StefanoVersace

If this is "Second Chance,"

we need to consider two aspects.

The first is what prevents us
from realizing our dreams.

You know what that is?

It's talent.

Yeah, I know, you're looking
at me like I'm crazy;

but let me explain with an example.

I have a great friend
who's a reporter for Rai.

Ever since he was born,
he's always had the dream

to work and live
in the United States of America.

I met him eight years ago,

when I started this adventure
in the United States;

and every year, every time we talk,

I always propose him something

that can help him realize his dream.

And his answer is always the same:

"Eh, Stefano: I only know
how to be a journalist"

And my answer, and my correction,
is exactly the same:

"No, dear Dario: you don't just know
how to be a journalist.

You have proven
you can even be a journalist.

Yes, because in reality we often fail

seizing opportunities,
and carrying out projects,

because we built around ourselves a cage

whose bars are the talents,

and what we've been good at insofar,

what made us someone in a given field.

Because we still carry
the legacy of previous generations,

where the same work
was done for a lifetime,

you entered in a company
doing the humblest job

and then, over time,
with seniority, you grew

and reach the fateful day
of retirement, like Fantozzi,

when you retire and a big party
was organized for you.

40 years, 30 years, 50 years
in the same company

doing the same job in the same office.

Not anymore.

This label no longer exists:

"Hi, Stefano Versace, insurance broker";

"My pleasure, Dario Celli, journalist";
"My pleasure, Mario Rossi, carpenter".

This is nonsense today.

Because in the United States,

if you work for more than five years
in the same company,

doing the same things,

you lose value.

You lose value

because you have automatically shown
that you don't know how to be ductile,

how to adapt to a world
that's changing more and more frantically.

We all know the world has changed,
over the last 50 years,

more than in the previous 500;

and in the last five,
more than it did in the last 50.

So you can't stay locked inside this cage

thinking it's the only thing
we know how to do.

I come from the insurance world:

i remember when I was 16, I took my bike,

got out of high school,

and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
I went from Ancona to Falconara Marittima

to open my insurance agency.

I started out like this,
making little policies,

selling car insurance,
life insurance, accident insurance.

Then I grew up, learned
new aspects of this job

until I became an expert insurance
broker for public bodies.

So much so that the greatest
broker in the world said to me,

"Please come work with us
because you've become a nightmare:

we find you at every public tender."

And so it was:
I started working with them.

Then I went to Venezuela,

where for five years I dedicated myself
to an insurance company

becoming their most important manager

in the reinsurance world.

My world, for 16 years,
has been insurance.

Nice to meet you, Stefano Versace,
insurance broker.

Then I decided it was time to change,

I decided that those talents
that I had shown in this world

could be repurposed in another one.

So, I opened in Urbino
a little restaurant.

From there, my adventure
in the world of food began.

A completely different world,
of which I knew nothing;

but I was aware that I had talents

that would also have yielded
results in another area.

Then I moved on from there:
me and my family, we decided

to realize the dream of living
in the United States of America,

and we came to open
our first ice cream shop.

Today we are world leaders in ice cream

here in Florida, and US in general,

because we didn't
build ourselves this cage.

So, my first wish to you
is to break the bars of this cage.

that you built yourselves, inevitably,

which is made up of your talents,
what you know how to do,

from what you think you're good at

and that's the only thing
you know how to do.

No: you have talents,
you can use them in any field.

The second part to take care of,
when it comes to "Second Chance"

is the relationship you have with failure.

Bad for the Italians: very bad.

Think of the headlines:

"Entrepreneur commits suicide
for the failure of his enterprise."

First of all,

entrepreneurs don't take their lives
because their company fails;

but they do out of their
terrible relationship with failure.

Because entrepreneurs also fail
in the United States,

and you, in America,
will never see a title like that.

You'll never see an entrepreneur

who commits suicide
because his enterprise has failed.

Do you know why?

Because failure in the United States
is normal, and socially accepted,

since school.

I love my children's school,
a public school

where as soon as you enter
there's a giant poster

with the words "Make mistakes".

Below it says, "Penicillin
was discovered by mistake."

Our programs are designed

to let our kids tinker
and get used to making mistakes,

because this is what's
in store for them, in life.

If you think about it, even in Italy

there was, when I went to school,
that famous two-color pencil:

red on the one hand,
indicating the normal error;

and when the mistake was severe,
it was marked with blue.

You penalize, you punish,
you make mistakes.

A student in US isn't punished
for being wrong:

I go to school because I have to learn,

of course I make mistakes.

You reward those who make it!

And this lack of punishment,
since childhood,

allows you to start living
the experience of life

without fear of failure.

There's a phrase I love so much
in the United States

that says "Fail Fast".

Because the sooner you fail,
the sooner you reach the goal.

Let's take my story:
I've created here, in eight years,

the largest ice cream chain
in the United States,

while having to close
at least a dozen ice cream shops.

But without the closure
of those 12 shops, I think,

I wouldn't have 20 fancy shops today.

in the best corners of Miami.

Shall we call those 12 shops a failure,

or a mandatory passage?

If you think about it, you've failed
since you were born.

You failed when you started
trying to walk;

you failed when you started talking;

you failed when you started
studying mathematics;

you failed when you studied,

when you started cycling.

But today you can talk,
you can walk, you can ride a bike,

you also know how to do simple math:

and that's because
you went through those failures

without fear, without problems,

understanding, since childhood,
that making mistakes is normal.

So, that "Fail fast"
they say in the United States,

means "Don't be afraid.

It's starting to fail right now.
Start right now.

Don't wait for the perfect moment".

[The] procrastination is due to the fact
that we were afraid of making mistakes.

So we wait for the
"right moment" to do things:

the right moment doesn't exist,
the perfect moment doesn't exist,

perfection is something
that kills entrepreneurship,

it kills people's lives.

You have to try, make mistakes, fix them,

for success can only be achieved
by fixing mistakes after mistake.

So, my best wishes to you,

who are watching this talk of mine,

is to take the suitcase,

pack it with everything
you've always dreamed of accomplishing,

your dreams, your goals, your desires.

Put them in and go out there.

Go out there, and start failing.

I hope you fail as soon as possible,

because success
is that extraordinary reward

which is just around the corner
where you made the last mistake.