Introduction

Hey restaurant owners and operators! Your restaurant is either ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’. I swear, the more I live in Texas the more of these southern phrases I adopt. I’ll explain that to you right now.

‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’

About twenty years ago I was recruited into a multi-level marketing company to sell insurance. I thought this was going to be the most amazing opportunity for me in the world. I’m not here to talk trash multi-level marketing at all, in fact this company is  phenomenal and I still have some insurance products through this company. But it wasn’t the right thing for me. Many of us have tried opportunities like this before. I met someone in that company in my up-line (the person above me) who changed my life forever. One night, after a couple weeks in this business, she gave me a cassette tape to listen to on my drive home in my car. I still have that same car about 20 years later. It doesn’t have a cassette tape player anymore but I’ll never forget that cassette tape. 

It was my first introduction to personal and professional development. The speaker was super motivated, super energetic and kept saying you’re either ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’. Basically explaining that there is no flat. Doctors call flat (or flatline) dead. You’re either growing or dying. I wasn’t very comfortable with that analogy at all or that statement because I wanted to believe that I was going to work hard for 10, 15 or 20 years and build this business then just coast for the rest of my life and collect checks.

As I matured in my business and in my personal life, I came to realize how right this person really was. There is no flat, you are either ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’. How many of us love getting in smelly and dirty taxi cabs with cut out leather seats with tape holding things together? We love that! We love getting in taxi cabs but who is going to take down the taxicab industry? Well that’s what they believed until Uber came along. 

And Blockbuster, no one could ever touch Blockbuster video. I remember my whole high school life was about either our parents dropping us off at a Blockbuster, walking with a group of friends, then we eventually could drive ourselves there and spending an hour walking up and down the aisles trying to find a movie to watch at home. Who is ever going to replace the video rental Blockbuster? Well Blockbuster felt that way and they didn’t invest in technology and guess what – Netflix. 

We can say the same thing about hotels with Airbnb. Matter of fact, we can say the same thing about a lot of industries. Something that we’ve all said before, even I am a victim of saying this was ‘no matter what happens in the economy, no matter what happens the world people always eat at restaurants’. That’s why I and a lot of people love the restaurant business, It’s somewhat economic proof.

The last couple of months with COVID-19 have shaken us to the core. It’s shown us that nothing is bulletproof, economic proof, foolproof or recession proof. Restaurants basically shuttered all over the world all at the same time. They will come back just like we can’t get rid of video rentals or on-demand transportation, we just change the way we do it. We’re not getting rid of hotel rooms, we’re just changing the way we book them. Restaurants are not going anywhere, people are not going to all of a sudden start cooking for themselves all the time.

But maybe the way that we do restaurants will change forever. It is changing, new habits are forming. I’ll be curious in five years and will go back and listen to this video and see where we are. We don’t know where we’re going to be, we can all sit here and predict but that’s not what I’m here to do. I’m just here to tell you that you are either  ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’. No matter how successful your restaurant was before COVID-19, no matter what trajectory you were on for January, February even the beginning of March 2020, you could not just coast forever. Eventually things will change. 

Final thoughts

The most successful restaurants in the world are closed right now, some of the least successful restaurants in the world are doing phenomenal business right now. I’m not trying to point you in which direction to go, I have other videos for that. But what I am here to say is that this idea, this theory, this philosophy that we’re going to work hard, build something then coast doesn’t exist. You must always be improving, getting better and pushing the envelope. Even when you think you have it figured out there’s more to figure out because if you don’t and stay flat, someone else will figure it out for you. 

You are either ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’. I’m not trying to be negative and I got a little somber here since it’s just a somber time but I am trying to be realistic,  honest, poignant and I’m trying to be right to the point. You’re either ‘Green and Growing’ or ‘Ripe and Rotten’.