A Tasty Life

“Socrates said something I use every day, not these exact words, of course, but: ‘The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.’” – Jose Andres

A Tasty Life

There are some people, you know the type, that accomplish so much it boggles my mind!  My friend Robert Crooks calls them the “beautiful people.”  Then he immediately says, “that’s not me!  I don’t know how they do it.”

I had that same feeling as I looked across Jose Andres’ 35,000-square-foot “Little Spain” food hall at Hudson Yards in New York City.  “How does he do it all?” I asked myself, knowing that he currently has at least 30 restaurants, some of them two and four Michelin Star award winners.  To say the least, learning how to cook up great success from a person such as Jose Andres would be like attending an award-winning culinary school!  That’s not something most of us can do, but you and I can get a taste of how to do a little better, personally, by learning directly from him.

“Socrates said something I use every day, not these exact words, of course, but: ‘The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.’” Jose says as he talks of his recipe for making a difference in the world.

As his words penetrated my heart, I have to tell you that my mind was having a hard time understanding how Jose can be so accomplished, yet stay so grounded, being one with all of us.  Perhaps it’s because he is so comfortable being human?  After all, he’s continually showing his humanity, having fed 5 million meals to the less fortunate, those having their lives turned upside down because of disaster.

“I know my weaknesses.” Jose says as he introduces the next ingredient in his recipe.  “I try to cover all of my weaknesses with good people.  I’m not afraid to admit that: You have to always work with people who are good at what you are not good at.”

While most people spend their time and effort working to prove their strengths to everyone around them, Jose lives differently.  As a result, he employs thousands of other people who use their talents working with him toward common goals, because of his leadership and the values he conveys.  And, while he conveys his values through social media, he more importantly expresses them by the way he lives.

Yes.  Jose Andres is one of those people! You know the type, he accomplishes so much that if boggles our minds!  My friend Robert Crooks would call him one of the “beautiful people.”  Perhaps that doesn’t describe you or me.  But, we can at least follow the recipe Jose has been generous enough to share. 

And, as you know, millions of people can follow a same-shared-recipe and it will often not taste the same.  That’s just fine, because they’ve included their own little twist!  They’ve made it their own. How will you and I make our own lives a little tastier?

Grimm Determination

“Never tell a woman she can’t do something!” – Carol Grimm

Grimm Determination

I could hear and feel the linoleum tile floor squeaking under my crocs right up to the moment the sound became insignificant.  It wasn’t that the sound dissipated.  It was that the focus of my attention was highjacked by a miraculous sight.

Carol Grimm was walking up the hallway just up ahead of me.  That alone was enough to get my attention.  You see, just a short few weeks ago a doctor told Carol that she would likely not be able to walk again!  What else caught my attention, you ask?

The look on Carol’s face!  It was one of single-minded determination!

When I came up to meet her face-to-face, she yielded her focus just enough to greet me by name.  Her eyes were bright and her smile radiant.

“Never tell a woman she can’t do something!”  She said with a lot of jalapeno in her voice.

I could only shake my head in agreement during that, my moment of surprise.

Carol had fallen in her home recently.  For many people her age, such a fall is akin to a death sentence.  And, it would have been easy for Carol to simply listen to the medical naysayers, become discouraged, and give up.  After all, she has faced extraordinary health challenges over the past few years.  Trials enough that she and her husband Jim moved to Utah so they could be close to caring members of their immediate family.

Now, she was walking, with help from those wings of love, toward a physical therapy room. Carol kindly invited me to come along.  We talked and walked the whole last leg toward the beginning point of her exercise station.  When we arrived, she asked me to stay and sit for a while.

I sat.  She worked.  I marveled. She progressed.  We conversed.

I could hear her voice still singing in my head as I left and began a new, solitary walk down the hall.  I could hear and feel the linoleum tile floor squeaking underneath my crocs once again, right up to the moment the sound disappeared, because I had left the rehabilitation hospital.  Still, the sound of Carol’s voice hasn’t dissipated.  It continues to focus of my attention on that same miraculous sight.

Carol Grimm was walking up the hallway just up ahead of me.  That alone was enough to get my attention.  You see, just a short few weeks ago a doctor told Carol that she would likely not be able to walk again!  What else continues to hold my attention, you ask?

Carol’s Grimm determination!

Leave Footprints

“Opportunities unexpectedly happen and they only matter in life if you seize the moment and do something about it.” - Ed Zschau

Leave Footprints

“Within 6 days my life changed!  I was rejected by the navy and found myself at Stanford in the MBA Program.” Ed Zschau said as he was doing what he loves to do.  Teach people like you and me!

As a teenager, Ed spent hours training – getting up at 5:30 am, even in the winter and then figure skated in the evening as well – then he did his homework!  He told me that it wasn’t because he was a skating phenom.  He did it because he loved it.  He loved it enough that he was willing to commit himself to it.

That’s where he learned about the power of practice, dedication, persistence, and determination.

“These are all important life character lessons a person needs in order to change the world.  You don’t get a quick return if you want to do something that will change the world.”  Ed teaches.  “You don’t get a quick return doing something that doesn’t matter. If you want to make a difference in society, making the world change for the better, you better be prepared for a long journey.”

Figure Skating is also how Ed learned the importance of meticulous preparation.  I was filled with hope as listened to him describe how he learned about the “human preparation principle.”

“You can be a better teacher if you have a difficult time learning.  It makes it so you can explain how to master the skill to someone else because you’ve actually completed every step yourself.”

Because he had to work at it, he had to labor and complete every single skill, step by step, in order to become a competitive skater, but he reduced his training time when he started school at Princeton University.  He still skated in some competitions, but didn’t do as well because he was unable to dedicate as much time to competition preparation.  That’s when he made the decision to stop skating competitively, toward a spot on the US National Team, and finish his degree at Princeton University.

That was in 1961, when the whole US Figure Skating Team died in a plane crash on their flight to from New York City to Brussels, Belgium for competition.  Making the decision not to continue to compete toward a spot on the team possibly saved his life!

“As soon as I got my degree, I joined the Navy.  But, I answered a question on the health input form, disclosing a healed injury I’d had as a skater.  That one answer caused the Navy to run more tests and they decided I was unfit for service there because of that old injury.”

“Within 6 days my life changed!  I was rejected by the navy and found myself at Stanford in the MBA Program.”

I sat enthralled as Ed taught me, by telling his life story.  Ed’s life teaches that people who achieved great things have gone through lots of setbacks, disappointments and struggles, even though it may appear as if their success happened over night.  Oh, and here are five more Ed gems:

First, “Opportunities unexpectedly happen and they only matter in life if you seize the moment and do something about it.”

Second, “You can have fun doing great things.”

Third, “If you can change the world for the better, that’s as good as it gets.”

Fourth, “Your personal experiences can combine to create your own unique impact on the world.”

Fifth, “Things sometimes don’t work out the way you planned and you have to adapt, segue into something that will work.”

My time with Ed too quickly drew to a close.  Within two hours, my life was changed!  I learned that you and I should do what we enjoy doing.  Do it the best we know how.  And, good things will happen for us, if we will only get out of our comfort zones and do something we haven’t done before.  That opens the to keep learning and adding value to others by passing part of ourselves along.  Then, we’ll all be prepared to seize unexpected opportunity when it happens!

Leave your footprints in the lives of others!