Dreams Start With Patience #55

Reading time: 5 minutes

I've been in my new, yet familiar, job for about five months now.

After a year of doing something, you'll know whether you like it or not.

13 Lessons I’ve learned behind the bar:

1. How to mix drinks
   

2. Utah Service Liquor laws
   

3. In sales, it’s feast or famine.
   

4. What people desire when they come into a bar
   

5. The negativity trap "crabs in a bucket mentality"
   

6. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
   

7. You have to work for free to get somewhere.
   

8. People whose ideas you enjoy also have ideas you dislike.
   

9. Not everyone who acts like your friend is your friend.
   

10. Alcohol destroys your ability to sleep but makes everyone enjoyable to be around
    

11. If you want to trade places with someone, you can't pick and choose the things you like about them. You have got to be ready to take on everything at once.
    

12. Different cultures look at the small things in life differently and the larger things in similarly.
    

13. People go to a bar to find a place where no one judges their mistakes and everyone knows their name.

A few nights ago, my small town experienced heavy flooding once again. The management team and I were stuck outside, up to our knees in water, trying to unclog the sewer drain in front of the restaurant from sticks, mud, and other debris.

This isn’t anything new for us.

The past 3 ½ years has been full of heavy flooding during the summer months. Specifically in August. We came to work expecting to be busy helping customers, but we were busy trying to save the restaurant from flooding out.

I thought to myself, “This can’t get any worse”.

It did. But only because I felt eyeballs from just about every direction.

I knew there were still customers in the restaurant but I didn’t expect to turn around and see a handful of tourists cheering us on as if we were heroes.

“Is this apart of your job description? Does this happen a lot?”

These were the questions in my ear as we returned from 45 minutes of shoveling water and mud during a heavy storm.

A resounding, “Yes, this is my job.” knowing damn well none of us expected this.

Life is inherently chaotic, natural disasters strike all the time.

The most important lesson in my 5 months of returning to service work is this:

Suck it up, do the work and put a damn smile on your face during times of adversity.

Eventually how you do one thing in your life and routine is how you do EVERYTHING.

I’m proud of our team for doing what needed to be done, taking action without hesitation led to the restaurant & bar staying clean.

If it wasn’t for my little sister (who is also my boss) sandbagging the front entrance right as the water was about to hit there would’ve been some serious damage and clean up required the next day.