Short motivational talk (YouTube) by Donald Burns encouraging restaurant owners/managers to pursue continuous improvement. He argues most restaurants are average or worse—so small, consistent gains (e.g., 1% better each day) will meaningfully differentiate a business over a year—and warns that modest effort won’t yield top-tier results.
60%
20%
Hey, I have some good news and bad news for restaurants. The good news is the world is lazy. Average is the standard. Seriously, 60% of all restaurants in your market right now are average. And there's another 20% that are really bad. I mean, that's great news for you. It doesn't take much to stand out. Now here's the bad news. It does take a little bit more effort and action than you're doing right now. You don't get A level rewards with C level efforts. The goal is to be 1% better today you were yesterday. Commit to that mindset and you're going to have a totally different restaurant in a year from now.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
