Bastiano Ferrari
Appearances
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And sometimes whatever it is, I'm saying that in the term where the example you mentioned, if somebody lost their job, maybe they didn't get what they want because they deserve something better. It's true. And sometimes the hardship is there just to shape you for something that is as great as you want it to be.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Because, and this is key, if you're getting successes in small doses and that's it, it's like a drug that keeps you mediocre. But if you're challenged, then that's what builds you to become great. Because when you overcome all of these things, you develop skillset.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And it's true, you develop certain skillset, resiliency, that lets you face the final boss, if you want to call it from a game perspective.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So just understand what you're working with, your network, shape yourself in a way that once that door is created by you or once that door opens, you're ready to take the reins and you've been shaping yourself and training yourself and gaining that knowledge to be able to take the reins.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Thank you for having me. I'm excited for this.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So I'm going to give a tactical example there. I love people. I have an introvert, extrovert piece of me. I'm an introvert when I want to study something and just geek on something. And I have my times where I'm an extrovert. It loses my energy and I have to go back to being an introvert. You have to understand who you are. Networking is a skill set that can be built.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
But also until you build it, you can hang out with people that are great networkers and help each other You have a skill set that they would need and vice versa. They help you with the networking piece. So it's really important to understand who you surround yourself with and give value.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I think the biggest thing I've received in my life were after I've given something to somebody or given away something, not after I've taken something. So the more you give, the more value you create. I think I mentioned something at some point, find problems that you can solve for people, even without them knowing that they have that problem and, you know, help people out.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
If you're helping people, if you're building together, that is the best thing that you can do. Understanding your strength, understanding areas that you can improve on and understanding the strength of your circle and network and collectively positioning yourself and the collective self in a way that can have a competitive advantage out there, whether it's in acting or whether it's anywhere.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I grew up in a multiple geography, if it makes sense. I grew up between Europe, Middle East and Africa. And I feel that just made me connect with people on a different level. I understand the different cultural nuances. I understand why people do certain things that they do. And I just relate to them more organically. And that helped me in my work and that helped me in my career.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I think that's both tech and acting. And networking is very important. So I would say, if you feel like you need help networking, start with public speaking. Start with some courses or putting yourself out there to speak publicly. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Find friends that are really good at it. Find a good role model like yourself, Ilana, for example.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I'm pretty sure people use you as an example. So find an example and hone your skill set. But don't wait until you're perfect. It's okay if you're not perfect at it. Just know who your team is because you can achieve way more as a team than as an individual.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I get asked that a lot and I don't spend my time in avenues where it doesn't bring value to my life. That's number one. We have a lot of time. Time is the most valuable resource out there. It's not money. We have a lot of time though. Time box, it's a tech term.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
If you time box correctly and if you prioritize, so identify what is the key things that you can focus on in a lean way and eliminate waste. So activities that don't matter, just don't focus on them and focus on activities that matter on both sides. So prioritization and eliminating waste is key. And on the ground, you don't have to do everything on your own.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
In Hollywood, for example, I know what my key skill sets are, and I know what I want, and I know certain avenues that people are better than me at. So I focus on the areas that are important for me, and I delegate some avenues that other people can help me with. So as a team, we're succeeding. And then tech takes most of my time, to be honest. And it's very similar in tech.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And that just helped me with my end of work. And I feel my childhood tremendously shaped who I am today and why I do what I do.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I feel film is more of a passion to me. Film... Acting, producing, all the above is more of a passion for me. It's like somebody playing tennis. You spend time maybe every day sometimes or three times a day playing tennis. I spend that time doing film, if it makes sense. But prioritization and eliminating waste, I would say, are the key aspects that allow me to diversify in both avenues.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
It's very exciting, Hollywood. It's nice because I'm going to tell you a funny example in a little bit, but you grew up watching these people that inspire you on the big screen and you think it's the others, it's them. It's like in Mars. It's not real life. It's not the real world. And it's unattainable sometimes.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And then the more you get closer to it, you just realize it just, to me, it was very... motivating and very inspiring. And I didn't believe it at first. I had the imposter syndrome for a little bit. I was like, am I really doing this? No, there's no way. I come from a small farm down in the middle of nowhere and I'm here right now. So I had this... dilemma in my head of, is this real?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And it's just very inspiring and something very funny between the tech world and the film world. In the film world, if you tell somebody that I'm about to do a movie with Will Smith, for example, they find it harder to believe. Like, no way, that is not true. It's a big awe. Vice versa. In Hollywood, if you tell somebody I'm building a billion dollar product, They're going to be like, yeah, right.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
My childhood was a little bit unique. It was an incredible childhood up until 11. And then it went into a Hollywood movie, if it makes sense. I grew up with a father that was a farmer and entrepreneur, moved to the Middle East, to Kuwait, not myself, just him, before I was born, to work in gold, then traveled around to work in agriculture, farm and gold, among other stuff.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
That is not going to happen. Versus in the tech industry, like, oh, really? What are you solving? What market are you focused on? What's your go-to-market strategy? You know, what's your technology? So it's more real to them. They're still impressed, but it's more real to them. So any limitation, it's there because of something you don't understand, not something you're incapable of.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I really believe that. I feel like sometimes we put limitations on ourselves because we just were told by somebody that didn't believe they can make it or somebody that tried once or maybe 10 times, which 10 times is not enough. If you're anybody successful, they will tell you 10 times is very little, that tried 10 times and decided they can't do it. And they tell you that you cannot do it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
In reality, they're projecting their own experiences on you. So a lot of the self-inflicted limitations are because of something that we don't know, we don't understand, and not something that we're incapable of or we're incapable of acquiring or learning. For example, I know you're part of the entrepreneurial world. And to you, maybe it's very surprising if somebody is working with Will Smith.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
versus somebody on Will's team is very surprised by the things that you accomplished because they don't understand this.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Thank you. You said it very well, by the way, very nicely put. I should listen more to your podcast so that my English is as articulate as yours, Ilana.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Taking my Italian from English and changing it into articulate terms.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I have a unique perspective on that avenue, particularly. I'm going to tie a very blanket, big code that I'm in love with and to the reality of what you just said right now. There's a code that I love. If your dreams don't scare you, then you're not dreaming big enough. And why is that important? Think of what you just said. You always try things that don't work.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And we were very well off in my childhood. I'm the youngest, and we were very well off until I was 11. And then when I turned 11, my dad had a problem and he lost all his money and I never saw him up until I was 24. And that was the best thing that ever happened to me, to be honest, because my oldest sibling is about 10 years, even more age gap.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
But if your dreams were this small, then that thing that didn't work will define you. Versus if those things that didn't work are just part of a bigger vision and bigger dream, then it's okay to fail continuously and quickly and learn and pivot because your goal is much bigger than that. And all of these are tactical moves and milestone for you to achieve your big goal and vision.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
That's why dream big, have big vision, don't be scared. And those failures would be just milestones and stepping stones. And there won't be your entire self. And that term is also related to sunk costs. Sunk costs in the business world means when you've invested resources and time on a product or an idea and it's not working.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
However, because you spend so much resources on it, time and money, you continue to bleed and you continue to spend more resources on it without letting go. Now, sunk cost is not good. These are, I believe you were talking on these terms as well. It is important to understand when you need to pivot, not give up, but pivot.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
If you're already investing too much resources on something, stop doing the exact same thing and repeating your mistakes. Learn from them, let go of sunk costs, pull the plug on something and start something new or reshape it or reimagine it into something new. And I feel continuing to do that, understanding what is working, what is not working.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
There's nothing that you can do where everything's working. That's unrealistic. That's an unrealistic expectation on yourself. And it's not fair for yourself. It's unrealistic for you to expect everything's going to go well and everything you're going to try is just going to work magically. Nobody's that brilliant, especially successful people.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So have this big vision and everything you do on a tactical level is a milestone to achieve that big goal. That's when little failures and things that are not working are easy to let go of or pivot from because your goal is much bigger and you understand where you're heading towards.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I will tell you something very interesting that I thought about this for the longest time. And I had GQ, I had an interview with GQ. They asked me the same question, but I'm going to give you a different answer than them because I gave him an answer that later I kept thinking about it and I decided that I would do something differently. So can I give you a new answer to that question?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I wouldn't tell him a single thing. Because if you go back to my story of I had a lavish life as a kid, and then it became very tough. I think that question mark, that unknown, and those hardships were the main things that shaped me the way I am today. Had my dad continued to have money and be rich throughout my teenage life, I would not be here today.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I would be in a different position completely. So I would maybe just go and enjoy watching myself go through those things with a different perspective and know that, hey, man, I thought that's the end of the world. And I thought that is... going to be the way it is forever. But something inside of me, since I was a kid, knew that I will do something that is big.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So I'm very young compared to my siblings and they lived a very comfortable life. Meanwhile, in the ages and days that are very critical to how I am shaped as a human, I had to go through certain difficulties. One example, my brother, I was begging him for new shoes at some point, and we didn't have the money to buy new shoes.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I never let go of that all my life until today. I would be worried to tell myself that it's going to be fantastic and give myself that reassurance of taking it easy. You know, I don't want to take it easy at that age. I think all the hardships meant great things. Maybe I will tell myself to buy a thousand Bitcoin.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And just don't sell them until 2025. Trust me on that.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Yeah, so I'm very excited to work on some new film projects. I hope everybody watches my journey in Hollywood and watches the movies that we're creating. Very excited for them. One of them is called Love Me Dead with Duff Cameron. I'm really, really a big fan of Duff Cameron. I think she's fantastic. And I got to work with her on this project. It's coming to the theaters in August.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I'm also working on an AI company. So stay tuned for that. It scans your face and gives you some fun stuff. I'll say more in time. And we're rolling out some new AI technologies with eBay as well. So I would love for you to go test them out, test the AI help experience with eBay and let me know if you have any feedback there. That would be amazing.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I would leave you with something that I just noticed as I do product training. When I do agile and product strategy and execution, there's a game, a ball game where we take iterations, different sprints. And each time the team, we split people into different teams and the teams have to meet back and decide how can they do things better and how can they improve the quality of the product.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Now, on the third or fourth sprint, I just give them one piece of information. their scores would be around 10, 15, 20. I just tell them, when I did this exercise for the first time, my score was 2,400 instead of 20, 2,400. That little piece of information, which they hate me for it at that moment of time. They're like, why are you bragging? But I do it on purpose.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
The next sprint, every single time I do this training, the same thing happens. The next sprint, Thank you.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So I had to stick with my old shoe for a couple of years before we swapped it. And with that, it was a bit of a shock for me. Because coming from a lavish life where I was spoiled, very spoiled, anything I wanted, my father does it for me, to a, you have to go to school and you have to work and you have to do all of these things to continue your education.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And my brother was a kid also, so it was tough on him. He didn't know how to handle it the best way. So he was very mad at me, if it makes sense. And that gave me a bit of perspective about life. And then at the age of 16, I accidentally was in the middle of war, which is a second story that shaped my life, and I almost lost my life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
In those few minutes where I really thought that I'm going to use my life, it kind of changed who I am forever. I realized that fear is temporary, but regret is permanent. So I promised myself that if I'm going to survive that, I'm going to do things differently.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I'm going to go for whatever I want to achieve in a way where cultural norms that people think this is how you should live your life is not necessarily how you should live your life. And you should actually go for what you want. And then I moved from just being a dreamer to being a dreamer, a doer, and an executor. And I just went after it and things kept happening.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
That was a big life lesson for me.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Fear is temporary, but regret is permanent.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
That event was the start and not magically after that day I became a superhero. It was just one thing that clicked in my head and it did change me as a person. And I wanted to pursue acting. I loved acting. I studied acting in my school and my teacher was, Bastian, you have to do this. You have talent in it. However, I don't believe talent is the most important ingredient for success in general.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
That said, I studied computer science in university because my family wanted me to be an engineer, which I love engineering. However, my family looked down on acting. They were like, Bastiano, you cannot be an actor. We will disown you, more or less. And what happened is I landed an acting gig when I was 18.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I was like, if I'm not going to study acting, if my family is not going to let me study acting, I'm going to just do it for fun because I believe that I can do it. And I landed a lead role. It was support. Then they moved me into a lead character. However, reality hit. Life happens. And I wasn't making money as an actor. And I needed to support my mother. So I faced reality and I left acting.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
My family looked down on acting. They were like, Bastiano, you cannot be an actor. we will disown you more or less. There was a year where I had no money. I was drinking protein shakes for food because I couldn't afford a meal. I almost lost my life once. So I promised myself that if I'm going to survive that, I'm going to do things differently.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I thought that was the end of it. I'm never going to go back into acting ever again. And I started tech, worked in McKinsey, which I learned a lot of strategy there. Started, you know, the corporate life and corporate career, which is tremendous, to be honest. Met, brushed shoulders with magnificent people, very smart individuals. And I started a company with my brother. a tech company.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
We got acquired in 2013, which got us some funding, some liquidity. Granted, we tried, I don't know how many hundred ideas that didn't work before that one worked, but that's another story. So the one idea that worked and we made it work, got me enough money to do things with less pressure. I started choosing what I want to do in life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So I started advising more and I started in 2020, I had a role offered to me in Bad Boys for Life. I was consulting for Carnival Cruise Lines, building Syncros. It's an $8 billion product. Revenue-wise, not for me, for them, just to be clear. And what happened is on set, seeing Will Smith do his thing, I just ignited something. I was like, you know, I love this. Why don't I just do both?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I started thinking about it. Hollywood is so good at storytelling. Tech is great at strategy and execution. Tech is not great at storytelling. Hollywood is not great in business and tech and execution. So there was a gap where I could be the bridge in the middle of those two things. Granted, both of them rely on vision. Both of them rely on aspirations and big goals.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So I found a lot of commonalities in both. I moved to Los Angeles. landed an acting role, and I positioned myself in a way, you know, in tech, we're problem solvers. And that's the key to everything, I believe, finding a problem to solve. And I started looking at opportunities where I can help people solve key problems even before they realized that they had a problem.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I feel that helped me bridge a huge gap in Hollywood and become, you know, people are really having high regards for me. People really wanted me to be part of their projects, worked on honing my talent with resilience. Got Emmy nominated last year, and I have a few projects with Jenny Ortega, with Terence Howard, with Dove Cameron, the biggest names in Hollywood.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And tech still, I'm very passionate about tech. I'm starting an AI project right now. I'm doing a lot of AI work for eBay, and I'm doing an AI project for myself as well. So I'm very, very happy to do both. Still challenging, nevertheless. Failing every day, which is why I'm succeeding.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Got Emmy nominated last year and I have a few projects with the biggest names in Hollywood. If you're given a big problem, it's because you can handle it. It's because that's how big of a person you are. Just don't wait for things to come your way. You create it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
When I first finished my master's degree here in the States, There was a year where I had no money. I was drinking protein shakes for food because I couldn't afford a meal. And one of my good friends hosted me in his dorm room on a bean bag for a year. I was sleeping on a bean bag. Imagine. And my family were pressuring me. They were telling me they cut off funding, which they did that priorly.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And they were telling me that I need to go back to either Europe or anywhere else. And I didn't want to. I really believed in America. I really believed in this country. And I really believed in the people here and the possibilities in America. The American dream, pretty much. And I stayed... consistent and resilient for a year of everybody telling me that it's not going to work.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Very few people telling me, hey, there's a possibility. And every maybe week or so trying something that it's not working. And then eventually, even I got somebody that wanted to put me in touch with Meta for an acquisition. And then he had a tragic event in his family and I lost that connection. So every glimpse of hope and then going back to even below zero.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And it's just my mindset was, I've really positioned myself all my life to be here. And this is what I actually want. And I'm not going to stop. I had that vision and I really had that aspiration. And I just couldn't let go. So I kept trying different things and pivoting until it worked. We started the tech, my brother and I, and started getting some positive feedback around it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Found another person that put me in touch with some people in tech and it worked. We developed it. It's a massive project that was built with $20,000 and a team of engineers that helped me do it for free. So just people believed in it and we have a lot of speculation. So for that year of struggle was the building block of my entire career until today.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
It doesn't mean everything afterwards was success. No, I still get punched every day, you know, and you stand back up. And this is true for both the tech world and Hollywood. If you think about it, Picasso, the painter and the artist, he created, I believe, 20,000 pieces of art before he got recognized as a genius. Oprah got fired as a news anchor. Now she's a billionaire.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Spielberg got rejected from three acting schools. And now look who he is. Michael Jordan, another industry, 9,000 missed shots before he's the GOAT now. And maybe a more recent example is Mr. Beast had around 440 or 450 videos before he went viral for the first time. So all of these great people, it's not about having the best idea because guess what? Your first idea is going to suck.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
I have a unique perspective.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Your second idea is going to suck too. Your third probably going to suck as well. It's just how resilient, how can you learn from all of those? Do you have a vision? Do you have a goal? Do you know what you want? Do you want it enough to get all the punches? And sticking to that, learning, agile, you know, and then just trying to go for it and keep resilient and stay at it and execute.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
It's not about the best idea. It's about the great execution strategy. Bring everybody on board. Don't wait for people to make you feel positive. Be the person that makes people feel positive. Just don't wait for things to come your way. You create it. And Eliana, there was a great example, if I may share with you, that somebody mentioned it. And I'm going to phrase it my words.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And I'm going to tie it back to the example that I said about all these geniuses that I mentioned. The one thing they have in common is they kept knocking and knocking and knocking on the door. Nobody opened the door. So they created their own stage. They created their own house and they let people knock on their house instead. So if you don't find the opportunity, just create it. It's okay.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Don't be mad at it. Just create it. Create something for others. You know what I mean?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
So that's a very good question, actually. There's two aspects of it. The harder your problems, the more you are shaped to face bigger ones. And if you're given a big problem, it's because you can handle it. It's because that's how big of a person you are. You're not going to be given a problem, a small problem, unless you are a person that can only handle small problems.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
And that's how I always think about it. If my problems are large, it means that's what I can handle. It means I'm doing things great. I didn't have money multiple times in my life, not just once. I almost lost my life once. A lot of things happen. And each time, I just think sometimes you don't get what you want because you deserve better.