I love Food Network, but until
2009, I'd never watched a moment of The
Next Food Network Star. However, about halfway through the
season, I stumbled across the program while channel-surfing and
stopped to watch. I was quickly hooked. Sure, I love food. And I don't
mind the occasional behind-the-scenes drama, although that's my least
favorite part of the show. But what really grabbed my interest, and
held it until the end of the season, was my realization that almost
all the lessons I was learning from
The Next Food Network Star could apply to a writer's life as
well.
Let's take the top three 2009 finalists: Melissa D'Arabian, Debbie Lee
and Jeffrey Saad. Each of them had distinct talents and distinct
challenges, just as we writers do. And those talents and challenges
had a bearing on how they performed from episode to episode.
For Melissa, the stay-at-home mom with little to no restaurant
experience, her "amateur" status was an obstacle for her
from day one. Watching Melissa, I learned a lot about how to get past
being "inexperienced" and instead letting your passion and
your talent help you gain the experience you need. But I also saw how
fear of failure can threaten your dreams and make you hold back when
you should be putting everything you have to offer on the line.
Melissa
D'Arabian's lessons for success:
1) Know yourself. Know what you're passionate about. Work around the
obstacles and challenges in your life to live your dream.
2) Don't fear a lack of professional experience. Instead, use the
experience you do have to find your niche and become the very best you
can be within that niche. If you concentrate too much on what you
can't do, you'll forget to show people what you can do. Excellence in
a small area of concentration often opens doors to new opportunities
on a broader stage.
3) Listen to good advice from experts and use it to improve yourself.
You're never so experienced or talented that you can't benefit from
the experience and talent of others.
4) Don't go into a challenge expecting to fail. Instead, expect
success, and put in the effort and creativity necessary to make it
happen. You may still fail, but it won't be because you sabotaged
yourself.
For Debbie Lee, one of her strongest suits was her natural ability to
converse and connect with others. A Korean-American raised in the
South, she had a strong, specific viewpoint as a cook, and her concept
as a chef was a fusion of Korean and traditional Southern cuisine. She
had a strong brand from the get-go, and she was a talented, personable
cook. But sometimes, even a strong brand can create its own set of
problems, as she learned when she became repetitive and hide-bound in
her choice of recipes and her presentations in the challenges.
Debbie
Lee's lessons for success:
1) Take advantage of your unique assets, whether it's where you were
raised, where you live or your heritage and traditions. What's
ordinary to you may seem intriguing and exciting to other people.
2) Have a clear idea of what you have to offer and what you want to
achieve, then work on that plan with determination and grit.
3) While it's good to know who you are and where you come from, you
also need to broaden your experiences and your expertise. What seemed
novel and cool the first time around gets to be boring and rote if you
do the same things over and over again.
4) Don't make excuses for failure. Don't duck your own responsibility
for what went wrong. We want people to see us as good and successful,
but people respect you more when you're tough enough to take your
licks when things don't quite work out how you planned.
Finally, Jeffrey Saad brought what seemed like the whole
package—experience as a restaurateur and chef, an intriguing food
concept (his passion for traveling the world seeking out new
ingredients and then bringing them home to the States to use in his
own recipes), and a charming, engaging personal style. He had a loving
wife and two adorable children supporting his dream every step of the
way. He's like that amazing writer you've read and loved, who seems to
hit a home run with every book—and has that hunky husband at home
who loves her writing and gives her daily foot rubs. But guess what?
All that he had going for him didn't make Jeffrey immune to some
pretty big mistakes, like overreaching on a risotto recipe that was a
spectacular disaster at a critical time.
Jeffrey
Saad's lessons for success:
1) Seek out new experiences and new opportunities to learn.
2) When you come across a new experience or new information that moves
you or delights you, take time to figure out how to weave what you've
learned and experienced into your normal routine, infusing an
otherwise ordinary situation with the rare or exotic.
3) Invite the people you love to share in your journey toward your
dream. Give them the chance to invest in your passion and share in
your successes.
4) Don't get over confident. When you think you're on top of your
game, you can start to feel invincible. People who feel invincible
take foolish risks and think they can get away with shortcuts. You're
never so successful that you're immune to failure. Winners are people
who make smart choices about the gambles they take and who know that
excellence requires your full time, attention and effort.
Like these chefs competing to live their dream of sharing their
talents with a television audience, most writers dream of publication,
our chance to share our thoughts, our dreams and our wishes with the
readers who pick up our books and give them a chance. I think the life
lessons learned by Melissa, Debbie and Jeffrey are lessons we can take
to heart ourselves.
Maybe you're not a writer but you have a dream you're working toward
attaining. The same points that worked for these wonderful chefs, and
that work for writers as well, probably work in your chosen field as
well.
Copyright © 2009 by Paula
Graves
