There is no Shake Shack without Uncle Richard.
On the night before taking the law school entrance exam, 25-year-old Danny Meyer had dinner with his uncle Richard and aunt Virginia at Elio’s, an Italian restaurant on Second Avenue in New York City.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this LSAT thing tomorrow, I don’t even want to be a lawyer,” Meyer said.
“Why don’t you just do what you’ve been thinking about your whole life?” Meyer’s uncle Richard asked.
“What’s that?”
“All you’ve ever talked about is food. Open a restaurant,” his uncle suggested.
If that conversation had not taken place, restaurant patrons would never have enjoyed some of the most acclaimed establishments in New York including the Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, and, of course, Shake Shack. Meyer’s burger chain went public on January 30th. Shares in Shake Shack more than doubled on its first day of trading, valuing the company at $1.6 billion.
The media is understandably enamored with the story of a burger chain that started as a single hot dog cart in 2001. It’s a great story, but the story behind the story offers the greatest lesson for leaders in any field.
When I spoke to Danny Meyer recently he said he had returned to Elio’s to mark the moment where his journey began. Meyer calls the conversation with his uncle the “single greatest gift” of his life, the gift of aligning his career with his interest and passion. “It steered me from the expected path, which was to become a lawyer. What else would you do with a political science degree? I was the most surprised person at the table when my uncle said ‘you’ve just talked about food and restaurants your whole life.’”
Meyer, now chief executive officer of Union Square Hospitality Group, was “surprised” because he assumed everybody thought about food the way he did. He discovered that his interest went far beyond what most people would even consider a passion. For example, I read the following passage to Danny Meyer from his own book, Setting The Table, and then asked him to comment on it:
When I was four I fell in love with stone crab at the Lagoon restaurant in Miami Beach. Over the next years I remember savoring variations of key lime pie in Key West, trying Dungeness crab and saline abalone at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf; and having a lobster roll in Ogunquit, Maine…I tasted a baguette with saucisson and pungent moutarde in Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries.
“Danny, most people remember trips and experiences from their youth, but not the type of mustard on a baguette. That goes beyond passion,” I suggested.
“That’s what my uncle was tapping into,” Meyer responded. “I don’t know why I remember every meal, every restaurant, the smells, and what kind of glassware the water was served in. I just remember it.”
Danny Meyer is passionate about food, but he’s consumed with hospitality.
In my 25 years of studying communication and leadership I have yet to meet an inspiring leader who isn’t abundantly passionate about what they do. But in the last few years I’ve realized that “passion” doesn’t adequately describe the careers of the ultra successful. For example, the number one golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy, said golf is all he thinks about from the time he wakes up to the morning to the time his head hits the pillow at night. I’m passionate about golf, but McIlroy is consumed with every aspect of the game, just as Danny Meyer is consumed with every aspect of the dining experience.
After the conversation with his uncle at Elio’s, Danny Meyer left a $125,000 job as a commissioned salesman to make $250 a week as an assistant restaurant manager. He also studied every facet of hospitality. Meyer describes a return trip from Rome as a “scribble fest.” An eight-hour plane trip wasn’t enough time to write down all of the ideas he was bringing home. Meyer said the feeling was like “an intense desire, a burning sense of urgency.” He’s not describing passion; he’s describing an obsession. Meyer didn’t go looking for a career. It grabbed him by the shoulder and wouldn’t let go.
Economics professor Larry Smith gave a TED talk titled, “Why you will fail to have a great career.” In the talk, which has been viewed more than 3 million times, Smith says that a true passion goes beyond having a mere interest in something. “You need twenty interests, and then one of them, one of them might grab you, one of them might engage you more than anything else, and then you may have found your greatest love in comparison to all the other things that interest you.”
Danny Meyer told me had an interest in politics as a student at Trinity College, but an interest, as Larry Smith says, is far different than something that grabs you and doesn’t let go. Meyer says his uncle’s “gift” was to help him figure out the difference. “So many of us have this thing inside of us and we repress it because we do what we think we’re supposed to do,” Meyer says.
Success leaves clues. When I interviewed Richard Branson I learned that he’s passionate about travel (planes, trains, and space), but he’s consumed with the elevating the customer experience. That’s what separates Virgin from its competitors. When I interviewed Howard Schultz I learned that he’s passionate about coffee, but he’s consumed with creating a “third place” between work and home. That’s what separates Starbucks from its competitors. Danny Meyer is passionate about food; but he’s consumed with creating an emotional experience for his guests. That’s what separates Meyer’s restaurants from many of his competitors.
To stand apart in this hypercompetitive global business environment, it’s not enough to ask, “What am I passionate about?” It’s a good start, but inspiring leaders take it one step further and pursue that which consumes their thoughts from sun up to sun down.