Evan CarmichaelSpeaker / Author / Introvert

How to Master the Mind of a Chef | Fix Your Path to Success

9 Sept 2015 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:08

In this motivational interview, host Evan Carmichael greets his "Believe Nation" audience and hands the conversation to chef Gordon Ramsay. Ramsay shares his personal routine (espresso) and delivers a detailed career blueprint for aspiring chefs aged 16‑30: treat the first 14 years as a learning sponge, prioritize knowledge over immediate pay, seek mentorship under renowned chefs, and deliberately place yourself in unfamiliar culinary environments such as Barcelona, Paris, or Belgium to build confidence and broaden your culinary passport. He stresses that financial reward follows mastery of the craft. Carmichael then shifts to his own entrepreneurial framework, explaining how modeling the habits and strategies of iconic figures—Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, E.P. Giannini—saved his business when he was 19 and struggling. He advocates finding mentors (direct or aspirational), working closely with them, and replicating proven success patterns rather than trying to figure everything out alone. He ends with a call‑to‑action, asking viewers to comment on who they model in their own businesses. The video blends practical career advice for chefs with a broader entrepreneurship lesson about mentorship, modeling success, and purposeful discomfort as catalysts for growth.

Chapters

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is go out and learn something. Over to you, Gordon Ramsay.
I wake up every morning with espresso to keep me going.
My advice to young chefs from the age of 16 to sort of 29, 30 is 14 years of a sponge. You're absorbing knowledge. Don't take a job for the sake of money. Don't worry about earning £500 a month or a year more somewhere else. Go and get knowledge, because that becomes a bigger passport for everything. The money will come once you've mastered your craft and you become incredibly talented. Work for big chefs and find a different level of comfort. When things get too comfortable and you're still living with your parents and you've still got your first job and you don't want to move out because everything's too comfortable, get out. Put yourself in a strange situation in the middle of Barcelona. Put yourself in the middle of Paris, put yourself in the middle of Belgium and see what's available. It's amazing how much confidence it gives you. More importantly, it's great to sort of eat and travel at the same time. Fantastic.
Modeling success saved my business. When I was 19 and struggling and making no money and wanted to quit, it was Bill Gates' strategies that saved my company. And it was me realizing that I don't need to know everything. I can learn it from somebody who's already accomplished it. And the fastest way to grow is to find somebody who's already done whatever goal you want to achieve and model them. Whether that's go work for them and be mentored by them and be with them, and you go find an entrepreneur who has 10 employees or less, who's done what you want to do, and get as close to them as possible. Or whether it's looking to aspirational mentors, you know, people who you look up to, people who you've never met, people who may have already passed on. I look up to Steve Jobs and Walt Disney and E.P. Giannini, people who've taught me things even though I've never met them and never will. Because if you just try to figure everything out yourself, you're probably not going to make it. You don't have the skills and expertise and the resources right now, but you can get them. You can acquire that knowledge by going out there and understanding the people who have done it and modeling their success to make it work for you. Belief. So the question of the day today is, I want to know who you have modeled for your business. Who have you looked up to and taken a strategy from them and applied it to your business? Leave it in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.