Happy Sunday Everyone:
One of my favorite books of the last year is “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara. He’s a restaurateur in New York City. Brought up by Danny Myer and his organization, Union Square Hospitality Group (most recognized by all of us as the founder of Shake Shack). Perhaps it’s my love of food but the book covers all the bases. You could read it on a beach in Hawaii and it’s fascinating, just in storytelling. It’s a book on leadership, on organization, on how to do things right. His management style is one that I admire, and try to emulate, with his team being the number 1 priority. Pour into your internal team, and your internal team pours out to our clients and business partners, it’s a win win win strategy.
We’re reading the book now as a team, which everyone is loving (I’m on my 3rd pass of it). The lessons are endless. Literally makes me want to tweak every single piece of our business, communication, process, to be better, both internally and externally. You can’t help but be better from reading it. As I’m watching our team respond to it, it crossed my mind, our whole division should read this. Then my insecurities and self-doubt kick in. It’s one thing to ask our team to do book reports, it’s another thing to suggest it to our division. 10 vs. 400. It’s one thing to impart personal/professional development ideas and thoughts to our team, it’s another thing to suggest it to our division, or is it? Literally the same day this was going through my head, I came across a part in the book with the quote “It might not work” is a terrible reason not to try. He was talking about the development of younger/newer talent, I was thinking of a divisional book club.
This past Thursday I fell on the sword, put together a video explaining myself w/a link to the book, and suggested we do a book club for those that want to participate. 30 min zoom calls once a week, call on some people who have something to say, discuss some highlights, and talk about how we might apply it to our businesses. I’m happy to say we have 75 people who have said they want to participate. I have no idea what this will look like but the positive feedback I’ve received so far cements the words “”It might not work” is a terrible reason not to try”. Coming from a place of fear is such a useless headspace to be in. It’s so limiting and stupid. I’m not sure if it’s my age, being more comfortable in my own skin, experiencing some life moments that put things in a different perspective? Not sure…I just know I’m not as concerned about the people who aren’t interested in what I’m selling as I used to be. What’s the downside of this? What’s the downside of a book club? Someone says “lame”? Someone doesn’t want to jump on the betterment bandwagon. Someone doesn’t want to participate for whatever reason on the planet…it’s okay, truly. What’s not okay, is to miss out on opportunities because of a fear-based mindset. Fear of rejection, fear of what others might think, just doesn’t matter.
There are quotes that matter to me and this is now at the top of my list. There is positive, neutral, and negative thinking. I error on the side of the latter 2. The way these words come together hits me. It’s a double negative making a positive. It’s a reflection of self-questioning. When I’m in the wrong mindset it makes me shift quick, challenge myself, question my thoughts, re-arrange, then push forward. I love it. “It may not work”, is a terrible reason not to try. Noodle on that. How many things in our world “might not work” but are worth the attempt? What’s the worst-case scenario? Not making the attempt is always the worst-case scenario.
Thanks for reading!