834 Rise Above Your Circumstances

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 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:11Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 0:54Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  I call my mom every day. I say, "Mom, how you doing?" Yeah, it's too hot. The house is hot. I'm miserable. Economy's shit. There is no money.

• 1:19Lewis Howes?

  No jobs.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  No jobs. I retired my mom and my dad five years ago.

• 1:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  So they're retired. They don't need to work.

• 1:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  But they still complain about Italy not having a job.

• 1:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  You know, and it's too hot. Right, that's great. It's too hot. Buy an air conditioner. Just buy something, you know, fix it. Just what are you gonna do to react to your environment? You know, I was, um, it's funny because 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 gotta live your life. Doesn't matter what happened, it's only the way you react to what's around you

• 2:12Speaker 01

  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. Cause 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, cause I was a millionaire, twenty seven years old.

• 2:46Lewis Howes?

  In Italy, which is hard to do.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  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 year, not doing shit, nothing.

• 2:59Lewis Howes?

  And then you were to go back is the goal originally?

• 3:01Speaker 01

  You know, my, my goal here 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 and I can do it again, right? And instead, what did I do? I came to the United States, I had a ticket ready. I went from having seven digit 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 cause all the money I had, there wasn't enough to pay everything. And I still signed the paper for my dad, so, you know, my dad is a sixty years old guy. He was like completely stressed and down and let's say, he'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 family. So now I'm in the United States, no English.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  Not even broke, because when you're broke, you got no money. When you're in debt and I didn't have 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.

• 4:02Lewis Howes?

  You have a thousand employees now?

• 4:03Speaker 01

  About 1,200.

• 4:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow, and all your restaurants and all the...

• 4:06Speaker 01

  All the restaurants, all the company, wine, wine business licensing. It's about 1,200 people now. And, you know, we have a business in the, in the, 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 debt in a lifetime. You know, people freak out, they have like $20,000 student loan. That's easy. I, we can, 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 hour.

• 4:41Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  But the reality is that it's not circumstances, it's how you react to it.

• 4:53Lewis Howes?

  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.