Transcript

Scaffolding #1203 · From Chad

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Never confuse a temporary assignment with a permanent
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identity. There's a story behind that.
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This is your daily message from Chad #1200 and three to upgrade
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your mental game today by telling yourself a better story.
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Because the most important story you hear is the story you tell
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yourself. This message is dedicated to
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Todd Graves, founder of Raising Canes, who still puts Fry Cook
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on his business card. Here's the upgrade.
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You may think the job you have to do is keeping you from the
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life you want, but upgraded thinking sees it as scaffolding.
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Here's the story. While at Louisiana State
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University, Todd Graves and Craig Sylvie wrote a business
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plan for a restaurant that would sell one thing, chicken fingers.
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The professor gave it the lowest grade in the class.
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Then the bank said no, they had no management experience.
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Go work for a restaurant company for 10 years, they said.
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Then come back. So Todd Graves went to
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California and worked as a Boilermaker in the oil
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refineries. 95 hour weeks, no days off.
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A kid doing the work he didn't know how to do, who never shut
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up about chicken fingers. His Co workers called him
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Hollywood. One of them, a guy named Wild
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Bill, told him where the real money was.
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Sockeye salmon in Alaska. So Todd flew to Anchorage, took
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a float plane and hitchhiked to the fisheries, pitched a tint on
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the tundra, lived on pork and beans, and walked boat to boat,
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baking captains for a spot. He got one.
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And if you've ever seen the reality TV show Deadliest Catch,
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it was that waves breaking over stern loaded with salmon,
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medical helicopters pulling people out.
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In his words, I was out there for this chicken finger dream.
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Todd says he would have worked construction in Nebraska.
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He would have knitted blankets. The work was never the point.
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It was the scaffolding, ugly and temporary to build what he
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really wanted. Zig Ziglar put it this way, If
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you do what you need to do, when you need to do it, then the day
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will come when you can do what you want to do, when you want to
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do it. That's scaffolding.
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It's ugly, it's temporary, and it comes down once the building
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can stand. But watch what else the
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scaffolding built. Some of his earliest investors
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were fellow Boilermakers, including Wild Bill.
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The men who worked beside Todd in the half two season believed
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in him For the 1/2 season. Todd did much of the work on the
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first Raising Cane's with his own hands.
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The first month's profit was $30.00.
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But he was finally living his dream and 30 years later he
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still calls himself a fry cook. The scaffolding came down.
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The relationship stayed up. Don't confuse a temporary
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assignment with a permanent identity.
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The job you've got to do today isn't who you are.
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It may be what's holding up what you're becoming.
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And the people working beside you right now Treat them well.
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They might be your first investors.
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The better story to tell yourself is if I do what I need
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to do, when I need to do it, then the day will come when I
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can do what I want to do when I want to do it.
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Tell me a story of the job that got you where you are to from
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chadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and tell
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them what you're doing right now with scaffolding, not the
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building. You get a free copy of my book,
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The Most Powerful Story in the World by going to from
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chad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message
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and hundreds of others are always available at
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www.fromchad.com.