And if I may suggest a number 11: Always be an optimist.

I found this post on Skelliwag’s blog, FYI.

I live in Western Australia, and have been watching Gordon in action on the toob this last year or so.

Love his show - swearing and all - because he’s so spot on about why restaurants (and ultimately, many other types of businesses) fail.

There’s ALWAYS a reason, and 99% of the time, it comes down to people error.

Gordon sees through the ego stuff that many business owners, managers & staff get sooo caught up in, and cuts right the core of what’s REALLY causing the problem.

While I don’t swear like him, nor would I treat my clients or staff like that, it’s VERY EFFECTIVE at cutting thru the crap that surrounds these issues. It works for him, although someday someone with a weak mental state will probably shoot him or stab him with a sharp kitchen knife… >:|

At the end of the day, it’s all about giving the customers a good (preferrably great) experience, and so many businesses lose sight of that, and that’s when things start to slide downhill. Gordon’s a smart guy - he realises this - and that’s why this show is so good.

You get to see him relentlessly hunt down and destroy the bad habits and poor decisions that cause failure, like a pit bull!

In the end, he almost always has a success, but the 1 time I watched the show and he didn’t, it came down purely to the owner of the business being the anchor, not Gordon offering bad advise.

Anyway Vern, thanks for a great article. Being a Ramsay fan, I really enjoyed your take on him & his key elements. You tied it all together really well. Great work.

Eran Malloch
Google AdWords Professional for hire :-)

I enjoy watching Ramsay on tv, as a matter of fact, I just watched the first episode of Hell’s Kitchen before reading your post.

Coincidence?

fresh reminders and new stuff to learn= great article!