Redefining Success: UNO CBA Alumnus Tony Caliendo Builds a Career Around What Matters Most

Tony Caliendo has been a hospitality executive, an entrepreneur, a coach and, most recently, an author and speaker. Through each change, he has kept asking what success really means.

When Tony Caliendo graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Business Administration in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in management, he thought he had a pretty good idea of where his career was headed. He was already working for Marriott Hotels, a job he landed during his junior year at UNO, and he expected hospitality to become his lifelong career.

It didn't quite work out that way. Caliendo spent 13 years with Marriott, advancing into executive-level management and eventually serving as a hotel general manager. From there he moved into real estate and entrepreneurship, then into leadership and executive coaching. He later added podcasting and public speaking, and most recently he became an author.

None of it was on his radar when he walked across the graduation stage, and Caliendo says he was already equipped to handle all of it.

"I was prepared to do all of the things I did because of the foundation I got there at the university," Caliendo said.

Choosing UNO

Caliendo grew up in Omaha, and UNO was a natural choice. He knew he wanted to study business and paid particular attention to the strength of the business schools he considered, and UNO stood out.

"UNO was pivotal in really helping me figure out the bigger picture," he said. "It wasn't just about getting the degree. There were so many great opportunities to understand what was available to you out in the real world."

More than three decades later, Caliendo still remembers how consistent his experience with CBA faculty was.

"I never had a bad experience," he said. "The folks that I had the privilege of being in their classrooms all delivered at a really high level."

After leaving Marriott, Caliendo was approached about becoming a professional coach. He wasn't convinced at first, until he realized he had been coaching for years.

"In your leadership roles, you really are coaching," he said. "You're coaching your associates, your team."

Making the Team the Hero

Caliendo has now worked as a full-time coach for 16 years and has operated his own coaching company since 2019. His clients include executives and entrepreneurs, many of whom have worked with him for more than a decade. He describes his role as something closer to being a member of a client's board of directors than an outside adviser.

"I'm going to help you find your blind spots because we all have them," he said. "Sometimes we just don't want to look at them. That's what a coach does. They hold the mirror up for you to see."

Working with leaders for so long has shaped his own view of leadership.

"The leader cannot be the hero," he said.

He believes effective leaders check their egos at the door and build trust. They learn what the people around them do best and let their teams take center stage.

"The strong leaders that I know make their team the hero," he said. "The folks that have succeeded at a very high level never made it about themselves."

Caliendo explores those ideas on The Mindset Architect Podcast, where he talks about leadership and mindset as they relate to success. The podcast is approaching its third anniversary and has grown to more than 150 episodes.

Choosing the Right "More"

Over those years of coaching, Caliendo noticed a pattern among his clients. Many appeared highly successful from the outside and had built the businesses and careers they once wanted. Some found that achieving more didn't make them feel more successful.

That observation led to his new book, Less Over More. It asks readers to identify what no longer aligns with where they want to go.

"It's less of the wrong more," Caliendo said. "It's not about doing less. It's not about scarcity. It's not about giving things up."

He encourages people to look at where their time and energy go and to decide what is moving them toward the life or career they want. That clears room for what matters most. He believes many people never take the time to define success for themselves.

"Challenge the definition of success that you're living into," he said.

Advice for the Next Generation

Caliendo hopes today's CBA students will consider the same question as they start their careers. The professional world they are entering looks very different from the one he found in 1990, when job searches involved paper résumés rather than LinkedIn profiles and artificial intelligence wasn't part of the workplace conversation. The advice he offers is about self-knowledge.

"If I were graduating today and I was 22 or 23, and I knew what I know now, I would get really clear on what excites me and what makes me happy, and figure out what industry can support that, or create what can support that," he said.

He also encourages new graduates to hold off on chasing bigger titles and nicer cars, and on adopting someone else's version of achievement. His counsel is to give yourself room to grow.

"Take a moment to really explore what lights you up and figure out how you can align that with what you're going to go do," Caliendo said. "And if it doesn't exist, go create it."

More than 35 years after his own graduation, Caliendo is following some of that advice himself. Alongside Less Over More, he is developing a companion workbook and a six-week group coaching program. Another book may follow eventually, and for now he plans to spend the next 18 months enjoying where this phase takes him.

His longer-term goal is bigger.

"My big audacious hairy goal is to change how the world defines success," Caliendo said.

It is a fitting goal for a Maverick who planned on a career in hospitality and built a very different one.