Everything I Know I Learned in the Restaurant Business

I came across this list in my readings....don't know who wrote it, but I thought there were some nuggets of wisdom within the list, so I figured I would pass it along.

Everything I know I learned in the restaurant business

This, the second month of the new year, is a critical time of year to sharpen the saw, kick all the cylinders in and grab some traction, because if you're standing still, you're walking backwards. But don't get so busy that you overlook the lessons this great industry teaches every one of us each and every day. Here are 33 things I've learned, and hopefully they sound familiar to you, too.

1) All work is teamwork.
2) If you want to be bigger than everyone else, you'd better be better than everyone else, too.
3) Our business is run first for the enjoyment and pleasure of our customers, then for the convenience of the staff or owners.
4) The secret to winning is not to lose twice in a row.
5) The customer is not always right, but is always the customer, and it's all right for the customer to be wrong.
6) A pat on the back is just a few vertebrae up from a kick in the ass.
7) Challenge the process daily: Are we doing the right things, and are we doing the right things right?
8) Never practice on the customer. Training is your secret weapon.
9) Be tough on standards, easy on people. What you permit, you promote.
10) Be a blowtorch, not a candle. Leaders are never "energy-neutral." You're either giving people energy or draining it from them.
11) Customers will forgive mistakes in the kitchen more than mistakes in bad service.
12) The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
13) Over teach. Managers and employees both under learn and over forget.
14) Unoccupied time passes slower than occupied time. If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.
15) Employees are our first market. Never treat a customer better than you treat an employee.
16) You can have the best product in the world, but if you can't sell it, you still got it.
17) Good service means never having to ask for anything.
18) All behavior is the result of consequences: You get what you reward.
19) Never order Chicken on a Spit from a waiter who seems to get everything backwards.
20) Use the "Sullivan Nod": If servers smile and slowly nod their heads when suggesting a soda, beer, fries, appetizers or desserts, the customer almost always nods back and says, "Yes."
21) Of all the people who will never leave you, you're the only one.
22) If a customer tells you right off the bat to take good care of them because they're "big tippers," they're not.
23) The seafood is always fresh. Even in Wyoming.
24) Recruiting doesn't end when you hire someone. You recruit your employees daily. 25) It is more fun to eat in a bar than it is to drink in a restaurant.
26) If someone tells you it's the principle of the thing and not the money, it's the money.
27) In this business, you can always tell when it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
28) Tools left in the toolbox never built anything.
29) One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect different results.
30) Q: What if we train our people to sell and they leave? A: What if we don't and they stay?
31) Life is short: Don't sweat the petty things … or pet the sweaty things.
32) High performers hate working with low performers. Groom 'em or broom 'em.
33) The restaurant business is a free circus. All you have to do is pay attention.