
What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen - KurtElster
http://ethercycle.com/blog/index.php?entry=319
======
etler
I'm a bit confused about the moral of this post. He says:

"Before you do anything with your business you need to ask, is this something
that makes me more money? Or is it just to stroke my ego"

But in the paragraph right before that he says he adopted a no bullshit policy
to call out problems to his customers in a direct way, and that it filters out
the customers that can't take it. But if his conclusion is really just about
making money, wouldn't he make more by taking in all customers, stroking their
ego and making them happy, even if it means creating a bad product for them?

The goal of having a business is clearly more than just money. I think it's
ultimately about pride, no matter how well placed that pride is. It's just
that some people get enough pride just out of having a business, while others
get pride out of providing the absolute best service they can possibly
provide, and others do get pride by just extracting as much money as possible.

But we celebrate businesses that turn down lucrative deals when they're
unethical, and admonish them when they adopt shady practices to force more
money out of their customers. Lots of times, running an ethical and high
quality business aligns with your business goals, and many business owners put
that goal above money, and still make enough money to be successful.

I don't think being proud is a bad thing, it's just that it can be bad if
you're proud of the wrong things.

~~~
jamesaguilar
Maybe his ethics override the concern for making money, but his pride does
not? That is just one possible consistent explanation for this.

~~~
etler
I consider ethics to be a matter of pride, but it's probably a pedantic
difference.

~~~
jamesaguilar
You can be proud of your ethics, but ethics and pride are definitely not the
same thing, at least not to most people.

------
peterwwillis
> As part of our No More Bullshit stance for 2014, we've become totally honest
> with everyone who contacts Ethercycle. Brutally honest. We tell people:
> _Your non-responsive website is giving your audience a subpar experience.
> Your website is huge and slow and it 's driving people away. That font is
> unreadable. Why are there so many steps in the checkout process? Where's
> your call to action? How does that make any sense? Why do you think that's
> going to work? Did you think about this at all?_

The first few comments were constructive criticisms. The last three are just
beating someone up, and are generally dick things to say. There's no excuse
for being mean to someone who's asking for help.

------
stretchwithme
A lot of the conflict on those shows is contrived. That show is almost like a
procedural drama where the owner's hopeless, resists change, finally sees the
light, and then all is set aright by the end.

At least in the 5 episodes I've seen.

~~~
ape4
Also, not all advice from the expert is correct. Maybe there is a good reason
not to change the name.

~~~
jamesaguilar
While I'm all for the HN anti-expert contrarian commentary, let's take a
moment to think about this. You, the owner of a _failing_ business, have one
view. Gordon Ramsay, the owner of one of the most successful high end
restaurant empires in the world, _after_ hearing your justifications, has
another. With only this evidence, which view is _most likely_ to be correct?

~~~
JetSpiegel
None, because both have speeches written by the same writers.

~~~
coldtea
Actually not everything is scripted. Actually, in the original show, nothing
it's scripted, the sameness comes from following the same procedure and the
director knowning how to edit it for drama.

You'll hear people saying BS things that you'd never expect a business owner
to say, much less a scripted one.

And not all businesses he talks to are "saved" in the end. Some are just
hopeless.

------
smacktoward
I think the author may be taking a misleading lesson away from these shows,
because the businesses they focus on -- restaurants and bars, for instance --
are the sort of businesses people (mistakenly) think are glamorous and
exciting, so they attract _lots_ of clueless people. Many people daydream
about quitting their job and owning a restaurant, mostly because they don't
understand what owning a restaurant entails. They think instead that they have
fun in restaurants, so running one would be even more fun; or that they like
to cook for their family, so they'd like cooking on demand under time pressure
for large numbers of strangers even more; and so on. They don't know what
they're getting into until they've sunk their life savings into it.

It's a mistake, though, to assume that because these types of businesses
attract dilettantes, that _all_ types of businesses attract dilettantes. Once
you get away from the "glamor" businesses, that happens much less. Nobody
dreams of quitting their job and starting a waste management company; not
unless they really care about waste management, at least. So it's not really a
safe assumption that the ranks of small businesspeople are uniformly populated
with flighty dilettantes.

~~~
joezydeco
Bourdain had it right in _Kitchen Confidential_ :

"Why would anyone who has worked hard, saved money, often been successful in
other fields, want to pump their hard-earned cash down a hole that
statistically, at least, will almost surely prove dry? ... The easy answer, of
course, is ego. The classic example is the retired dentist who was always told
he threw a great dinner party. 'You should open a restaurant,' his friends
tell him. And our dentist believes them. He wants to get in the business-not
to make money, not really, but to swan about the dining room signing dinner
checks like Rick in Casablanca. And he'll have plenty of chance to sign dinner
checks-when the deadbeat friends who told him what a success he'd be in the
restaurant business keep coming by looking for freebies. All these original
geniuses will be more than happy to clog up the bar, sucking down free drinks,
taking credit for this bold venture-until the place starts running into
trouble, at which point they dematerialize, shaking their heads at their
foolish dentist who just didn't seem up to the job."

Although I also think the producers of these shows screen for volatile
applicants and then stoke the egos of those same people so there's a fight
ready to happen when Ramsey walks in the door.

------
mentos
> To start your own business you just need to send $500 to the Secretary of
> State's office and congratulations! You're what makes America great!

This reminds me of a scene from 'Searching for Bobby Fischer',
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v38lu0Bi0Kk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v38lu0Bi0Kk),
only two minutes but it has stuck with me ever since I watched it as a kid.

~~~
couradical
This is what I think of whenever someone talks to me about certifications...

------
swalsh
I'd disagree on one point. Being a business owner is not easier. We all
intuitively know that. He knows that. Getting capital, having an idea,
executing (even if you're failing) is difficult.

To get a job, I need to impress the hiring manager, and maybe a few of the
engineers who interview me. To open a business, I need to impress a banker, or
a VC, or an angel, then I need to impress each and every potential customer.
And impressing them is beyond, hey this guy has roughly the right skillset. No
I need a feasible idea, a plan. I need to be good with money, I need to know
an industry enough to contribute to it, I need the inter personal skills to
demonstrate to people I can actually do those things... and then to be
successful, i have to be telling the truth.

I'm impressed by a "business owner" because its truly an impressive thing.

~~~
deankeyton
No no no. First off, you're completely ignoring businesses that bootstrap or
don't need capital to start. Secondly, yes, being a _good_ business owner is
hard, but that not the focus of this. This is about the wantrepreneurs who
only care about thinking that they're hot shit.

------
imjk
Your ego can be a distraction from sound business decisions.

------
gadders
It's quite instructive to watch the American and British versions of the same
show.

The American version is like the British but with the volume turned up to 11 -
more drama, more shouting, and more tears.

Also, everyone calls Gordon Ramsey "Chef Ramsey" which sounds wierd.

------
arcosdev
I think that this problem persists beyond individual business owners. There
are all kinds of management types out there that love the idea of being in
charge, but not any of the hard work involved in actually managing and
leading.

------
ermintrude
> Or is it just to stroke my ego*

> *And I realize that's ironic coming from a guy who just wrote an 800-word
> blog post telling you how to think.

It's not ironic.

