when you find a way to save an hour in the kitchen, you get a choice:
keep the hour and try something new, or take more bookings.
that choice keeps coming back ... even when you get better. every time.
your four-day week put a limit on how much of life the work could take. within that limit, finding a better way brings its own pleasure. money can buy equipment and help. it cannot give us the experience of working something out and discovering what we are capable of.
building a business means making choices like these again and again. the plan is a starting point. customers, costs and opportunities keep changing what comes next. we may welcome where it leads and still miss the work we used to do.
some of that we only understand by living through it. giving up a familiar role is hard, even when the decision makes sense. knowing that change is part of the work may help us face it without treating every turn as a mistake.
if the plan is only a starting point, our idea of success may need to change too. we might begin by wanting a full restaurant and later want an afternoon free to cook something we have never tried.
easier said than done ... would I let myself call that progress, even if it meant taking fewer bookings?
These are warnings of certain abuses I hope because success is a good thing and dishwashers need jobs too; to be wisdom you need some generalness and emphasizing too narrowly leaves you in a corner. Like time things like this can't be held back , the problems are mistakes not inherent in growth success or business.
Yay! Welcome to Substacks Chef!
when you find a way to save an hour in the kitchen, you get a choice:
keep the hour and try something new, or take more bookings.
that choice keeps coming back ... even when you get better. every time.
your four-day week put a limit on how much of life the work could take. within that limit, finding a better way brings its own pleasure. money can buy equipment and help. it cannot give us the experience of working something out and discovering what we are capable of.
building a business means making choices like these again and again. the plan is a starting point. customers, costs and opportunities keep changing what comes next. we may welcome where it leads and still miss the work we used to do.
some of that we only understand by living through it. giving up a familiar role is hard, even when the decision makes sense. knowing that change is part of the work may help us face it without treating every turn as a mistake.
if the plan is only a starting point, our idea of success may need to change too. we might begin by wanting a full restaurant and later want an afternoon free to cook something we have never tried.
easier said than done ... would I let myself call that progress, even if it meant taking fewer bookings?
These are warnings of certain abuses I hope because success is a good thing and dishwashers need jobs too; to be wisdom you need some generalness and emphasizing too narrowly leaves you in a corner. Like time things like this can't be held back , the problems are mistakes not inherent in growth success or business.
Fascinating viewpoint for an outsider like me. Illuminating.
Keeping Authentic