When people search for Biagio Maffettone, they will often find his professional story first. He is a mortgage professional with more than 20 years of experience, a career built around helping individuals, families, investors, and business owners navigate important financial decisions. He has worked across residential and commercial lending, held senior sales leadership positions, and earned professional recognition throughout his career.
But there is much more to Biagio Maffettone than his professional résumé.
He is also a husband, father, son, community impact Champion, and author. His life has been shaped by his Italian-American upbringing in Peekskill, New York, the example of his parents, his faith, the challenges he has experienced, and his belief that personal growth is a lifelong process.
Those experiences eventually led him to write The First to Rise: A Journey of Resilience, Reinvention, and Redemption. The book is not simply a story about professional success. It is a personal reflection on the people, experiences, challenges, and values that helped shape the person behind the professional title.
To understand why Biagio wrote the book, it helps to understand where his story began.
The Early Life of Biagio Maffettone
Biagio grew up in a close-knit Italian-American family in Peekskill, New York. His parents operated a small tailor shop, and watching them work became one of his earliest lessons in responsibility and perseverance.
His father was a craftsman who took tremendous pride in his work. His mother was deeply involved in the family and the business. Their example showed Biagio that success was not something that simply appeared. It was built through long hours, discipline, sacrifice, and commitment.
Growing up, Biagio also faced challenges that shaped his perspective. He entered school without speaking English fluently and experienced what it was like to feel different and uncertain about where he belonged. Those experiences became part of his understanding of resilience. Rather than allowing difficult circumstances to define his future, Biagio learned to keep moving forward.
His parents’ work ethic, his family’s values, and his own experiences became a foundation for the way he would approach education, career, family, and eventually fatherhood.
Biagio’s Education, Hard Work and Building a Career
Biagio became the first person in his family to attend college. While pursuing his education, he worked multiple jobs and eventually graduated magna cum laude from Boston College. He later earned an MBA in Finance and Investments from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
After college, he built a career in mortgage lending that has now spanned more than two decades.
Throughout his professional life, Biagio has helped people navigate a wide variety of financing needs, including first-time home purchases, FHA and VA loans, jumbo financing, refinancing, investment properties, new construction, renovation, and commercial and other specialized lending transactions.
He has also held senior sales leadership positions and received professional recognition, including being named a Five Star Mortgage Professional for 14 consecutive years.
For Biagio, however, mortgage lending has never been only about the transaction.
A mortgage can represent a family’s first home, an investment, a new beginning, or an important financial decision. His approach has been to listen first, understand the person behind the transaction, explain options clearly, and help clients make informed decisions.
That experience gave him an unusual perspective on people. Over more than 20 years, he has seen the hopes, concerns, setbacks, and goals that people bring with them when making major financial decisions.
But eventually, Biagio wanted to tell a different kind of story.
Why Did Biagio Maffettone Write The First to Rise?
The idea behind The First to Rise came from looking beyond the professional accomplishments and reflecting on the experiences that made them possible.
A résumé can show where someone went to school, what positions they have held, and what recognition they have received. It cannot fully explain the people who influenced them, the challenges they faced, the mistakes they made, or the moments that changed how they viewed life.
Biagio wanted to explore those parts of his story.
He wanted to write about his family, his childhood, his faith, his career, fatherhood, adversity, responsibility, and the lessons he had learned along the way Most importantly, he wanted to share a message that he believes extends far beyond his own life: where you begin does not have to determine where you end up.
That idea became one of the foundations of The First to Rise.
A Book About Resilience and Personal Growth
The subtitle of the book, A Journey of Resilience, Reinvention, and Redemption, captures the broader purpose of Biagio’s story. Resilience is not about avoiding hardship. It is about learning how to move forward when life does not unfold as expected. Biagio’s experiences taught him that setbacks can become lessons and that difficult periods do not necessarily determine what comes next. Sometimes growth comes from circumstances we would never have chosen ourselves.
Reinvention is another important part of the story. Life changes, priorities change, and people change. The person we become in one chapter of life does not have to remain the same person forever.
Redemption is connected to that same idea. Nobody lives a perfect life. Growth often requires looking honestly at the past, learning from it, accepting responsibility, and choosing to move forward with greater awareness.
That is why The First to Rise is not presented as a perfect success story. It is a story about becoming.
Faith and Family at the Center
Faith plays an important role in Biagio Maffettone’s life and in the message of The First to Rise. His faith provides a foundation for how he approaches challenges, decisions, family, and purpose.
For Biagio, faith is not simply an idea. It is something that helps guide his daily life and gives him strength when circumstances become difficult.
The sacrifices Biagio witnessed from his parents influenced the way he came to understand responsibility. Later, becoming a husband and father gave those lessons even greater meaning. His children became part of his motivation for telling his story. He wanted them to understand not only what he accomplished, but also the experiences and values that shaped him.
The book therefore looks backward and forward at the same time. It reflects on the generation that came before Biagio while considering the example he hopes to leave for the generation that follows.
What Does The First to Rise Mean?
The title has a meaning that goes beyond career advancement or conventional definitions of success.
To rise can mean achieving something, overcoming an obstacle, or reaching a new level in life. But Biagio’s story presents a broader definition.
Sometimes rising means getting back up after disappointment.
Sometimes it means having the courage to change direction.
Sometimes it means taking responsibility for your choices.
Sometimes it means putting family, faith, or character ahead of recognition.
And sometimes, rising simply means refusing to quit.
That is why the title is so personal. The First to Rise is not about reaching some final destination where every problem disappears. It is about continuing to move forward, learning from life, and becoming better along the way.
From Mortgage Professional to Author
Writing The First to Rise allowed Biagio to share a side of his life that could never be fully represented by his professional biography.
His mortgage career taught him about trust, communication, leadership, responsibility, and helping people navigate uncertainty. His personal experiences taught him about family, faith, perseverance, and the importance of continuing to grow.
The book brings those lessons together.
It is a story about the person behind the career, but it is also an invitation for readers to consider their own stories. Everyone has experiences that shape them. Everyone encounters setbacks. Everyone has moments when they have to decide whether to remain where they are or take another step forward.
Biagio’s hope is that readers will recognize something of themselves in that process.
The Story Behind Biagio Maffettone’s Book
Ultimately, Biagio Maffettone wrote The First to Rise to share the story behind the accomplishments.
His education, mortgage career, leadership experience, and professional recognition are meaningful parts of his life. But they are not the whole story.
The deeper story is about the family that raised him, the sacrifices he witnessed, the challenges that tested him, the faith that grounded him, and the responsibility he feels toward the people he loves. It is also about understanding that personal growth does not end when you achieve a goal.
There is always another lesson to learn, another challenge to face, another opportunity to become a better husband, father, professional, leader, or person. That is ultimately who Biagio Maffettone is and why he chose to write The First to Rise.
