There will be about a 30 minute wait

After two punishing nights of service, of near record sales, in the midst of winter, I still rise at 5am by default. I wish I could fall back asleep like normal people, but when you own a restaurant, you have to accept the fact that your life will never be normal.

For some reason, last winter felt extremely long. I don’t recall any days like yesterday where the temperature got above freezing and certainly not high enough to remind the soul that winter is not an eternal condition. So this year, fearing a repeat of the cold and the state of the economy, I was not looking forward to this season. I found myself hitching this as additional weight to the yoke I already pull as a small business owner. I was braced for a long haul.

A few months ago as the descent into winter began I was impressed by a very particular thought. I get these from time to time, and I began to mull over the words, “Can winter be better than summer?”

I am afflicted with a brain like a grist mill. I grind through thoughts, scenarios and ideas like Nebraska grain after a fall harvest. It’s very hard to turn it off. I think it has something to do with why I don’t sleep all that well. If I wake up with a thought, it’s hard to set it aside without looking at it from all sides and the middle.

I began to pulverize this idea of winter being better than summer, and the more I minced it down, I discovered it had more to do with possibility than prediction. What do I believe is possible? Not so much what will happen, but can it?

Why should winter be better than summer? Why should I expect I will succeed when so many other businesses are in the tank? What gives me the right to believe it will be any different?

I doubt I am unique in my ability of underestimating success, but when it comes to actually envisioning what reality will look like, I probably lean toward the cautious side. I assume I do this out of fearfulness. It’s dangerous to actually want something that has the risk of defeat attached.

We ended this January with sales rivaling last June. The coldest month, without the advantage of outdoor seating has brought more and more people to our little room at the corner of 8^th & S.

I’m not sure what I think about the formulaic power of positive thinking that gets handed out in business books and seminars from time to time. There are plenty of upbeat, optimistic people that haven’t made their business work for factors other than their ability to magically manifest results out of thin air. But there is something to be said about the kind of vision you see and how you plan to see that vision become reality.

I assumed this winter would be like the last. But when confronted with the possibility that it may not be, I’m sure glad I took it seriously. Better to be ready than to be caught off guard.