The Hardest Lessons From 20 Years of Owning Restaurants Part 1

But those, all those lessons that...

I learned all came from the restaurant industry, you know, because of those transferable skills, because it's all just business principles.

Right.

So,

yeah.

And actually, one thing I think there's a neat correlation that we can talk about here is that with all of the the Internet and, you know, digital companies and other service based businesses that you've worked with, an interesting thing.

is that those who do the best initially probably come from a more marketing-heavy background because that's the skill set they have.

But then what ends up happening is if they're over-relying on that and they don't learn the other skills, then they need to bring people in who know the accounting, the operations, the hiring, the training, all that stuff.

So...

That's very common to see people who go into that and are really successful right off the bat but then crumble because they're not sustainable.

It's very common to see that.

So I want to flip this around for restaurant owners and I want you guys to think about your business because you probably have a good skill of being maybe a chef or maybe you're in the kitchen, you're good with that.

Maybe you were a server and you're a great server and you know that piece of it.

Maybe you were a GM and you know the management and people side.

But there are other factors and other hats in the business that you need to wear that you're not as good at.

And not having either yourself being knowledgeable enough around those, not knowing it, or not having someone who can handle that side of it eventually becomes what stops you from growing.

So I wanted to kind of...

It's easy for me to see because I go to a bunch of conferences with people that are like me who are coaches and stuff like that.

And I'll see people there and the next time I won't see them because they're just like a flash in the pan because they don't have the knowledge that I've had building it over 20 years and operating to the level that I have.

But I want to make sure that we as restaurant owners understand that the skill set we bring in, we tend to overuse it.

And that's what keeps us stuck is because we always try and do what we're good at.

But eventually, just doing what you're good at will only get you so far.

There are other things you need to do in order to move forward and things you need to learn.

So I think that's a big part of what I've seen.

And I think what's just kind of really relevant.