Trap of Michelin Effect

Who's a foodie? I confess to having sought out prize-winning pleasures of the palate. A supposedly World Top Ten starter as deemed by the NYT. The Number One dining experience on a certain continent according to insider-focused Restaurant mag. The only food cart ever to be given the nonpareil Michelin star.

Given the latter there, I note the current crescendo of perma-murmurs railing against Michelin judges. What makes this wave of wailing perhaps more noteworthy is that it stems from French rebellion.

Significant allegations of basic assessment errors having arisen. Also questioning the very esteem in which the star is held. One broadsheet dining reviewer labelled their pursuit a "treadmill of insanity". And I could not miss his observation;

"I have met countless young chefs at culinary colleges who maintain their ambition is to have their own place and to have a star".

This is a warning. It is misplaced aspiration. A misdirected affirmation. Worship of a false god. A waste of time, effort and energy.

In fact, it is also an embodiment of the major mistake of placing goals over systems.

Which, as regular readers will chime, is wholly, 180°, the wrong-way-round.

It sniffs too of the trend for aiming to be famous. As in, if you achieve fame for your (personal or business) brand, then you'll have made it.

Whilst there may be a slither of merit in an angle within that argument, is the fame of a cookery award, no matter how storied, really what your career driver ought be?

Goals are what the underlying process of your work produce. As I've blogged countless times, even - especially - for Olympic Gold Medal Winners with the shiny pendant hanging round their neck, the systems that got them there is what drives them. The reward at the end is its by-product. Process becomes paramount.

Yes, you can still win yer star. But the implication of the above food critic is very much of the variety to be renowned for other plaudits. If the desired star follows, so be it.

The way you cook, the ingredients you use, the style you pursue, the people you serve, the diners that return, the crew you help blossom, the environment you allow, the experience you generate.

Yes, fame can flow from such star. But it is always as a consequence of how you go about what you do. Which is never about 'you'. As gaining a star most singularly is. It is about everything, and everyone, else.

And so it is in Sales too. The real successes know this. They live and breathe it. Mind, body and soul. Do you?