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Selective Listening Can Kill Your Business (Thank You Gordon Ramsay)
The problem of selective listening (hearing only what you want to hear while ignoring all else) has killed a lot of businesses, especially restaurants. In fact, I suspect that the problem is pervasive across all industries and government agencies.
On Kitchen Nightmares, I watched restauranteurs who were at the brink of closing argue with Chef Ramsay that the problem wasn't the tasteless, frozen, microwaved crap that they served in their almost empty restaurant. It couldn't be because "everyone loves my food". "Who's everyone? Your restaurant's empty", Ramsay would say. Then there were owners like Sebastian (Sebastian's Pizza) and David (The Black Pearl) whose egos wouldn't allow them to take advice.
I credit Ramsay's series about failing restaurants for helping me avoid those traps and others while I launched and built the Suits and Spooks security event series. After all, a conference is a lot like a pop-up restaurant except with worse food.
I wanted more than anything to build something that was different and that would deliver value to my customers. Inspired by what I learned from Gordon, I picked interesting and unique venues. I imagined that I was creating a menu when I curated my speakers - selecting ones that would add a unique "flavor profile" to Suits and Spooks attendees. I made sure that I greeted every attendee personally, and listened to their feedback - both positive and negative.
The result was that Suits and Spooks, launched in September, 2011, was sold to Wired Business Media in April, 2014, just two months before Gordon Ramsay announced that after 12 seasons and 123 episodes, Kitchen Nightmares would wrap for good.
So today, on Thanksgiving, I'd like to say thank you to Gordon Ramsay for producing a show that inspired me to build something that I was passionate about and make it a success.
On Kitchen Nightmares, I watched restauranteurs who were at the brink of closing argue with Chef Ramsay that the problem wasn't the tasteless, frozen, microwaved crap that they served in their almost empty restaurant. It couldn't be because "everyone loves my food". "Who's everyone? Your restaurant's empty", Ramsay would say. Then there were owners like Sebastian (Sebastian's Pizza) and David (The Black Pearl) whose egos wouldn't allow them to take advice.
I credit Ramsay's series about failing restaurants for helping me avoid those traps and others while I launched and built the Suits and Spooks security event series. After all, a conference is a lot like a pop-up restaurant except with worse food.
I wanted more than anything to build something that was different and that would deliver value to my customers. Inspired by what I learned from Gordon, I picked interesting and unique venues. I imagined that I was creating a menu when I curated my speakers - selecting ones that would add a unique "flavor profile" to Suits and Spooks attendees. I made sure that I greeted every attendee personally, and listened to their feedback - both positive and negative.
The result was that Suits and Spooks, launched in September, 2011, was sold to Wired Business Media in April, 2014, just two months before Gordon Ramsay announced that after 12 seasons and 123 episodes, Kitchen Nightmares would wrap for good.
So today, on Thanksgiving, I'd like to say thank you to Gordon Ramsay for producing a show that inspired me to build something that I was passionate about and make it a success.
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