From pasta to discovering the Internet
In the nineties I trained in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) marketing, putting on weight with fusilli and rigatoni at the company synonymous with quality pasta (as product marketing manager at the great De Cecco read here to find out why it is the best pasta in the world).
At the end of 1996 I met the love of my life ❤️ (professionally speaking! Otherwise my wife will get angry): the Internet.
I immediately volunteered to look after the company’s first website (on top of my other responsibilities).
In the evenings after work I would stay up late studying and experimenting. There was much less online than there is today, but I still found enough to understand it (in fact, to see how things worked, you only had to look at a page’s source code), and I published on Geocities (the free web hosting service organised into cities and neighbourhoods) my first personal website, dedicated to my four-legged friends (eight legs, actually, as I had two furry friends 😃).
Milan and the Fastweb adventure
Soon afterwards, in 1998, I left everything to follow my passion and moved to Milan, the beating heart of the digital economy. I met great entrepreneurs and managers who immediately asked you to call them by their first names! A different world! 😲
In Milan I worked as marketing manager at Fininvest’s Internet company, but after less than a year I followed my former CEO, who, together with the great Silvio Scaglia, was founding what was then the start-up FASTWEB.
I remember there were about thirty of us! It was a wonderful adventure: I could apply my marketing knowledge to the Internet (back then it was called Internet marketing) while helping to build the fibre-optic network of the future.
Knowledge, connection, expression
Everything has changed since then: the digital revolution is in full swing, changing our society and the business world, and we are only at the beginning. The best is yet to come!
My love of the online world is still alive and strong. I can sum up the reason in 3 elements:
- Knowledge
- Connection
- Expression
Today we have all this knowledge at our fingertips, and there are so many tools available (and free) for experimenting and trying things out, bringing theory and practice together! New hypotheses can be tested quickly, and the field is constantly evolving. The only barriers are laziness and poor concentration.
A curious person on the Web is like someone with a sweet tooth in a pastry shop!
By being able to connect with anyone in the world we can make our knowledge participatory and exchange ideas with people who share our values and passions.
The last electrifying element of the digital age is the ability to express ourselves, to tell the world something! In the past, if I wanted to share my ideas, I had few options and they were not easily accessible (writing for a newspaper, for example). Now I am spoilt for choice.
I love learning and trying new things, and my work requires me to do so: that is the greatest reward.
Learning and teaching
Teaching is a great passion of mine.
As I take my first steps in this wonderful world, I try to be the teacher I always wished I had: a blend of mind and heart, passion and action, knowledge and practical experience (walk the talk).
When I teach, I feel like an explorer sharing his travels and listening to those of others. I can say what you might find in a certain place and tell stories of adventures, but everyone then has to have their own experiences and, importantly, take action.
I think passing on knowledge makes us eternal ⭐️
If a small concept, a piece of advice or a suggestion is absorbed and can help someone, you stay in their mind for ever. Perhaps one day they will tell a friend: “You know, that thing Fabrizio used to say wasn’t bullsh..t, and it really helped me.”
I am a long way from those goals, but I certainly put in all the effort, enthusiasm and passion I have, and I hope at least that comes across to my students, my fellow travellers🌄.
You can regularly find me teaching marketing and digital marketing classes on the Sole24ore master’s programmes
My BIG BRAIN theory. The human world is like a single great mind, with individual people as its neurons. Just as with the brain, humanity grows through the transfer of knowledge (the connections) and the speed at which it moves.
I also try to share what I know on this website and in short reflections on Linkedin.
Nature, work and freedom
When I am not in front of a PC, I enjoy nature and sport. To combine the two, you can find me paddling across the Adriatic Sea in my kayak!
I firmly believe that work is smart if it can combine job performance with quality of life.
For this reason, in 2019 I created myself 🤪 a life manifesto called “🌳Natura Digitale🌳” (I also published it online: perhaps it could be useful to others and give us a chance to discuss the subject): www.naturadigitale.it.
In February 2023 I fulfilled my dream: creating my own training and consultancy company, combining it with the lifestyle I wanted, close to nature and my family.
I almost forgot, this is my company 😉: www.esmart.it.
Let’s stay in touch
For details of my studies, training and work, or to get in touch, visit my LinkedIn profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabriziocostantini/, where, from Monday to Friday, I share what I see happening in the Internet world and a few thoughts of my own (hopefully useful).
If you would like to write to me, go to the contact section.