The Big Secret

Change is always a very exciting time.

As many of you may know, I will be opening Driftwood Kitchen on H St. NE - the neighborhood I've called my home since I have moved to Washington DC. It has been hectic and until we get closer to an opening date, I won't be releasing the details that so many of my friends, family, and clients are interested in. That will come later, I promise. I have learned something valuable that I needed to share.

I had a friend of mine who works a 9-5 job tell me, "Well, that must be great. They always say that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life."

That, dear readers, is a lie. Falsehood. Misrepresentation. Myth. Tall tale.

Bullshit.

I love what I do, and I know that I do. It is the type of steel-trap certainty that causes me to take turns doubting it, renouncing it, and coming back to it within a single thought. It's what made me realize a very simple truth:

If you love what you do, you will work every single day of your life.

Sometime since agreeing to open and run Driftwood Kitchen, I found myself answering phone calls and texts 20 hours of the day. I'm in there at 8am and leaving well after 8 to go to meeting with my owners, or to retreat to my couch to do more work on my computer. I don't have days off, I simply have a few hours every day where I can take a breath. There is always something to do. When I go out for dinner, I'm thinking about my dishes. When I'm at another bar, I'm looking for ideas and inspiration. I spend most of my time talking about Driftwood. I spend the rest of my time thinking about it. When it comes to operating a business, there are always a task in each hand and three more in the air that you are juggling.

Don't get it confused; I am not complaining about it. I am exhausted and put my head down and think about the task hand.

I have the fortune to be working with some of the finest businessmen and restauranteurs with the highest standard of motivation, dedication and savvy I have seen. Mo, one of the principal partners, told me when I accepted this position: "Get ready to work harder than you ever have." He was right.

What I have realized in this short amount of time about when you start your own business and really get down to it, you don't stop. Ever. You work every single day. Maybe I'm not in the physical business itself, but my mind always is. And that is the big secret. I have the absolute privilege of busting my ass alongside serious professionals  every single day of the week.

And that is loving what you do.