ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - May 4, 2001

I am home until Wednesday, then off for a quick trip to Milwaukee to talk to a group of Pizza Hut managers about how to get more done with less effort and put the fun back in their jobs. (Since a few of you have asked, I have flown about 85,000 miles so far this year!)

FREE BOOKS?
My Aussie colleague, marketing guru Max Hitchins, has sold his interest in Billy the Pig's pub in Sydney. In a recent issue of his e-letter, he wrote"Now I have some spare time complete several books. One in particular, I think will interest you, is about Scams in the hospitality and tourism industries. It's about three quarter finished at the moment. While many of the stories are very funny...they are also very serious and do make for good reading and good learning. I want to offer you a FREE copy. If you have a scam you'd like to send to me -- and I use it -- I will send you a copy of the book when it is printed. Simply send your scam story to max@hitchins.com.au."

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING FOR?
Steve Coleman passed the following along. It was written by Tom Stoyan, Canada's Sales Coach.

It was twenty years ago I first met Jody as a client. She owned a beauty saIon and I was her new sales rep. I was watching her go through her appointment book blocking off a week every 6 weeks or so. She told me that she figured out if she worked hard for 6 weeks, she could earn enough money to pay all her bills and to take a week off. As I explained to her that excessive time off would not be healthy for the business, she interrupted with a powerful piece of philosophy'You don't understand, I don't live to work ... I work so I can live!'

(And I thought I was the consultant!) Thanks, Jo. Many of us still need to be reminded all these years later. Life is too short. On March 28, 1998 at the age of 40, Jody Stoyan passed away from cancer.

A note from the Doc:
With the recent passing of Mike Hurst, a true giant in our industry and a long-time mentor, I have lost two close friends to pancreatic cancer in the last three months. In both cases, they were gone within 100 days of the diagnosis. I don't want to get morbid, but it does point out the need to get some balance and "have a life" sooner rather than later. None of us know when the game is going to end . . . and when we find out, there may not be any time left to do the things we have been putting off. As Mac McLennan, an old professor of mine once put it. "You are working to make a living . . . make sure to leave a little time to live!"

In that spirit, Margene and I are off for a week in central Italy and a week in Burgundy, leaving on May 18th and returning on June 4th. As is my custom, I plan to post a daily diary of the trip with photos and observations, sort of "What did I learn from my life today?" This is always a good skull-stretching exercise for me. I just wish there was some way to get there that didn't involve jumping on another airplane!

[ Home ] [ Top ] [ Email Restaurant Doctor ]

© 2001 Restaurant Doctor