Make your mark.

So far in life, I’ve learned that you can have the greatest impact without even trying. Or maybe specifically because you weren’t trying. Two work-related examples will prove my point:

(If you work in an Applebee’s restaurant, you’re about to get two very big doses of my store in North McAllen, TX. Call it a “Torgasm”.)

First, I had the lucky misfortune of goofing around with my new digital camera at Christmastime at the store. The camera has a “YouTube” video feature that automatically records – in YouTube format- whatever you want, and then automatically uploads it to YouTube when you dock the camera at your computer.

So, one Friday evening in early January, I was playing with my new camera at work and decided to see if I could figure out how it worked, so I took a video of my cooks smiling and joking, then got some shots of my servers. The video was about a minute and a half long.

True to advertisement, it uploaded just fine, and I long forgot about it. I think even now, it’s only had about 75 views on YouTube. No one even bothered to comment or rate it.

Anyway, about three weeks ago, I was contacted by the ad agency for Applebee’s International, and was asked permission for the video to appear in a national commercial for Applebee’s. Releases and legalities are underway, but very soon, you’ll get to see my team in action. Nationwide.

My company is very pleased. My bosses are no doubt posturing themselves to receive a healthy dose of the praise for one of our own stores being included in a national commerical.

I’m content to let that happen. I did not set out to do anything extraordinary, so I’m not taking extraordinary credit for it. It was a happy accident.

The second example comes from a rather simple poster I made for my store. It’s very important to communite with your staff on a regular basis, particularly in a field like restaurants or retail, because there is a natural degrading process that happens with people who have to serve the public every day. Morale and tempers wear short, and it’s very important for their leaders to say, “I love you. I know what you go through. Keep up the good fight.”

But the way we schedule our people means you rarely, if ever, get them all in the same place at the same time to give that “Pep Rally”. So, thinking over the situation one afternoon, I came up with a simple communication method that will keep everyone informed, even if I couldn’t get in front of them personally – we’d create a 2’x3’ laminated poster that would allow me to communicate all the vitals of the day to the staff. My friend and employee Mike actually gave this poster its name: “PROP” (Pep Rally On Paper).

Simple idea, right? Just a dry-erase poster with boxes on it to communicate various indicators of business success, goals for the team, and a few praises and contests to keep spirits up.

Well, the idea has taken off. My company, a franchise group, LOVED it and said it’s going into all 42 Applebee’s that they own.

Today I got a call from my friend and supervisor Cody that my little PROP poster is now going system-wide in Applebee’s. That means, all 1900 Applebee’s, world-wide, will have this poster in it as the expected means of daily communication with the staff.

Another happy accident.

(In case you’re wondering, there is no monetary reward for my intrepidity.  I’m delighted to contribute in a meaningful way, but reciprocation would finally be nice. They could cough up a raise, though. Or a promotion. Alas.)

I’m told that “I’m being noticed” by the powers that be – at least, in the very small world called Applebee’s. I guess that gratifies me on some level, but still, I go about each day feeling really unused and so far below my own potential. Like an wild cat, caged against its will, pacing back and forth against the bars, peering out and waiting for the gatekeeper to open the door. Hungry not to be fed, but to hunt.

I am genuinely happy that what was really a simple solution to a problem in my own restaurant has resonated so well. I am happy that my superiors are taking notice of my potential to contribute to not only my own store or area, but to the entire company. This little poster was the smallest of the innovations I have planned.

It’s funny – after such lavish praise, I don’t find the emotions I expected to find – elation, or gratitude, or even just a smug satisfaction. Instead, I find frustration. Impatience. Bitterness at the relative insignificance of my contribution, and the lack of ability I have to make real, lasting change beyond the prison of my restaurant’s four walls.

I need to move back up quickly in this business before I reach the conclusion that there is nothing more to do. In the past year, I’ve discovered entirely new things I want to do with my life that are complete departures from my past – fine art photography, for example. Financial planning. Real estate investing. Teaching. I want to stretch the confines of my own mind. I really feel the urge to find and fulfill my full potential. I feel the strong desire to push my limits, and I’m finally finding this industry too restricting. Too political. Too insecure. Too distracted.

I figured out years ago that the place where I could make the greatest impact -for good or ill – was in my own life. Rather than those poor disillusioned souls who go out to change the world, I realized that my own greatest enemy was my own ability, and that the place where I would find the real challenge was in changing me. Making me into the person I know I can become is how I begin and end each day. My self-respect comes in great part by how well I use my time, intellect, and skills, compared to my potential. I seldom win that comparison.

I grew up and am growing old in the restaurant business, and fight hard every day to give it the dignity it rightly deserves but never receives. It stands to reason that after fifteen years of not only working in, but seriously studying this business, I’d have the equivalent of a PhD in this field. I know its systems, finances, human relations, legalities, operating necessities, and how to pull a profit in almost any situation.

This business is like many others that require diligent practice in addition to instruction. It’s a skill-based business, not a knowledge-based business. It’s about having good instincts. Success here means years of trial-and-error, self improvement, false starts, and sleepless nights. It’s a really difficult journey. It’s made easier by those who have made it to the other side, who can now turn around and tell the next in line where to step, and where not to step.

At some point, the apprentice must become a journeyman. The journeyman must become a master. The student must eventually become the teacher, or the lessons risk being lost forever.

After so many years of running a business, developing my people, and creating permanent solutions to nagging problems, I want to finally take what I’ve learned, turn it around, and give it back to the next generation of leaders.

If I cannot do that, the last decade and a half has been in vain.

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~ by jtorgerson on April 4, 2008.