Brad L Would Do It
At one point in my twenties, I was a bar manager at The Hammerstein Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan. The venue hosted concerts and corporate events for some major companies. It was cool as I was often surrounded by celebrities. From being in an elevator with The Strokes, serving Johnny Reznick from the Goo Dolls a beer, or working the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition release party, it was fun to see how the other half lived. I also saw (and often mostly heard as I was working), musical acts like Blondie, Bush, Incubus, Lenny Kravitz, and the Beastie Boys (to name a few).
One of the bartenders was a guy named Brad L (I’m not including his full last name as I have no clue what he’s up to now). As bar manager, part of my job was to let bartenders go for the night once I felt it was slowing down enough that we didn’t need as many.
Every bartender wanted to leave early. I didn’t blame them. They’d just made 300-400 dollars cash, it was 11pm in NYC (so, not boring), and all the staff would go to this bar called Twins, around the block, to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and play music on the jukebox.
Plus, if you stayed, you’d have to clean up for everyone who’d left, wipe down all the bottles, and set up for the event the next day. By the time you got out, around 1am, you’d have done so much extra work for only your hourly pay (as drinks were being served much less frequently, the tips were minimal, and once the venue closed and the real work began, there were no tips at all).
Every bartender wanted to leave early except Brad L. He always wanted to stay. I was thrilled, as I needed him, but to be honest, I thought he was nuts. To me, having a few hundred bucks in my pocket and heading out into the NYC mayhem, was way better than cleaning bottles by myself in an empty concert hall.
But Brad L didn’t think of it like that. He told me that it was a waste to work that hard, only to spend half the money on food and drink, when he could make additional money (though not much), by finishing the shift and heading home. He’d save all his money, get a decent night’s sleep (the other folks wouldn’t get home sometimes until five or six am), and be back at work the next day.
He was so rationale and well-thought-out. Honestly, I didn’t really know anyone like him. To this day, whenever I need to do something that feels menial and not a lot of fun, I think of Brad L. Whenever I’m debating not doing something that’s annoying to me and that feels unnecessary because I’d rather do the equivalent of blowing half my money at a Manhattan bar, surrounded by my friends, I think of Brad L.
I ask myself, “Would Brad L do this?”
The answer is always, “Brad L would do it.”
To be clear, I haven’t always followed his model. I’ve often chosen the fun and less responsible path. But over the course of twenty-five years, I’ve followed it enough to make a huge difference for me. Think about that: some of the best coaching I’ve ever received is from a guy who used to work for me decades ago. And he doesn’t even know it.
It’s a good reminder that everyone is watching. So give them something to good to see.
