At 15 I went to work, while most teens are playing and mooching from Mom & Dad, I had no choice. If I wanted something I had to work. At the time I never knew how life changing my first pizza job would be, see something happened to me while making pizza. Many people have never experienced this, I had a passion, for making pizza (my job)... This sounds ridiculous I know, but the only other thing I had ever had a passion for was competition. I loved making pizza so much that I even worked on it at home, I definitely worked more on pizza making than school work. There was then just one last thing that solidified my passion & love for pizza, the company I worked for hosted a pizza tossing competition at the holiday party. Naturally being competitive I wanted to WIN, so I practiced at work all the time. The result, I got second place... This wasn't enough for me, and I asked the other people who were trying tricks I had never thought of; "Where did you learn that?" the obvious answer... "The internet..." So I went home and quickly started studying YouTube to learn all the tricks I could and then registered for my first ever national competition hosted by The United States Pizza Team in 2005. The results... 2nd Place & at just 18 years old and my first competition, I was pretty thrilled but not happy with second best. So I went to work and today I have accomplished much more, I am a 4 time World Champion Pizza Spinner, and I have been on many many TV stations including America's Got Talent Season 5 quarter finalist! To conclude my journey in the competitive pizza industry, I ultimately joined the most renowned pizza team in the World, The World Pizza Champions! The journey from 2nd place at 16 in a company pizzeria making competition to 4 time World Champion Pizza Spinner would not be complete if I had not accomplished the ONE THING that changed my life for ever, buying my first pizzeria. The path wasn't easy and many people doubted me, but I knew, that I would find a way. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and if it wasn't for one person in my life, I likely would have never taken that path either. My best friend Chris Direnzi, now a successful entrepreneur on his own path & founder of Capacity Engineering, helped me see the opportunity in business ownership at a young age. Chris and I were the ones who saw a business opportunity around every corner, from snow fall and leaves on the ground to beginning a DJ Company at 16, Direnzi Disc Jockey, and DJ-ing a rival school prom instead of attending our own! I believe that if it wasn't for this one person in my life, my life path would look MUCH different today. Many great leaders have said that you are the sum of the closest 5 people to you & I believe this & encourage you to look closely at who you allow in your life! The path to business ownership is simple, but not easy, and I believe any one can do it but not everyone will.
The path to business ownership included many sacrifices, lows, and highs, but can be simplified down to just good old fashioned WORK. At 18 years old after 2 quarters in college I took what some may have thought to be the biggest risk of my life, and I dropped out of college. I pursued an opportunity to buy a pizzeria, The Flying Pizza, from at the time my boss, who eventually became my mentor and treated me like family, Joe Gracci. Joe was retiring in 2 years and we had an ongoing joke that I would buy his pizzeria when he retired, when one day Joe said to me "If you're serious, I will sell you my pizzeria, you just need to work hard & I will show you everything else." SO I took the challenge and dropped out of college the next day. The journey was tough & yet ultimately rewarding, I worked on average 65 hours a week and was kept to a strict schedule Monday 4 - close Tuesday & Wednesday open to close (these were the days Joe took off) Thursday, Friday, & Saturday 5pm to 4am & then every other Sunday in the Fall & Spring. Two years later I had the opportunity of a life time when Joe sold me his pizzeria, he financed the deal over 5 years, I was only 20 years old and living the dream, A Slice of New York was established in 2008.
No business school or formal education could have taught me as much as I learned by just jumping in & learning from experience. HOWEVER, looking back I made many many mistakes! I wouldn't change a thing though, in fact I opened 2 more pizzerias in a 4 year span. The biggest mistake I made was not being learning based, I learned how to make a GREAT pizza, and how to manage a small pizzeria, but I never quite fully grasped business concepts that could have allowed me to exponentially increase my revenue per store and manage efficiently.
So why did I stop making pizza? The economy was changing A LOT, and small business such as pizzerias are drastically affected by minimum wage laws and health care reform. I also found myself constantly looking for the next opportunity and struggling to maintain good employees. As a side project I had purchased a second home in 2009 and rented it out for a few years, when one day I decided to renovate it. Over a year and half period I had gutted the home down to the studs, removed everything, and started rebuilding from scratch. All new electric, all new duct work, all new HVAC, new gas lines and appliances, built a new fireplace, removed ALL the plaster walls & ceilings, insulated the whole house, replaced the bathrooms, replaced the kitchen, and dry-walled the whole house. Once finished I sold the house "For Sale By Owner" and had a full price offer after 3 weeks. I enjoyed the process, made a good profit (not considering it took a year and a half) and most important LEARNED A LOT about working on a home. This successful flip ultimately led to my interest in real estate, but I would not get serious about real estate for another 6 Months. O yeah, I forgot to mention I lived in this house while renovating & got married and had my 6 year old step daughter and wife living here during half the renovation as well!
The Renovation Process
My First House
I had bought my first house at 19, right before taking over the pizzeria as owner, and at the time I knew NOTHING about owning a house. I think the most I knew was how to change a light bulb and paint a wall. Like most homeowners I had a lot to learn! My first year of home ownership I had a water heater go out, a basement leak, and who knows how many other things go wrong... I quickly learned that I either had to learn to fix this stuff or make more money to pay people to fix these things because I had no clue how expensive all this could get! My first house turned into a BIG learning experience, o yeah the kicker is I never listened to my Realtor back then either. He recommended that I don't spend more than $48,000 for the house yet I was happy to pay $67,000 since I had 2 buddies who were ready to move in and pay rent. Well looking back, that was a MISTAKE, the home is currently worth about $45,000 and I still rent it out today just to break even, HAHA. (by the way if anyone wants to buy it, let me know!)
More to Come - Subscribe and stay tuned!
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