I don’t want to complain about aches and pains.
I don’t want to complain about some of my landlords (who don’t know what it’s like to grind, especially in the restaurant business).
I don’t want to complain about fewer and fewer vendors from which to choose because of bankruptcy or, more likely, mergers. I guess they never heard of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
I don’t want to complain about those few customers who traumatize the staff by their uncivil behavior, but I still remember the customer who threw a hot dog in the face of a Ben’s counterman saying he didn’t like the hot dog. I told him that he should have thrown the hot dog at me since I was the one who bought the hot dogs for Ben’s.
Rather, I want to write about the interesting journey I have enjoyed the last 47 years of my life (out of a 71-year total).
I have learned more about business, human behavior, employee/employer labor relations, and the marketplace than I ever learned in college—I guess political science doesn’t quite help the cause.
I have learned to swallow hard and be quiet, more reflective than reactive.
I have learned how torturous the legal system can be and how people and their counselors use the legal system to make a living without knowing the consequence of their actions on the owner, and the workers of a business.
I learned that there is a major difference from when I first embarked on this journey when I foolishly thought I could just put my head down, work like crazy and make people happy. Now? I spend an inordinate amount of time (and money) on frivolous lawsuits. A man walks across Northern Blvd. in Greenvale, trips on the curb (as far as I know, Northern Blvd. is a state road) and, the next thing I know, I am a party to a lawsuit involving the state, the landlord of the shopping center, the original installer of the sidewalk six years before, and Ben’s. And there are so many others too numerous to list—space is limited, but not the events!
But I’ll just keep my head down, continue to work and hope to make happy customers.
And for those of the Jewish faith (and I am 99.8% Ashkenazi Jewish, according to the test tube my children provided and had tested…. and I do as I am told by my children), may you all have a very happy, and healthy New Year with the hope for a kinder and more peaceful world.
See ya at the deli.
