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I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

torontolife.com

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Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#141

Post by ctchocula »

Cd00d wrote: post #117
mattnewport wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A point that Gordon Ramsay makes is that consistency is more important than peak food quality for a restaurant. Occasionally serving bad food does way more harm than occasionally serving amazing food does good since many customers will not return after one bad experience and you won't establish regulars if your quality is not consistent. What McDonalds and Starbucks do well is produce consistent (though not particula…

I'm taking (off topic) issue with the notion that Starbucks is not particularly high quality. Before Starbucks the options for coffee were almost universally limited to weak or burnt and stale bland Columbian beans. Starbucks is excellent at consistency (that was in the manual actually; I worked as a Starbucks barista for a year after college), to the extent that they replaced their skilled/training-required espresso…

Starbucks may be consistent at making coffee, but coffee elitists would claim that their coffee beans are over-roasted in order to hide the generally poor quality of the beans and used to burn out a lot of the flavors. If you buy a bag of coffee beans of freshly roasted coffee beans from a local coffee shop, and a bag from Starbucks, then make yourself a cup of coffee the difference is enormous. The predominant taste of the Starbucks coffee is bitterness, but the local coffee will taste fragrant.

Starbucks is much better than the average Folgers-type diner coffee (in that it's not both totally burnt and weak), which was the previous point of comparison for most Americans. At best, a cup of Starbucks is merely strong. However, it's not remotely as good as something from a coffeeshop which tailors the whole process to highlight the quality of the ingredients and attention to detail in the process.

Of course, I perhaps do not appreciate the challenges of managing a global supply chain and making it scale to the size of Starbucks, but I would agree with gp's assertion their coffee is not particularly high quality.

[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Starbucks-considered-bad-by-cof...

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#143

Post by imustbeevil »

djsumdog wrote: post #140
AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

I quit my job and lived out of two bags for eleven months: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half: http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life: http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/ I did something. I failed .…

> Well as long as he can save enough to pay for his kids' education, at least he has a story to tell and they can learn from him.

I didn't get the impression that this was the case from the ending.

> I still have an outstanding HST situation, and I face the prospect of personal bankruptcy.

> We can barely afford the place, but I wanted my daughters to have their own rooms—like they did before I sold our house. I may have to moonlight as a bartender to make sure the rent gets paid, but my girls are worth it.

It sounds like he barely has enough money to pretend their status hasn't changed, since that's important to him. I don't want to rag on the guy, but nowhere in this piece does he seem to consider paying for his childrens education as a significant life goal. Playing restaurant seems like it was his dream, not seeing his children grow up successful.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#144

Post by brailsafe »

djsumdog wrote: post #140
AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

I quit my job and lived out of two bags for eleven months: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half: http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life: http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/ I did something. I failed .…

A thousand times this.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#145

Post by vkou »

imustbeevil wrote: post #143
djsumdog wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit my job and lived out of two bags for eleven months: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half: http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life: http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/ I did something. I failed .…

> Well as long as he can save enough to pay for his kids' education, at least he has a story to tell and they can learn from him. I didn't get the impression that this was the case from the ending. > I still have an outstanding HST situation, and I face the prospect of personal bankruptcy. > We can barely afford the place, but I wanted my daughters to have their own rooms—like they did before I sold our house. I may…

The cost of education in Canada is much lower then the US. My undergrad CS degree (Earned in 2008) cost me <$30,000 CAD for tuition and textbooks. Decent university, no scholarships.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#146

Post by BifoBerardi »

AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124
52-6F-62 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, guys: find yourself in the right position in life and any act to try and enrich the thing you're calling life, enlighten yourself, and improve your lot will be considered irrational by somebody . Best take a few steps back. He's brazen, and maybe a bit dumb. I'd probably get along with calling him too proud, mostly. Now to reduce myself to platitudes: at least he did something. That's living. Who deserves…

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

It's "who." You got it.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#147

Post by chris_wot »

djsumdog wrote: post #140
AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

I quit my job and lived out of two bags for eleven months: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half: http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life: http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/ I did something. I failed .…

I think you made a pretty solid decision when you moved from the States to Australia.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#148

Post by ImSkeptical »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #129
AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

Sure, sure—but you're cutting one small phrase out of my larger sentiment. I know it's a dumb platitude. I said as much. I'd prefer the focus of my comment be the rest of it. I didn't think I had to break it down further, and I was trying to be cool and all that, but what I was trying to say is: [if you know that area of Toronto, the location he chose was not that out of the way business-wise, but it is a little bit…

I feel like this story really highlighted all the guy's flaws, and hopefully exaggerated them. As you say, he must've been doing something right.

The story seems like he took a terrible risk he couldn't afford, he didn't prepare or research things well, and his endeavor failed largely due to his own shortcomings. Sure, he learned something and has a story. He also borrowed and lost thousands of dollars from his friends, and severely set back his family - possibly for life. Given that he's unlikely to be a restauranteur again, his lesson doesn't seem that valuable either.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#149

Post by averagewall »

djsumdog wrote: post #140
AnkhMorporkian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…

I quit my job and lived out of two bags for eleven months: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half: http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life: http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/ I did something. I failed .…

> as long as he can save enough to pay for his kids' education

That sounds like a good thing but there's another story on HN where commenters are complaining that it's bad! Rich bankers paying for their kids' education and helping them become rich too. That it's unfair to poor kids. People have such arbitrary and inconsistent opinions. No matter what you do, people are going to believe it's wrong.

Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.

#150

Post by X86BSD »

I could have saved him the trouble has he asked before doing this on quora. Seriously the culinary world is full of the worlds rejects. Junkies, alcoholics, thieves and the mentally unstable. I took a break from IT to pursue a culinary career. It was a great lesson in life. It taught me you don't get paid anything but slave wages even though you are working 15 hour days. Your body gets wrecked. You get no respect. You work with the people who couldn't get a job anywhere else for the worst reasons. It's repetitive AF. There are not a lot of good reasons to try and live that life. No matter what glitter and rainbows crap food tv makes it look like.
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