I’m part of a team that always begins an important weekly meeting with one of the leader’s contributing something meaningful and inspirational. Today, a team member spoke about his father, who was a surgeon. He once asked his dad how to tell if someone was a great surgeon. His father said that “you can’t really tell if someone is great until you see them in action during challenging times”.
…when they are tired and haven’t slept
…when they are under significant stress
…or when they are dealing with great adversity
His father said that it’s during those times that you can see real talent – not during the good times when things are “easy”.
This leader then went on to point out the extraordinary talent of his team that has shown through during these extraordinarily difficult times – it was poignant and very much appreciated by the team, I felt privileged to have heard this story.
It got me thinking about how true this is. As working professionals, parents, athletes, etc. – it really applies to everything. Someone once told me that you can’t tell if someone is great on the soccer field just by how they handle the ball, you can only tell how great they are when you see them handle the ball under pressure. It’s the same thing.
That leads me to a story about 4 chefs. Here we are, in the most disruptive and scary time that the restaurant industry has ever experienced. And these 4 chefs are not taking time, but making time to bring comfort and support to others, even as they struggle to keep their businesses alive. This week, Jason Sobocinski and Craig Hutchinson of OLMO/New Haven, Tyler Anderson of Milwright’s/Simsbury, Jeff Lizotte of Present Company/Tarriffville and Bill Taibe of Kawa Ni/Westport are all donating their time and resources to support children battling cancer at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. It’s pretty amazing to think about this kind of generosity during these extraordinary times. But if you know these chefs, you won’t find it surprising. It’s who they are. Their talent and compassion and generosity during this kind of adversity is nothing short of heroic (and if you live in CT, please support these insanely talented chefs/restaurant owners).
But really it’s not new behavior, they’ve always been like this.
One of my favorite memories of these fine individuals came a few years back when these same chefs donated their time to prepare a culinary masterpiece for 200 people during one of our galas. To support that event, the Emmy and Grammy winning actor & Singer, Billy Porter took time out of his busy schedule to shoot a little commercial and sign a pair of knee-high, red, patent leather pumps to auction off. This was during a time that Billy was starring in Kinky Boots, beginning to shoot his new hit series, “Pose” and was recording a new album. Billy doesn’t have time, but he made time…I’d be remiss if I didn’t point that out. Billy knows how to handle the ball under pressure.
But back to the memory, it was when one of our great chef’s put the boots on during the auction to get the audience more inspired to bid…it worked and we raised almost 120k that night to support pediatric cancer clinical trials.
These stories all have something in common. The people behind them are selfless. They care more about the needs of others than their own. Not a terrible thing to be reminded of and not a bad idea to thank these people when you see them doing things like this. I know I will.
Stay Positive & Covid Negative,
Paul
