Episode #4: "Asking for the Opportunity"

Transcript

On this episode of Simply Brilliant, which is coming to you live from Crested Butte, Colorado, we talk about putting yourself in a position to win, taking risks, and asking for the opportunity. Thank you.

Today I'm filming here in Crested Butte, Colorado. In my own opinion, this is God's country and the sun is just starting to come up. It's about 7:00 in the morning and I really wanted to talk to you just about a couple of things that, at a point in time, don't seem particularly meaningful but you got to be in the right place and take the risk and be opportunistic and then really work hard and then you wait and monitor and see what the results are.

Let's talk a little bit about Crested Butte, Colorado. My family and I have a home here. We come here a few times a year and we mountain bike, hike, fly-fish, and we ski  and it's just a fabulous place to the extent that if any of you've never been, I highly recommend it. This is an old mining village, very strict zoning, and it's a tremendous place to come so I highly recommend it. 

But nonetheless, let's talk about how I got here to Crested Butte because I think there's some life principles here that can help others. When I graduated Cornell University in 1991 - wow, that's a long time ago - I was dating this really cute redhead. We had just started dating second semester, senior year, and she was going to go to medical school, but her plan was always to take one year off between finishing college and attending medical school to recharge, regroup, get some of her ambitions out. Since we were dating, I tagged along. I was an avid skier, I really enjoyed skiing. I thought, wow, this would be great. So she came out here, visited a good friend of hers, lived with her and right before the winter I came out and I needed a job.

I didn't really have any expertise in anything having just graduated and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife and we've been married 21 years. We have three wonderful children, three daughters. We've been together a long, long time and I think Crested Butte was the beginning of that relationship getting very serious.

Anyway, she put together an interview with the restaurant that she was working in. She was a cocktail waitress, and I went in. I had no experience, and I said, "Look, give me a job and I'll do this for you." They started me off as a busboy. I made minimum wage and very little in the way of tips. The tips came from the waiters that I helped. I learned the trade. I learned to do it quickly. Within a couple of weeks there was some managerial change at the restaurant and I took that opportunity, and this is sort of the point of the story, to promote myself, and so when the new management came in they asked what I did, what shifts they were, and rather than just say, "Well, I'm a busboy and blah blah blah," I said, "Look, I've been bussing. I've been doing a great job. I'm looking to break into being a waiter. Give me an opportunity. You won't be disappointed," and really just promoted myself.

I took the risk. I put it out there. I told them what I would do and how happy he'd be with me and either because he was desperate or he believed in me or some combination of the two, he really gave me that opportunity, and so I learned, on the fly, the hospitality business, how to waiter, what was important, and I was intelligent enough to know that I wasn't going to make any money based on my wages, minimum wage. All of my income would be based on the gratuities that I received. My goal, my purpose in being out here in Crested Butte for that winter, was one, to be with my girlfriend at the time, and two, to ski, and three, I needed a job to give me enough to income to facilitate goal one and two.

So I quickly figured out how to make the biggest tips and have the best experience for guests, and in very short order, believe it or not, even relative to all the career waiters because they ski in the winter and then they mountain bike in the summer and they are career waiters, they've been doing it for their entire adult life. I quickly became one of, if not the highest paid, in terms of gratuities, waiters. And all I did was facilitate people having a good time, right? So I added value where I could whether it was restaurant recommendations, menu items that I thought they might enjoy, trails that they perhaps should ski, ski this side of the mountain in the morning and this in the afternoon, "Have you done this?" And really just added value wherever I could and people had a great experience as a result of that.

The point of all this, you don't know where your life is going to lead. You need to take some chances. Do some fun stuff. Promote yourself. Work really, really hard. I don't think it's an accident that I was able to learn the hospitality business and become the highest earning person in the restaurant. I think it was a study, a discipline, a methodology, and dedication and devotion and hard work, and now, 20 some odd years later, I'm happily married to that cute redhead who is even cuter now. We have three wonderful daughters. Skiing is a big part of our life. All three of our daughters ski race. Crested View remains part of our life.

And who would have thought it, 20 some odd years ago when I was a lowly busboy earning minimum wage, that this progress would occur? But I can tell you this, the same methodology I've applied and the same work ethic that I applied as a busboy and then a waiter, I've applied to every single one of my jobs. I've always been opportunistic. I've always taken risks. I've always self-promoted. I encourage all of you to do the same.

Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you've enjoyed this. Please share this with a friend. Hit subscribe at the end of this to stay tuned. We'll continue to film interesting, thought-provoking topics in interesting, thought-provoking places as we travel the world and make travel great for others. Thank you very much for joining us. We really appreciate your interest.