Kay:
Alright next up we’re talking about a very specific object from our restaurant days, and this is the object of pitchers.
Shi:
In fact, pitchers and pots, coffee pots to be exact. We want to talk about one of our unlikely inspirational sources. Now we had a lot of inspiration in the restaurants and motivation and stories. As you know, we’ve spent nearly two decades as a restaurant family and restaurant owners. But the days of working the floor, of serving, of bussing, of touching tables, and taking orders, there is a part of the duty, especially in a breakfast and lunch restaurant of going around and continuously filling the coffees and filling the waters. And if you know anything about pouring out of a pitcher or a coffee pot, sometimes it can be a little intimidating.
Kay:
Now we want to just paint a quick picture for you and take you back to the summer of 2005. Now I was 12 and Shila was 19 and mom and dad were in the restaurant and so was Shila’s fiancé at the time, Chad. Shila and Chad would be serving, and mom would be running food or cooking, and dad and I would be hosting and running the line and it was truly a full family affair with 100% of us in line. What we learned was that oftentimes when you are doing the duty of pouring water and pouring coffee on those hot summer days, that while you’re pouring, it can be difficult to get all of the water that’s inside the pitcher or all of the coffee that’s inside the pot into the cup. Now, maybe you’ve been at a dinner table before and you’ve looked to pour water for someone else and as the ice water comes to the side of the pitcher it spills a little bit. It goes down the side of the pitcher, you get it on the table, and it seems like, “Man, how can I cleanly get this water or get this coffee out of the pitcher and into the cup?”
Shi:
Well, we found through our thousands of interactions of pouring coffee and water that the most important thing is confidence. Literally, the commitment to the outcome of getting the liquid from the container into the smaller container because with that confidence comes that commitment, and with that commitment comes a sure, certain action that is swift, that is committed and that ultimately typically gets the job done without splash over. Now, if you do it half committed or you’re not very confident and you kind of shake, you’re either going to get that situation with the water pitcher where all the ice is bunching up at the bottom and the water’s coming out, but then the ice comes crashing down or you’re going to get it all come crashing down at once, or you’re going to end up trying to jiggle it and ice comes crashing down. Pretty much ice comes crashing down if you’re not committed to pouring that water with confidence and with swift action. When it comes to a coffee pot, that confidence of knowing that this is a container designed to pour liquid, hot liquid from this container to the other one. The only way you can mess it up is by approaching it timidly, or obviously negligently not paying attention. But if you approach it with that confidence and you commit to pouring it, it’s going to come out with it with a steady stream. It’s going to hit that cup and you’re going to get it all in there. Once we realize this, we thought, wow, I don’t think this just applies to liquid moving from one container to another.
Kay:
No, this also applies to life. Now let’s just say you have a goal of doing basically anything. Now, if you commit to that goal with confidence just like you have to commit to pouring the ice water out of that pitcher with confidence, you can usually have a bit of a cleaner time than if you were to approach it in a shaky way. Now we get it. It can be fearful or difficult to approach something with confidence that maybe you haven’t done before, or maybe something that you’re not sure about. But being able to muster just a little bit of confidence in yourself can save you a whole lot of mess on the table.
Shi:
Right. That coming down to that commitment piece, just being so important and the ability too, because when you commit, you’re more likely to be successful in the outcome or certainly to evaluate whatever the outcome was as a success because you’re calling it a learning experience if maybe it wasn’t quite the traditional success, you had some coffee spill out or anything like that. But because you’re coming at it with that commitment and confidence and conviction then you’re able to look at it like a learning lesson and ultimately say, “Okay, next time I can make these adjustments.” If you come at it from a shaky position of not being committed and not being confident and you spill a little bit, then your little brain goes, “See, I told you, you weren’t going to be very good at it.” And now it just chips away even more at your confidence which can result in not as much commitment, which can result in not as secure of an action being taken and more mistakes. So, we see how this can start to cyclically feed on itself and each other. Whether we’re pouring water or pouring ourselves towards a goal it matters to do it with confidence and commitment and conviction.
Kay:
So, as you pour yourself into the days and the weeks ahead, we encourage you to pour it like the water, pour it like the coffee and do it with confidence, commitment, and conviction.
