Pizzaman
At the age of 56 and with no experience running a restaurant, Paul Giannone decided to quit his job and open a pizza restaurant. He’s now 66 and still loves what he does and said he will never retire.
Paul Giannone (known to all as “Paulie Gee”) grew up in Brooklyn, NY but moved to New Jersey as an adult. For most of his professional career, he worked with AT&T and their subsidiaries as an information technology staffer and eventually a consultant. And candidly, he never liked the work-he never felt he was very good at it either. But he needed to support his family, so he stuck at it.
While he didn’t love his work, he loved pizza- absolutely loved everything about it. And at the age of 56, he took an incredible leap of faith-returning to Brooklyn and opening up Paulie Gees – a pizza restaurant. He’s been remarkably successful, and “Paulie’s slice shop” followed in Brooklyn, as did Paulie Gees franchise restaurants in Chicago, Columbus and Baltimore.