As the father of a six month old, I don't get out to the movies much. Have to catch up when they hit the movie channels or when I have the chance. A couple of days ago, I caught the movie Chef on a flight out to the west coast. There are a ton of life and business lessons in the movie.
To quote Shakespeare "To Thine Ownself Be True."
Jon Favreau plays a very talented, innovative, compulsively driven chef who is constantly trying to test himself. He works at a restaurant where the owner, played by Dustin Hoffman, wants him to play it safe. The prominent restaurant reviewer is coming in to review the place and owner and chef have different views on what should be served.
"Play your hits" says Hoffman. He may as well as said "Rest on your laurels." Always a mistake. It ends up biting them in the caboose. The staff and chef are uninspired and serve a meal that underwhelms the reviewer. Essentially, the review asks "Where is the innovative chef I once knew?"
Social Media Lives Forever
Upset, the chef calls out the reviewer on social media. Favreau's character is a newbee to Twitter and is facing someone who is both agile in response and works for a huge media outlet. Chef may be outgunned, but he is picking up thousands of followers. He dares the reviewer to return. When the reviewer comes back, the owner again insists on the same uninspired menu, leading the chef to walk out. Still steaming, in the critical scene, Favreau returning to the restaurant for a core nuclear meltdown at the table of the reviewer. All of it caught on camera by smartphones. Spreads like wildfire over Vine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TMZ and million other sites. A mistake you can never recover from? Wrong.
Own Your Assets
Fine, the protagonist is out of a job at this point and he has a ton of negative baggage. But, he has picked up a huge amount of followers. While a publicist suggests going on a reality TV show, Favreau instead builds a food truck and takes off across the country. His young son is a social media genius and Tweets, Instagrams and Vines about where they are going and what they are doing. As they go across the country, father and son grow closer and teach each other about their worlds, cooking and social media. As a business, the chef is taking advantage of his huge following.
Ice the Cake
The triumphant return to Los Angeles finds the El Jefe food truck and Chef with gobs of followers and fans. Who shows up to eat and loves the food, the aforementioned reviewer. He loves it so much, that he offers to back the chef in opening a restaurant based on the truck cuisine. Chef will be given full creative freedom. Now, at this point pride might get the worst of most folks. But, the chef accepts the offer, realizing there is an opportunity here and that there is huge weight in the unlikely story that two social media warriors unite to build an enterprise.
Pave Your Own Road
Any road to success is not smooth or straight. Granted, no business wants to take unnecessary risks. Few could survive the embarrassing meltdown. But, unless you are willing to take some risks, unless you are willing to turn every crisis into an opportunity, you cannot succeed.
