Mi2Sweets – On the fly

01/13: On the fly

“On the fly” is a phrase exclaimed loudly and frequently–often attached with a colorful expletive–in a restaurant kitchen. It usually means that someone at some point “f—d up” an order and it needs to be fixed NOW!! Those three little words would shoot through your ears and into your veins like adrenaline, sending your heart and brain racing to get the job done. When you’re just starting out in the kitchen that adrenaline rush is intoxicating. If you’re any good at what you do, you feed off that energy, develop a thick skin and learn very quickly how to think fast on your feet–in other words creatively “pull things out of your ass.”

The great thing about this invaluable “skill” is that it makes you seem like a rockstar. However, on the flip side is that other people–those usually less organized and focused–tend to view it as an all-access pass through your life. And people wonder how I learned to cuss like a sailor?

I’ve always fantasized about being independent. After fourteen years of working for and under other people-restaurants, hotels, corporations, etc.–I figured I’d try my hand at shaping my own destiny. Maybe there would be less of the “on the fly” stuff if I ran my own business? Uh huh.

Sure, on the surface, I am in control. I’m responsible for every aspect of my business, from production to PR. However, try as I might, I can’t get away from doing things on the fly–the unexpected happens–ALL THE TIME. I make countless lists to keep myself organized. And then, those list get thrown out the window–like the other night, when I found myself white-knuckling it up a treacherous winding one lane road up a pitch black mountain in thick fog at 10 mph, forty minutes late for a baking class in the Oakland hills because of the massive traffic jam in SF on the way to the Bay Bridge. I had a epiphany of sorts, because you tend to have those ah-ha moments when you think you are going to die as your car is a few inches from rolling down a cliff.

All those times I got thrown curve balls at work and managed to rise to the occasion–as frustrating and oftentimes infuriating as it was– did prepare me for all this madness of working for myself. Yep, you bet I sweated it out the whole traffic/getting lost in the Oakland hills ordeal. But once I got there and got my bearings again, I was in my element. No matter how f—d up things are, you can always find a way get the job done if embrace the challenge of doing it on the fly. That, I’ve discovered, is the very nature of running your own business.

Posted January 13th, 2009

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