Thinking about the future and work
Yesterday I sat down and read an article about Anthony Mangieri that was posted in here a month ago or so. Like myself, he spends a lot of time on his bike although it being an MTB where I'm more into the roadbike. It was a very inspiring article that got me thinking quite a bit about my life - who'd thought you could get that from reading an article about a mountainbiker who makes pizza? I'm educated in marketing and love marketing with all the different aspects that it has. Unfortunately my current job isn't as appealing to me. I've been the eventcoordinator in one of the biggest and most reknowned malls in Denmark for the last 3 years - being in charge of all events ranging from christmas to exhibits with some big external partners. But I have a crazy boss, and every year in a mall is quite the same. There's always a xmas, a winter vacation, a summer vacation etc. So in other words I'm a bit tired of it all, and need a change of environment. I'd love to keep working with marketing, but the current situation when it comes to jobs in Denmark, is probably like the rest of the world - very hard to find something new. I've been searching intensively for about 6-8 months now, and it has got me to a handfull of interviews, but not being able to close the deal.
Then last week my brother in law asked me how serious I was about this pizza thing. For those of you that haven't been reading from the start - my parents in law own a famous pizzeria here in Denmark, and my girlfriend and her brother are set to take over the family business within a couple of years. My brother in law has been working as a pizzaiol the last couple of years, and have now taken the floor to be more in control with the restaurant. Now, back to the story. I told him that I was pretty serious about opening my own place at some time, but I couldn't do it right now as I still have to pay rent and such. He then told me that they currently had 3 pizzaiolos, but needed one more when the season kicks in - the restaurant is located in an amusementpark called Tivoli. I turned him down, because the working hours are crazy as Tivoli is closed Jan-March, and a month or so in the autumn. That would mean that working there I wouldn't get to ride my bike as much as I'd like, and this season I've promised to myself to see how far I can go. I'm in the shape of my life, and beats everybody when we have our practice runs.
But that article sparked something in me. It would litterally be a dream come true to work in the pizzeria, being a part of creating art! Coming to work everyday with a smile on my face and following the process from ordering the flour to seing the happy customers leave the restaurant with smiles on their faces. Some of you might think "Well, what about your dream of working with marketing?", and what if I could say that I could to both? I've recently initiated the sites own Facebook page, and it's my little baby that a cherrish everyday and have several pages written down with ideas we should do. I'm sure that I would be able to take part in the marketing decisions and drive those channels that I want to. It almost sounds too good to be true right?
My only constraints right now are:
- What about my biking?
- Will I tire of making pizzas?
What about my biking?
There's no doubt that I LOVE riding my bike. Currently I train 4-6 times a week, and get about 250-300 km every week from riding my bike. I love the racing aspect of it, competing with the other guys to see who's the fastest and who has the legs. As mentioned earlier, I'm in the best shape I've ever been and on our last ride I took 4 out of 4 sprints. But then again, there's a rule of thumb that says that if you train 3 times a week you fulfill 80% of your potential. To get that last 20% you need to train a lot more, and with my current age(26 turning 27 in September), there shouldn't be any problems in still being a good rider. I talked with my girlfriend yesterday about it, and she also said that if/when we start thinking of children I won't be able to train 10-15 hours a week anyway. Apparantly Anthony commutes to work, and get's out in the weekend to train.
Will I tire of making pizzas?
Maybe, but what if the opposites happen? What if I actually end up being more hooked on making pizzas, experimenting with different types of fermentation, flavours etc? The ability to combine marketing and pizzamaking would be so cool. If I could only mix it up with cycling and my dreams would come true. It could also be the stepping stone to expand the pizzeria. The idea is to keep the pizzeria in Tivoli and have it as a cash-cow for those of you who know your marketing - for those who doesn't, a cash-cow is a product in your portfolio that has a stable revenue and generates a lot of money without a great effort. Think of Coca Cola, they have a huge portfolio, and their cash-cow is Coca Cola. Having the pizzeria as a cash-cow leaves room to experiment, and what I'd love to do is to make THE pizzeria in Copenhagen(capitol in Denmark). There's a handful of good pizzerias, each of them with their own type of pizza. I'd love to make a restaurant similar to Tony's Neapolitan pizza in SF where you can get different styles of pizzas ranging from Neapolitan, classic Italian, to New York and Sicilian Style. My concern is whether or not you'd be able to control 4-5 styles of pizzas to perfection, or if you'd lack a bit in everything? Another option would be to open the first and only VPN certified pizzeria in Denmark. The PR you could get from something like that would be second to none, and there's a growing focus in Denmark on quality instead of quantity. We have a pizzeria called Mother's that make neapolitan styled pizzas, but they're not all in. They're not using San Marzanos for instance. Oh the many ideas I have.
All of this thinking really makes me confused. Should or shouldn't I? Should I quit the job that I really am not that interested in because I've gotten so good at it, and start doing something that I would really love, but would also mean saying goodbye to my summer, but in the long run could give me the experience that I would need to open up something by myself. Maybe that would lead me to a restaurant that opens at 5 pm and closes, as Anthony puts it "When the dough runs out", which would give me the opportunity to do some riding in the morning and start working about 2-3 pm to prepare to open?
So I have a question to all you enthusiasts here on the leading pizzaforum on the web:
Why have/or haven't you quit your regular job to work as a pizzaiol?
