The Question 2

It's time for the second episode in the Stephen's collective blog experience - The Question. This month the question is:

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

So, here's my take on it. Why not post your own response and put the link on Stephen's blog? Even if you don't, do pay a visit to see how else it's been answered!

The best bit of advice I've ever had was probably given to me by Stephen when we worked together... but if it was, then I've long since forgotten it.

My dad always advised me not talk about personal finances and this served me well for years. He also taught me to think for myself and, whilst I can be gullible on occasion, this is also excellant advice.

Elton John advised me not to go breaking his heart. As far as I know, I haven't, although he may have been address his comments to Kiki Dee or Ru Paul* at the time. (* Delete depending on your age and/or preference of song version.)

But the best advice I ever received was to "Wear Sunscreen"...

Andrew

In which the widow answers The Question

Over on The State of the Nation UK, Stephen has started a new series called "The Question". Each month he will invite fellow bloggers to answer a question and submit links via his blog. They - and anyone else, of course - can then read the varying interpretations of, and answers to, the question posed.

This month, the question is:

"What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"

Once upon a time I had a dream. Like many dreams, it started with "If money were no object..." or "If I won the lottery...". It was also a shared dream which a friend and I had many conversations about. That dream was to run a restaurant.

The restaurant business is notoriously difficult with a high failure rate. The hours are long and work is hard. Getting it right relies on providing both the right product and the right service. It can be difficult to get it right and much too easy to get it wrong. It's a world - along with hotels and pubs - which attracts vanity investment and an "how hard can it be? attitude."

Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares (the UK business-orientated version of the 2000's as opposed to the more recent US version which is a completely different beast) and Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant illustrated many of the pitfalls which the would-be restaurateur can fall into. The later also provide an object lesson in the joint importance of the back and front of house operations. Good food counts for little with bad service and no-one wants fast service if their duck is still raw on the plate...

So I'm under no illusions that running a successful restaurant wouldn't be easy. Even if failure weren't an option, success would still take a lot of hard work. And there is a difference. It's one thing not to fail but I'd want to be achieve more than that - a reputation, good reviews, referrals, repeat business. Recommendations, awards, additional branches, a cook school, Michelin stars...

For now, it remains a (pipe) dream. Money remains very much an object, the lottery win has not been forthcoming. And my friend and I have still not settled our argument about who would be in the kitchen and who would be front of house...

Andrew

Now, click here read the other entries.

The Question - coming on January 22nd

Question: What do you do when you end a long running and successful blog series? Well, you start another one, of course!

Regular readers will know that on the 5th of every month, I used to contribute to a photo-sharing series, 5 on the 5th. Now the brain behind that collective blogging experience has come up with "The Question". The concept is simple - a question is set which bloggers from all over the bloggersphere will interpret and answer it as they see fit. Having published their post, they put a link on Stephen's blog and read the other contributions.

The various responses should then generate a debate and/or shared experiences across several blogs and their comments sections. The first question to be answered is:

What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

So, get your thinking cap on, your virtual quill poised and your ink well (real or imagined) filled... On your marks, get set, go... 

Andrew

You can read more over on Stephen's blog itself!