The first sip of beer
On Anthony Bourdain, hard work, late nights, and the first sip
š Hi, Iām Iron from Simple Analytics, and welcome to my newsletter, The Road to 1 Million ARR. Sign up for weekly insights, growth strategies, and playbooks on how we are growing our business to 1 Million ARR. Fully transparent.
A while ago I watched Anthony Bourdainās documentary on HBO. Itās quite a sad ending of a man that is restless, unhappy and in pain. He rose to fandom because he was raw, pure, honest and relatable.
He was āa nobodyā until 43. A chef in a midtier restaurant. Then he started writing, caught his break and essentially became famous overnight.
He said something that really resonates with me personally, talking about his āfamous life vs kitchen lifeā:
āWhat I do miss, I tell them, and will always miss, is that first pull on a cold beer after work. That is irreplaceable. Nothing approaches that. Thatās the kind of satisfaction no bestseller can ever beatāno television show, no crowd, no nothing.
That single moment after a long and very busy night, sitting down at the bar with your colleagues, wiping the sweat off your neck, taking a deep breath, with unspoken congratulations all aroundāand then that first sip of cold, cold beer. It tastes like victory. Happy waiters, flush with tips, are ringing out, the cooks look pleased with you and with each other, and you remind yourself that nothing came back the whole nightā
- Anthony Bourdain
This!
Before I started building companies, I worked in my uncles bar in my hometown Maastricht. It was during my studies, so essentially a student-job, but it was something I took extremely serious.
In contrast to most of your uncles barās, this one (In Den Ouden Vogelstruys), is one of the most famous and renowned cafeās in The Netherlands (bit biased but please give me this).
When I joined mostly men worked the floor, you had the speak the local dialect and needed training on how to carry trays of beer.
It took me two years before I was able to work the floor on a Saturday night. Two fucking years! I felt like a junior sushi trainee in Jiroās kitchen.
I remember the moment I came down the stairs to start my shift. The head-waiter walked up to me and told me āyouāre gonna walk tonightā(meaning: working the floor).
The Friday and Saturday night shifts started at 18:00 and ended at 04:00 in the morning. Youād be exhausted by the end of it. Drowning in sweat, fingers hurting from the trays of beer that you carried above your head (sometimes two on top of each other). Then it was time for that first sip of beer mr Bourdain is talking about.
One of us would go behind the bar and pour the beers, while the rest gathered some chairs. That first sip after a 10 hour brutal shift, together with your co-workers, who essentially became your best friends, was out of this world.
I miss that. I miss that a lot to be honest.
Now my shifts are behind a keyboard. Im still doing something that I love, and wouldnāt change it for the world. No way Iām thinking going back to those shifts, but Bourdainās quote hit me.
I was proud to work there. When I carried two trays above my head, people would point at it and start taking pictures. You felt like you owned the place.
I donāt miss the shifts, after 5 years I was done with those, but I miss the comradery, the adrenaline, the āin it togetherā.
This got me thinking, how could I get some of those elements back into my current work?
A while ago, I wrote why I wanted to be a manager, but it basically came down to the fact that I want to work in a team and have the āin it togetherā vibe.
I have felt this sometimes. When we were in Bali for example. We worked until late a night to finish something. Everyone was there. Everyone locked it. I think my passion for āshipping with the boysā stems for that feeling in the bar.
Late night tray carrying shifts replaced by late night coding shifts. Finishing a task in one late night that would normally would cost weeks of development. Looking my co-founders in the eye and think āfuck yeah, this is good fucking shitā. Those are the moments.
The elements are the same. Long shifts. Hard work. In it together and epic results. Some guys on Twitter locked themselves up in an apartment for 3 months to build their business. They filmed it 24/7 and called it āPMForDieā. Thats it. I want that.
Wellā¦ I donāt want it all the time. There needs to be a balance. Like the cafe I worked in was virtually empty from Monday to Thursday. The weekday shifts were really easy going, but Friday and Saturday you get these bursts of adrenaline, hard work and being part of the team. Everyone that worked there did for the weekends.
I want to see if we can get back those bursts. First together with my co-founders and hopefully our team later on. Lock ourselves up. Do our best work together and after a 12 hour working session, have that first sip of beer and look each other in the eye meaning to tell: this is fucking epic stuff we did.
If you think this is mad. Then donāt check our career page cause weāre hiring šØšØ
Life is good āļø
Cheers,
Iron