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Gino Barbaro
Co-founder, Jake & Gino
In this conversation, Gino Barbaro shares his journey from the restaurant business to becoming a successful real estate investor. He emphasizes the importance of building wealth not just for oneself but for future generations, highlighting the need for open discussions about money within families.
Earn income in the business, save it to buy assets. Shoveling snow in an empty parking lot while his mother collected rent upstairs, Gino made the connection that changed his life: the business pays you for showing up; the asset pays you in your sleep. Food, clothing, and apartments — he chose the basic human need with monthly recurring revenue.
A business exists to provide for everyone else first. Gino spent twenty years thinking a business was there to feed his family. The reframe that took him from one pizzeria to 500+ units in five years: provide for your customers, your investors, your employees — whatever is left over is yours, and the better provider you are, the bigger it gets.
Are you living your dream or your father's? Both Ahmad and Gino grew up in family restaurant businesses and faced the same reckoning: loving the work because of who you shared it with is not the same as loving the work. Legacy is honoring what your parents built by building beyond it.
Talk to your family about money. Wealth that lasts generations starts with open conversations at home — the opposite of the old-school silence most families inherit.
