The Anthony Bourdain MBA
In 1999 the mother of Anthony Bourdain, a 44 year-old, recovering heroin addict and chef at Les Halles brasserie in lower Manhattan, sent David Remnick, executive editor at The New Yorker, a manuscript written by her son entitled, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.”
The manuscript began, “Good food, good eating, is all about blood and organs, cruelty and decay.” That essay offered an unflinching journey into the frenetic underbelly of New York City’s restaurants. A place where punks, miscreants, artists and freaks produce some of the greatest food on Earth. It was visceral, defiant, and above all, insatiably explorative.
It launched the literary career of Anthony Bourdain, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.
June marks the fifth anniversary of his death by suicide at the age of 61.
His books “Kitchen Confidential” and “Medium Raw," and his shows “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown” taught me more about leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and transformation than any article ever written in Fast Company or Harvard Business Review. When I was starting out on Wall St. in the early 2000s he was a reassuring reminder to be the truest version of myself, being anything else always ends badly.
I’ve never known a leader, in a kitchen, or in a Fortune 500 company, who can innovate without insatiable curiosity. I’ve never known a leader who can overcome obstructionism without unflinching honesty about what’s broken. I’ve never known a transformationist who doesn’t experience transcendent joy from being with the troops on the front lines working late into the night. I’ve never known someone who can inspire loyalty without taking full ownership and accountability for everything that goes wrong. Those traits were all Bourdain.
When Bourdain was tasked with doing a show on New York City, he took his film crew to Gray’s Papaya, a gritty, delicious $1.50 hot dog storefront on 8th st. He showed as much love to the Vietnamese noodle shop owner as Eric Ripert, a Michelin-starred chef.
Curiosity, irreverent candor, trench leadership, and extreme ownership. That was all Bourdain.
His insights transformed how I build, lead, and help others do the same.
I like to think that if he were still alive, that he would find his tribe in the community I’m building, Punks & Pinstripes.
Here are some Bourdain quotes that I hope inspire you as much as they inspire me.
Lead from the front:
“Cooks always like to see their chef come in before them, leave after them, and always work at least as hard, or better yet, harder than them. Because you’re going through what they’re going through, there’s camaraderie. If something goes wrong, whether I’m in the kitchen or not, I will never, ever blame anyone else. I delegated a job to them. If they’ve screwed up, it’s my fault. I return loyalty with absolute loyalty.”
Simplicity is Sublime:
“As I get older my tastes become simpler. The foods that make me reliably happy, that have a real emotional appeal, are a simple bowl of regional pasta, spicy noodles sold in Vietnam, or anybody’s grandmother’s meatloaf.”
Street smarts > Business Smarts
“I was a long-time drug addict, and one of the things drug addiction did, especially when you have to score cocaine or heroin every day on the streets of New York — you learn a lot of skills that are useful when dealing with Hollywood or the business world. In a world full of bull$hit, when you need something as badly as drugs, your bullshit detector gets pretty acute. . . .My bullshit meter is very finely tuned, and you learn to measure your expectations.”
Listen to practitioners not pundits.
"I did everything you are not supposed to do. I screwed up in every possible way. I was rude to everybody you are supposed to be nice to. I did everything wrong as far as the conventional wisdom on how to be successful in food television. It came as a weird surprise to me every year when I wasn't canceled. I was shocked…. The recipe for success is to make the stupidest show about bacon and burgers, fill it with plenty of rodeos and Americana, get yourself frosted tips and some goofy cargo shorts and a signature look and be sure you have a catch phrase, and you are well on your way.”
Integrity and honesty are your only two assets:
“The only thing I have to offer the network is my point of view and my honesty. If I start to compromise that, then I'm lost. So, they can fire me. I can go do something else. But I'm not going to participate in something that I don't believe in.”
Rest In Power, Tony. We miss you.
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