Ten tips to succeed in the hospitality

           1 - HAVE A CLEAR VISION OF YOUR FUTURE 

This is difficult, because you should have well in mind what will be your future in life and career and you should be ready for eventual adjustments to reach your goals.

As you have to make choices in your young age while unexperienced, a lot will depend from your education, from how your family will encourage you to believe in your potential and how you will respond to the inevitable troubles you will face… OK, this is just a kind way to ask yourself if you are “guts equipped”, or not.

Since I was a kid, I have always applied the rule: YSTJ, YFTJ (You Start The Job, You Finish The Job), it means you start to do something and you stick to it until it is damn well done and it doesn’t matter what kind of task, whether it’s a project or simply doing some gardening at home.

Later, I discovered that this is one of the basic rules written in the kitchen code.

2 - START TO WORK EARLY AND GET FINANCIAL INDIPENDENCE 

The hospitality school I attended used to start the academic year on October 1^st and finish on May 31^st, so I got five full months for a well-paid seasonal job in the Tuscan Riviera.

Apart the money in the pocket at the end of the season, it has been very difficult to step inside the real world of hospitality, because most of the lessons are learned on the spot, not at school, and I found myself full of cuts and burns on the outside, on my skin, but also on the inside, in my soul. However, I also found myself more motivated, focusing more and more on the future moves.

              3 - WORK HARD

Let me explain something about how it works in the kitchen:

With a seasonal job in hotel, you start at 7.30 AM, you finish at 3.00 PM. You get a shower and you start again at 5.30 PM until 10, 10.30, 11 who-knows-PM. 

Day off after 120/140 days, if you are lucky.

Seasonal job in restaurant: same or worse.

Regular hotel job: same or worse.

Regular restaurant job: same or worse.

I suppose I’m clear enough…

On top of these “little details”, you should add the time for trainings, updates and some serious course to increase your management-administrative-financial skills.

Last, but not least and, as every no normal human, you will have a very short time to spend with your family, the only cardinal point and the only source of real happiness in your life.

This mess is called Hard Work and to succeed you have to Work Hard, but looking at the bright side, when you will see civil servants complaining for 35/40 hours week jobs, you will have a lot of fun and your sarcasm will rise at a no measurable level.

4 - INTRODUCE YOURSELF WITH A PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM VITAE

I have been asked several times to select curriculums for hoteliers looking For professional and, seriously, many of them are awful.

The CV must be interesting and appealing, compressed in not more than three pages; with your professional photo and no frames, no borders, no emoticons, no colours or whatever helps your CV to go straight in the bin.

Apart the aesthetic side, the real priorities are two:

1 - Never lie, because, as I say, lies have short legs, they don’t go very far and they will turn against you.

It doesn’t matter how long your CV is and how many certifications you have, but how much is honest. If you are available for a new challenge, it is also to make your CV “heavier” and not the opposite.

2 - The language of the CV is English and the formats are Word or PDF, you have to check it a dozen times, make the due corrections and send your honest CV to honest employers or recruiters.

5 - HR SUCKS

HR sucks, it’s a matter of fact, when you are the one to be recruited and when you have to recruit your team.

In the first case you have to pass, most of the times, the scan of an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) a robot calibrated on “I.D.G.A.F. about how much you are a passionate hotelier” and in less than 6 seconds it will delete your application.

In the second case you will find yourself collecting cvs directly, because the HR team forgot to switch on their brains that day.
In both cases, you are on your own, so find the way to contact the boss directly and to select candidates with your parameters to create your own database.

6 - TAKE ACTION, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE SCARED

The comfort zone is like a killer. If you are a brilliant leader, you cannot accept to operate in a comfortable little space that will not bring you anywhere. Personal growth and remarkable performance comes from doing what is unfamiliar, that’s why you have to cancel the word fear from your dictionary, because it is the fear of the unknown that cuts your wings.

Personally, I have adopted a motto that is guiding me since a while: “memento audere semper” (remember to dare, always) and indeed, it works.

7 - REPUTATION AND HONOUR 

“Camminare a testa alta” (walk with the head held high) is a pillar of my childhood transmitted by my parents and grandparents. It doesn’t matter what are your roots or wealth, in any case you must be a “knight in his shining armor”.

Many times it will be a challenge, but when you put your reputation before anything else, the losers will keep the distance from you, because of your integrity, and the righteous will admire you for the same reason. 

It is also a truth that stubbornness is not a good friend of an hotelier which has to be flexible 24/7, so my solution is: “I don’t deal with compromises, but if I have to deal with compromises, I will deal with compromises with someone willing to deal with compromises more than me”.

8 -  LEARN FROM PEOPLE WHO INSPIRE YOU

Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. If you don’t nourish the minds of your pupils, you have no chances to advance and them too. I have been lucky enough to have tutors who are my role models; in some way, they force you to learn, even if you tend to be a rebel, having nothing to do with discipline or effort or all those boring things for old men. 

But afterwards you will understand the gift they left in your hands and you will always feel in debt with them.

After decades, some of them are still there ready to give me advices, because seasoned leaders understand and deeply respect the concept that all leaders need leaders.

9 - SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRE OTHERS ALONG THE WAY

You are not exactly the owner of your knowledge, you are just luckier, faster or simply born before than others. That’s why you must share it, confronting your experience with your peers or subordinates and this is the best way to build a strong team which will thank you with outstanding performances.

You can see from the eyes of your staff, they are shining while absorbing the knowledge you are passing to them. In those moments you build your respect, strong like a wall, lasting forever. 

And maybe, after twenty years, you will still receive the birthday wishes or an unexpected visit and, those little things or just a few minutes for a coffee, will repay you for years of struggles.

10 - HAVE A POWERFUL AND INSPIRING "WHY"

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take just gets you to the wrong place faster”, that’s why you must know your WHY so that working and risking will surely make the effort worth it.

Your WHY almost always has something to do with love, the desire to succeed, to take care of, support and nurture the people you love and who support your vision (or just trying to do something to pay back your family for never being at home like all the other humans).

The difficulties faced on daily basis by an hotelier are too energy consuming and several times your health is seriously affected by continuous pressure, but a life purpose is the only way to fight all the negativities which will disappear when you focus on your WHY.

Perhaps these ten tips don’t worth to be written on the Bible, but I hope they could help some future, 

crazy and awesome hotelier.