How to Lose 450 pounds and let a fortune slip through your fingers...

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

I wrote about Papa Felice in "Pizza in the Oven" (when I find the post I'll link to it)...

Hi Gordon,

I dug up your original "Pizza in the Oven" post... Here it is!

The Pizza in the Oven

Posted By: Gordon Alexander
Date: Thursday, 14 September 2000, at 3:45 p.m.

THE PIZZA IN THE OVEN

Venture capitalist Burt Morgan once said to me over lunch,

“It’s better to get shot out of the water than to rot at the dock”.

He said this as he was rejecting my request for his investment in my project.

It was a useful NO, if for no other reason than that little pearl of wisdom I can use now and then.

Make that a seed of wisdom.

I read books hoping to find one such beneficial seed. One pearl. One nugget that might help me grow as an Entrepreneur or in my other life paths.

Seeds such as this one from Joe Karbo; “Most people are too busy earning a living, they don’t have time to make any money.”

After 30 years of studying success and Entrepreneurs, I’ve concluded there IS one common denominator found in most success stories. CONFIDENCE.

A budding Entrepreneur must believe in his abilities and ideas. CONFIDENCE seemed to be the first LAW of success.

Even I harp on it, saying your first action step must be one taken toward belief. Belief and Confidence together make up RULE ONE of success.

Like with most rules, there is usually an exception.

His name was Alfred “Fred” Felice, and in 1956 he opened up PAPA FELICE’S PIZZA SHOP at Barney’s Busy Corners.

That was the center of my childhood universe.

This intersection in Northeast Ohio where the cities of Tallmadge, Akron, Cuyahoga Falls all meet, was a very busy corners in those remnant Happy Days of the 50’s and 60’s.

I worked at PAPA’s from 1965 to 1968. Only 40+ hours a week all through high school.

Fred was like a second father to me, in fact I saw a lot more of him than I saw of my own dad during that time.

I went to school, straight to work, wouldn’t get into about 1 in the morning. Come to think of it I didn’t see much of any of my family back then.

By the time I started working in the pizza shop, it had become a busy and successful business.

But it did not begin that way.

It was not born in the delivery room of confidence and certainty, but rather had a painful and traumatic entry into this world.

Fred was a big man. At 10, due to a rare condition, he was bigger than most 18 year olds. At 33 he weighed over 400 pounds.

He knew he would never retire from one of the famous rubber companies that darkened the Akron skies. He worried about his future.

He didn’t know what he wanted or what he was supposed to be doing.

He was often ridiculed in public for his size, often humiliated as a child and young man.

He was made fun of by his coworkers, which made working doubly hard for Fred

So Fred decided, with his father’s encouragement, to become an Entrepreneur and to have a business of his own.

The day PAPA FELICE’S was open, Fred was anything but confident.

He had borrowed money from his father and worried he couldn’t pay it back.

He had borrowed recipes from his sister, and was starting out in debt, in a new area where no one knew who he was.

In 1956, no one was sure if a pizza shop in the suburbs would be a viable idea. Sounds like a needless worry today, but back then it was an untested novelty.

Fred revealed to me that the day he opened up his shop, he was literally sick to his stomach.

He cried in the back room. He was full of doubts and self loathing.

How would people react when they first saw him?

Would his pizza be accepted? Would people pay for it?

Would he be laughed at, ridiculed?

He was full of doubts. Not one drop of confidence. Not one iota of belief.

He was scared and trembling. Then his Papa came to see him that first day.

The first thing Freddy started to do was to complain and whine about how there was so much to do. How there were so many tasks involved. Maybe this was a mistake.

His father reacted to this with:

“Son, you only have ONE job to do…just ONE.”

“What Papa, what should I do?” Fred replied.

“Son do this one job and you will not fail. Do this ONE job and you will prosper. Do this one job and your reputation will be built.

Do this one job and your fears will be put behind you. You have ONLY one job Son, and everything else are just the details.”

And Fred’s father told him what the one job was:

“TAKE CARE OF THE PIZZA IN THE OVEN!”

“Take care of that one pizza and you take care of one customer.

To do that, to take care, real CARE of that pizza, you start by ordering the best ingredients at the best price you can find. Prepare it as if it were for me and your sister.

Make your dough fresh every day. Make the best sauce you can and cook it slowly. Make sure it is the best it can be going into the oven…and then do your ONE job…take care of the pizza in the oven.”

At the time Fred told me this story, I was about to leave for my Navy adventure. That day in July 1968, Big Daddy Fred Felice paid me a compliment.

He told me I was the best kid that ever worked in the shop. NOT the best worker, not the fastest, far from the neatest and certainly not the most ambitious.

I was starting to wish he hadn’t paid me such a nice compliment.

But he went on. He said I had a joy, a delight that came over me when I surrendered that pizza to the customer.

I guess that is how I felt about it, giving up one of my own creations.

Fred said I had pride. My job was complete only after the customer was satisfied.

I took care of the pizza in the oven.

Scared, doubtful, full of anxiety Fred Felice, in 1956 opened a pizza shop at the center of my universe.

He stayed in business, prospered and for 25+ years was the heart and soul of a very busy corners in Northeast Ohio.

He broke RULE ONE of starting a project, he lacked confidence.

But he MASTERED a more important rule, the rule that almost guarantees your success.

He took care of and pleased his customers, one,

pizza in the oven

at a time.