Patience, practice and persistence. While these are valuable qualities for anyone to follow through with and achieve at any time, it certainly rings even more true in our new normal. Hear from Chef Keller, below in his own words, on his advice for aspiring chefs in pursuit of following their dreams.
There are three words I like to use. I think we all need patience. I think we all have to be patient with our career, especially if you’re a young chef. There’s so much to learn, so much to understand, and so much to practice to become really good. We look at what an athlete does to become really, really good, and they practice all the time. They do it every day.
We see the results of the work they do, not really understanding what they do to get there. We all want to be that superstar, but believe me, you have to be patient with your career, make sure that you work hard at it, and you practice what you’re doing so that you can become that superstar. So, patience is really important.
As young people, and I felt this way myself, my ambitions sometimes overwhelmed me and I wanted to be more than I actually was, but I wasn’t really ready for it. That results in failures. Failures aren’t bad, because you learn so much from them. You learn you weren’t ready, number one, and you go back and practice some more. You learn some more. So, practice is critical. Patience is critical.
The other word is persistence. Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do something. You can do anything you want, just be persistent. You’ll never get to where you want to be if you quit. You just won’t. Be persistent, be persistent, be persistent. You will get there. I guarantee you will get there. As a person who was very persistent in my goals and my desires, I was actually able to get there.