"Put positive energy into the things that matter most; don't give negative energy to the things about which you care the least."
-ERD
My above quote is an affirmation - a mantra - that I am having to repeat to myself a lot these days. Here's the story.
Everyone moves to LA to pursue a "dream." You already know mine - to become a host/talk show extraordinaire. In pursuing that dream, everyone serves, bar tends, or does some other something in the restaurant business. It's inevitable. These days, I'm serving and bar tending at, what usually is, the ideal place to work.
For those of you who have never worked in a restaurant, working in one is similar to attending high school. You have your cool kids, your awkward, quirky kids, the smart, organized kids, the teachers' pets, and so on and so forth. And just like in high school, everyone is competing against everyone else, but the stakes in restaurant world are higher because ultimately, everyone in this world, is competing for money. And as we learned in high school or in Sunday school or, hell, some where along the way, money is, what...the root of all evil. Exactly.
The bosses at my job, generally, are cool. So cool, in fact, that the "cool" kids get to dictate how things in our little parallel Universe are run. And you remember what happened in high school when some groups of students were suddenly granted the privilege to determine what other students could and could not do? Well, I don't particularly remember either, but it probably wasn't good. In our restaurant world, the "cool" kids getting this privilege is never good. It's not good because, with everyone competing to make the most money in the shortest amount of time, a co-worker having the ability to dictate how and where your money will be made while also possessing the power to give him or herself the best opportunity to make the most money (by virtue of being a "cool" kid) in a restaurant, is a recipe (pun intended) for disaster. To put it briefly, I walked into work tonight on what was supposed to be a huge money night to find that one of the "cool" kids decided, "Hmmm...I'll give myself the best section in the entire restaurant. And to do this, I will take away Erica's section and give her what I was supposed to have because I don't want to wait on that shitty area, so Erica can have it." Hmph.
I was livid. Livid. LIVID. Then I took a step back and repeated my little mantra to myself: Put positive energy into the things that matter most; don't put negative energy into the things about which you care the least. Because I'm only human, it took a minute (or two or three) for me to internalize this and let go of the situation AS it was happening to me, but by letting it go, my night went smoothly, and I was blessed to, as we servers and bartenders like to say, make bank.
Making money - especially while living and pursuing entertainment in LA - is muy importante. So I'm not implying that I don't care about work. But at the end of the day, when I "clock out" and go home, I'm NOT here in LA to be a lifelong service industry employee. I'm here pursuing bigger-than-life dreams and goals. My mornings are filled with auditions, callbacks, and countless hours behind my laptop emailing my headshots, resumes' and reels to people for whom I want to work. My afternoons are filled with acting and hosting classes and 2 hour workouts so that I can maintain my "Hollywood" image. Yeah, my evenings may be spent serving and bar tending, but my late nights are spent praying and asking God for clarity to make the right decisions as I live this unpredictable life. To put it simply, having a not-so-good section at work, in the long run, is definitely something about which I could care less. Gotta put my positive energy where my heart is, and my heart is NOT into fighting with a "cool" kid for a good section of tables in a restaurant.
And besides, EVERYONE knows that the "cool" kids in high school actually were pretty "uncool" in the real world.
-ERD
My above quote is an affirmation - a mantra - that I am having to repeat to myself a lot these days. Here's the story.
Everyone moves to LA to pursue a "dream." You already know mine - to become a host/talk show extraordinaire. In pursuing that dream, everyone serves, bar tends, or does some other something in the restaurant business. It's inevitable. These days, I'm serving and bar tending at, what usually is, the ideal place to work.
For those of you who have never worked in a restaurant, working in one is similar to attending high school. You have your cool kids, your awkward, quirky kids, the smart, organized kids, the teachers' pets, and so on and so forth. And just like in high school, everyone is competing against everyone else, but the stakes in restaurant world are higher because ultimately, everyone in this world, is competing for money. And as we learned in high school or in Sunday school or, hell, some where along the way, money is, what...the root of all evil. Exactly.
The bosses at my job, generally, are cool. So cool, in fact, that the "cool" kids get to dictate how things in our little parallel Universe are run. And you remember what happened in high school when some groups of students were suddenly granted the privilege to determine what other students could and could not do? Well, I don't particularly remember either, but it probably wasn't good. In our restaurant world, the "cool" kids getting this privilege is never good. It's not good because, with everyone competing to make the most money in the shortest amount of time, a co-worker having the ability to dictate how and where your money will be made while also possessing the power to give him or herself the best opportunity to make the most money (by virtue of being a "cool" kid) in a restaurant, is a recipe (pun intended) for disaster. To put it briefly, I walked into work tonight on what was supposed to be a huge money night to find that one of the "cool" kids decided, "Hmmm...I'll give myself the best section in the entire restaurant. And to do this, I will take away Erica's section and give her what I was supposed to have because I don't want to wait on that shitty area, so Erica can have it." Hmph.
I was livid. Livid. LIVID. Then I took a step back and repeated my little mantra to myself: Put positive energy into the things that matter most; don't put negative energy into the things about which you care the least. Because I'm only human, it took a minute (or two or three) for me to internalize this and let go of the situation AS it was happening to me, but by letting it go, my night went smoothly, and I was blessed to, as we servers and bartenders like to say, make bank.
Making money - especially while living and pursuing entertainment in LA - is muy importante. So I'm not implying that I don't care about work. But at the end of the day, when I "clock out" and go home, I'm NOT here in LA to be a lifelong service industry employee. I'm here pursuing bigger-than-life dreams and goals. My mornings are filled with auditions, callbacks, and countless hours behind my laptop emailing my headshots, resumes' and reels to people for whom I want to work. My afternoons are filled with acting and hosting classes and 2 hour workouts so that I can maintain my "Hollywood" image. Yeah, my evenings may be spent serving and bar tending, but my late nights are spent praying and asking God for clarity to make the right decisions as I live this unpredictable life. To put it simply, having a not-so-good section at work, in the long run, is definitely something about which I could care less. Gotta put my positive energy where my heart is, and my heart is NOT into fighting with a "cool" kid for a good section of tables in a restaurant.
And besides, EVERYONE knows that the "cool" kids in high school actually were pretty "uncool" in the real world.
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