Don’t just give advice. Always take the time to explain why.
Remember this. When you give people a real sense of ownership, they will give more of themselves.
Whatever terrifying statistic you’ve heard about how many restaurants fail in the first year has a lot more to do with the people who open restaurants without understanding the business part of the business.
Waiting doesn’t have to dim your ambition or hamper your progress. Trust the process. The right way to do things starts with how you polish a wineglass.
DON’T FIRE FELIX - notoriously disrespectful to coworkers and often nightmare to work with, but are considered unfireable because they are so beloved by customers.
Just because a few regulars love an employee doesn’t mean they should be allowed to erode the foundation of everything you’re trying to build.
Always make the charitable assumption.
In too many organizations, the people at the top have all the authority and none of the information, while the people on the front line have all the information and none of the authority. Taken too far, corporate-smart can turn into restaurant-dumb.
TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER FIRST. That doesn’t mean it’s only a manager’s job to take care of the hourly employees. It’s everyone’s job to take care of everyone.
Managers are employees, too. That doesn’t mean they’re automatically right or should be allowed to fire loyal, long-standing employees on a whim. But if you take care of your managers and give them what they need to be successful, you put them in a better position to take care of their teams.
It can be hard to spend 12-15 hours a day executing someone else’s vision knowing they have so little trust in you.
The Rule of 95/5: Manage 95 percent of your business down to the penny. Spend the last 5 percent “foolishly”. The last 5 percent will be some of the smartest money you’ll ever spend.
A few times a year, spend a truly obnoxious amount of money on an experience for the team.
Some coaches/people in positions of leadership won’t say it, but you can clearly feel it. They don’t respect you or anybody else in the program. In their view, it’s all about them. Everybody else is just there in service of him and his career.
Never forget how much of an impact - for good or bad - a gesture by a leader can have.
RUN TOWARD WHAT YOU WANT AS OPPOSED TO AWAY FROM WHAT YOU DON’T WANT.
IF YOU WANT THEM TO BE THERE FOR YOU WHEN YOU NEED THEM, THEN YOU NEED TO BE THERE FOR THEM WHEN THEY NEED YOU.
“I don’t want to have to spend my whole life convincing you what I do is as important as what you do. If it’s not a partnership, then I don’t even want to start down this road.”