From Server to CEO

10 Life Lessons I Learned From Working In Food Service

For a good portion of my early 20s, I waited tables and tended bar. I worked in a Middle Eastern deli, a greasy little breakfast joint, a trendy foodie hangout, a sushi bar and a particularly seedy location of a big Mexican chain. Little did I know that while I was pouring Long Islands and slinging chimichangas, I was also learning valuable lessons that I would use while building my career and my company.

1. Always greet people with a smile. No matter what might be going wrong or stressing you out, don’t bring it into every interaction. When serving, you have to create a positive experience for each table and each customer. That is, if you want to make a tip. Likewise in business, it’s a simple truth that people want to do business with people who bring good energy to the table.

2. Cover your co-worker’s shifts. When colleagues need help, help them. As we all know, business is about relationships. And social capital is pivotal in how business relationships work — you have to accrue capital to spend capital. You accrue it by being trustworthy and dependable and loyal. When you help people out, you are earning social capital that you can spend later as your relationships evolve. And you never really know when you’re going to need a favor.

3. Math. Adding tabs and determining percentages (especially the allusive 20%) taught me math in a much more tangible way than any algebra class. When you can run the numbers and calculate on the fly, you win business. Period.

4. The art of the upsell. Upselling isn’t selling someone something they don’t need, it’s recognizing what will improve their experience. By understanding their needs and thinking quickly on your feet, you can offer them something valuable — like french fries instead of chips or that fancy whiskey instead of the rail stuff. In business, it’s seeing beyond the current conversation and finding the possibilities that will make your customer’s life better. When that happens, it’s a win for everyone.

5. How to hustle with grace. Screwed up orders and unhappy customers are part of the daily grind when you’re waiting tables. Sometimes you’re in the weeds for your entire shift. To manage these situations, you move quickly and make decisions on the fly, all with nimbleness, improvisation, and an eye on finding a solution. These same skills translate to remaining graceful under fire and calm in the face of stress. Confidence, that I feel and that others see in me, creates trust.

6. Never go to the kitchen without clearing something from a table. This is a golden rule of food service because it keeps tables uncluttered and customers happy. But there’s a bigger intention: do what needs to be done to improve the experience of everyone around you — for your colleagues, your customers, and you. At the office or on a project, look around and see what you need to do to make thing easier and better. Simply put — innovation happens when we want things to work better.

7. Don’t take anything personally. Other people’s moods are not about you, yet it’s easy to be affected by them. A grumpy customer can really make things hard, but rather than take that on or reflect that negativity back, I would try something else — counter it with positive energy, creativity, or movement. In business, when you can shift the collective energy because you don’t let the negativity get you down, you make a connection, get things moving, and make a positive impact.

8. A little kindness goes a long way. We all want to feel heard, and to be seen. When I was a bartender, instead of ignoring or judging someone for behavior that I didn’t agree with or that might make me uncomfortable (and let me tell you, I dealt with some characters), I gave them time and attention. After a while, I realized that no matter how busy or stressed I was, if I took time to lock eyes with another human and connect with them, I was doing something beneficial for both of us. This, I’ve also realized, is absolutely no different in an office environment than in a bar — hearing and seeing is the best gift we can give each other.

9. Do more than just your job. If you get stuck on what your job description is, you’re losing opportunities to expand your skill set, improve your work environment, and you’re failing your business. As a waiter, you bus dishes, jump on the line, wash dishes, and do whatever it takes to get the work done. To make a workplace better, we all have to look around and find inefficiencies (then fix them), and possibilities (then reach for them).

10. Wash your hands often. Because, really, it’s just good sense.