Hippie CEO Life #79 - You Can Please Some of the People
A behind the scenes view of building a more humanistic company.
“Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone.” ~Anthony Bourdain
Last night, my friend Matt Detwiler and i were having a discussion on LinkedIn and he doesn’t know this but he said something to me that was really profound and so in-tune with a current situation that i’ve been dealing with. A situation that has been impacting my mental health in a negative way and has caused me to question if i’m making the right decisions in how i’m building 33 Sticks, how i’m positioning our brand, and how i’m passionately defending our purpose - our reason for existing.
i told Matt, as i shared the photo of lamb koftas above, “i may not know how to run a business, but i can cook!”
Matt responded with, “I imagine that you cook and run your business from your heart and sometimes people want roasted red pepper hummus instead of garlic hummus. You know your hummus so you know they are wrong. The question is can you take that critique as a chef and still deliver an amazing experience for the customer?”
That statement from Matt just hit me right in the heart, it was deep, it was profound, it was incredibly meaningful, and it was exactly the words i needed to hear at that exact moment.
Do i make mistakes? i do and i’m sorry for that and i apologize.
Do i know everything about running a business? i do not and sometimes that means the process or experience is less than ideal and i apologize for that too.
But i’m a damn good chef and i run an amazing business because i cook, like i lead a business, with pride, because i’m not trying to be everything for everybody, because i’m not trying to please all of the people all of the time, because i’m committed to quality, and i’m confident in my ability to create things that truly change people’s lives for the the better.
You may not like the food that i cook and that’s ok, there are a lot of other chefs out there in this world.
You may not like how i run my business and that’s ok too, there are a lot of other places you can work or do business with.
And to answer Matt’s question, the answer is YES.
Yes, i can take the critiques, the criticism, and the hate, and still deliver an amazing experience for our customers and our employees because other people liking what i create is not in my control. What is totally in my control is making things to the very best of my ability, things that i like regardless if anyone else does, and that is exactly what i’m doing!
✌🏼💛
