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Fabulous People: Anthony Pigliacampo

Anthony Pigliacampo is the CEO of Modern Market, a restaurant serving food made with ingredients that come from farms, not factories. Anthony just opened the first Arizona Modern Market location in Scottsdale, bringing their affordable, quality food to the Valley.

Hometown: Boulder, CO

First job: working in my father’s machine shop at age 8.

Favorite AZ restaurant: Modern Market of course – affordable, delicious food that makes you feel great. Not enough of that in the world.

Person who has impacted your life the most: My dad – he is an immigrant and built a very successful business from the ground up with no outside support. He should have failed 1000x but never gave up and had a smile on his face every day, no matter what was happening. He taught me that my ability to change the world around me is just a function of the effort I want to put into doing it.

Your biggest accomplishment in your eyes: Growing a business while growing a family. Those two things are often at odds with each other. I have worked really hard to make work and life truly balanced. It is a delicate balance, but, thanks to a fantastic wife, I am able to ‘do it all’. We grew our company 50% last year but I still spent most evenings at home with my kids. I am very proud of that.

The biggest obstacle you have overcome: Trying to convince investors to give my partner and I money to build a restaurant despite the fact we had never worked in one. We got very good at smiling after people told us “no way” and “you are crazy”.

Someone who inspires you: My wife We have two small kids and she minds them all day while still working part time. Her job is literally 24/7 and is harder than mine.

Favorite quote: “The dog is a noble beast. I hope to go to his heaven and not man’s.”

Advice to someone pursuing a career path in what you do: Just do it. Everyone always talks about doing things to change the world, but few people do. There is no reason not to. Everything you see around you was created by someone. If you have an idea or dream, go after it. I wanted to help make the world a healthier place and building restaurants was a logical way to do it. I had no experience or money, but I figured it out. You can too!

What makes someone fabulous: How much they smile when talking about their family or career​.

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