Donald Burns discusses how his restaurant, now in its 37th year, maintained sales and profit growth while protecting its culture. He emphasizes continuous learning and openness as key to leadership success.
37th year
November 18, 2025
Our 37th year, we had a record year in sales. We had a record year in profit, and our culture is better than it's ever been. We have a strong leadership team. This is gonna start sounding like a commercial for you, and it's really not. It's just if I were talking to somebody else, same thing. So I don't want anybody to think you've got me on here to talk about, you know, all your. This is just. This is how it happened. And I'm like, a veteran in this stuff. I've been, you know, over four decades in business, and, you know, things are really good nowadays. So.
Yeah, you know, the thing I admired about you is, like, you're definitely like. There's a lot of owners out there that just definitely don't think that, you know, I can't learn anything new. I'm just kind of like, I've been doing this for a long time. That's one of the things I always loved about you, is that you've always had this openness about just being able to, like, all right, tell me. Let's talk about it.
Explain why.
And open the doors. And you just love to learn and read and grow. And that's the number one thing, I think, that makes a great leader, is that this ability to be this lifelong student.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
