Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

ethercycle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 30 posts

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#21

Post by 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.

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#22

Post by couradical »

mentos wrote: post #13

> 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 , only two minutes but it has stuck with me ever since I watched it as a kid.

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

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#23

Post by deankeyton »

swalsh wrote: post #21

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 custome…

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.

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#24

Post by 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.

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#25

Post by coldtea »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #11
jamesaguilar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

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.

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#26

Post by jamesaguilar »

etler wrote: post #24

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 ju…

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

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#27

Post by etler »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #26
etler wrote: post #24

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 ju…

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

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

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#28

Post by gamblor956 »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #11
jamesaguilar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

Reality shows are not scripted. They are simply carefully edited from many hours of footage to create the "story" that the producers are looking for. When necessary, the producers may intervene to create drama, but for the most part participants are selected for their ability to create drama out of thin air. (This is why reality show participants are so colorful and outlandish.)

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#29

Post by jamesaguilar »

etler wrote: post #27
jamesaguilar wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

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

Re: What Gordon Ramsay Taught Me About American Businessmen

#30

Post by imjk »

stretchwithme wrote: post #3

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.

Actually, I think that's what differentiates the Profit from other similar shows. About 50% of the time (so far) Marcus determines that the ownership is unethical, too incompetent, or just too difficult to work with that he decides not to help them. Still makes for great TV.
Post reply on HN