accelerate your decision-making, and better measure the impact of every marketing dollar. Visit transunion.com/clarity to learn more.
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I call my mom every day. Say, Mom, how you doing? Yeah, it's too hot. The house is hot. I'm miserable. Economy shit. There is no money. No jobs. I retire 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.
All right.
That's great. So hot. Buy an air conditioner and just buy something, you know, fix it. Just what are you gonna do to react to your environment? You know, I was, it's funny because it's that that's the biggest the biggest pet peeve I have is when people giving 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.
So.
And the reality is that that's how you got to live your life. Doesn't matter what happened. It's only the way you react to what's around you that will define who you're gonna be in life. You can grow up, I came to this country with no English, 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 United States for vacation. and I found myself paying my dad liability to the bank and be about to come to United States and instead of having the time of my life because I was a millionaire 27 years old in Italy.
It's 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 the I'm create business for myself. I create a business from scratch and do it again, right? And instead, what did I do? I came to 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 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, there weren't enough to pay everything and I still signed the paper for my dad. You know, my dad is a 60 years old guy. It was like completely stressed and down and let's say it's not gonna get out of it. I made him once, I can make it again. Plus, it's my family. You gotta take care of course. So now I'm in United States, no English, not even broke. Because when you're broke, you got no money. When you're in debt, and I didn't had a job, and I didn't speak the language. So now we got over a thousand employee. You know, multimillion dollar business. English, it's okay.
Still struggling with it, but you have.
A thousand employees now?
About 1200. Wow.
And all your restaurants and all the restaurants, all the company wine business, licensing. It's about 1200 people now. And, you know, we have a business in the A digit. 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. Came here in debt, million dollar. Most people won't never have a million dollar in their lifetime. Yeah. You know, people freak out. They have like $20,000 student loan. That's easy. We can show you how to get.
Rid of that 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.
What'S up, podcast listeners? It's tanks host of the it's me, tanks podcast. Join me weekly on it's me, tanks as I dive into topics like relationships, why it's okay to feel lonely, fighting summer comparison, and pop culture's hottest takes. I don't shy away from getting candid about my personal experiences, and I want to share all the advice I have learned with you. I'm even joined by some of my friends like Claudia ashre, Connor Wood, and Amanda Hirsch each Friday for our new Office Hours episodes. You can listen to It's Me, Tank's every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, wherever you listen to podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss an episode.
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