"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth".

This great quote from Mike Tyson is so resonant with my life and professional path so far, that If you'll have the kindness to read a little bit further you'll understand why.

When it comes to writing the "About me" section of a personal website, even if it's meant to share somewhat professional knowledge, I guess there is always a mixed feeling.

You write it with enthusiasm and heartfelt energy hoping that it's going to be the most interesting and engaging page of your digital presence, but your brain suggests you - with a statistically huge chance - that it's going to be thoroughly overlooked. Or, in a best case scenario, you acknowledge that in today's flashing fast times, readers will bounce back after just a few lines.

Then again, who would care for a quick story about a 1974 born (a boomer?) , who discovered his professional calling at almost 50 years old after a 25 year long career in IT Sales and Talent Acquisition?
Well...I know of one who would be interested in reading this. And this is me :)

Me, trying to figure out how my experience, skills and enthusiasm can be useful for you - no matter if you are an individual or a company.
So what would be so important that I build a website around it and even think that you will end up here reading, let alone being interested in?

Well, let's say that I myself have a hard time defining myself professionally in a conventional way - some would say that I have a "multifaceted " talent set, that I am polyhedral, or that I can apply my hunger for knowledge, my passion for technology and my work ethic to whatever new challenge is in front of me (the fact that it has to be "new" plays a large part in activating my enthusiasm, I'll admit).
I think this last definition quite nails it.

Today I am a Business consultant with a strong expertise in Talent acquisition processes, low code automation and generative AI.

But I have been working in some form or another in ICT since I was 20, starting out in the family Company (quite a successful one, I should say), immediately dropping out of an academic study path, that would have led me nowhere - I basically said "bye bye, this is not for me" after the first attempted exam, which I failed of course.
A one year mandatory induction into the Italian army gave me some discipline before I started my venture.

Compared to a sport, you could say that I was quite a promising prospect, trying to make my way into a Sales role, landing some unexpected rich contracts and making more money between 22 and 25 than I would have made for the following 15 years.

And that was the problem - a sort of perceived early success crafted my two worst enemies at the time:

1. I thought it was easy - so I didn't really put my mind to it, I didn't go deep in the contents, I basically didn't study..."let the others do it, I'm a natural, I don't need it". Yeah.

2. I thought I was entitled to it - a young, capable IT sales guy, 25 years old, a house of his own, driving a nice convertible and working in the family Business - I thought I was a hotshot 😎.

There's an irony, sometimes, when you discover what your weaknesses are: they don't damage you right away. You keep on going and there is still no visible fault, and that can happen for many years.

But sooner or later, reality hits.

And reality hit me on a lazy, gray tuesday of November 2008 when all of a sudden my best client (yes, the client that gave us 75% of our revenue) tells us that in the new year they'll have to cut our services to a 30% of the current value.

I, we, we're not prepared for that, and with more than a few employees to take care of , you suddenly discovered that not only your future is in danger but that your less than careful strategy puts other people's revenue capacity in danger.
So you wake up, you fight, you try each and every way to make it better and recover but to no avail.

In 2012 I had to drop out from the family business (a downsized version of it, in the meantime) and..find myself basically unemployed at the young age of 38.
It seemed dramatic (it actually was, at the time) but looking at it in retrospect that was the best thing that could have happened to me. Period.

I discovered an interest (probably a hidden one, coming out also because of the circumstances) for the HR industry, while an important Italian work agency was about to launch a new business practice to introduce temporary work in the IT field of expertise.
I knew nothing about labour laws and contracts but I could leverage on my knowledge of the IT scenario and still learn something new.
38 is like 18 of you are keen to learn, up to work and... available to be paid like someone with no experience :) But still. It was like a completely new white page, and I was eager to start writing another chapter of my career.

I'd like to say I became a very successful sales consultant in the It / Hr area, but it would be an overstatement: in fact I had reasonable success but the flamboyance of the early years left way to a more conservative (probably wiser, probably a little more scared) course of action - I studied a lot, I celebrated very little and I spent practically nothing.

Laura, my girlfriend at the time (now wife, yessss!) once presented me with a new pair of shoes for Christmas because she saw I was WALKING to my clients appointments with a less than dignified pair of shoes, just to save money (I disguised that masterfully, hey! 😏).

All my money (not tons of it really) went into my contributions for home expenses, and from one payout to the other I was left with but a few euros in my account: a 12 euro set of cooking utensils was all I could buy for Laura's birthday on one particular year ❤️.

But hey, I was on a job again and with patience, study and a lot of work I could grow into a more established professional with a more reasonable income through the following years - at one point starting up a new business line for IT Talent acquisition in another job agency, this time conducting it (I started my professional renaissance in a similar environment, so...what goes around comes around).

Fast forward to 2020.

COVID strikes everyone and every business in one way or the other and while I had no major problems (not at work not health wise) I literally woke up one morning (the ambulance sirens sound going back and forth) asking myself: "is this really...it? If I get caught with the virus and fall head first, is it the way I would like to go? As someone who - yes - had is ups and downs, recovered nicely and kind of re-established himself but all in all is playing it safe with the constant remote scare to see his workplace cut just like that?"

A brief consultation with Laura (she would not agree at the time and she thought I had some kind of brain damage) and I decide to follow my calling.
I drop out voluntarily from my "secure" job and decided to be perpetually "insecure" and start my own freelance venture. And that was in march 2021, the peak of COVID second wave.

After a couple of hours of "OMG, what did I do??" , I started gathering my skills and craft my "offer" :

• I could help companies hire IT talent, which was (still is) a much sought after skill

• I could build and manage powerful no-code automations to boost productivity in your talent acquisition processes

• I could be a consultant for recruiting teams and help them achieve big and better results through data driven strategy and individual up-skilling

• I could counsel and train young up and comers in taking their first steps into the talent acquisition arena (a high potential, crowded, tough one).

And...this is what I have been doing ever since, with a further boost of incredible and disruptive innovation given by the arrival of generative AI, which I embraced as an inevitable force to put at work, rather than risking of being substituted by it (if that should happen, at least I'll know I have fought against it with all my knowledge and energy).

So, if you reached this far in reading my bio, there are about 3 options:

• I'm good at writing and you love reading whatever it is - this wouldn't be bad anyway

• You are somewhat curious about what I can share with you professionally, and this is a very good case, because you'll probably follow me and I'll be engaged to share more and more (and better and better)

• You already have some kind of need or issue that you think I can help you solve: in this case let's spare words and book a free consultation.

…by the way, just to taste the power of generative AI - even though they depict me masterfully, none of the images in this article are real. Thanks, Midjourney 😎