Pre-Meal, The Newsletter by Will Guidara

Happy Wednesday!

Christina and I were traveling to Paris. To get there, we had to connect through D.C., which included an unfortunate six-hour layover. My brilliant wife saw an opportunity and spun that inconvenience into gold by getting us tickets to see The Odyssey on the IMAX screen at the Smithsonian, fifteen minutes from the airport.

This was a big deal for us. For the last few months, everyone in our lives has been talking about what an incredible experience The Odyssey in IMAX is. And it has broken my heart a little bit, because it wasn’t an experience Christina and I were realistically going to have. We both work and travel a lot, so when we’re home, we want to be home. And if the two of us do get a rare night away from our kids together, we’d rather go out for dinner so we can have the kind of conversation we don’t get nearly enough of anymore.

So spending this layover at a movie was an extra-special treat. And the experience itself was exceptional, because while it’s always great to see a movie that isn’t animated, The Odyssey was a true work of art.

One line struck me with such force that I committed the ultimate faux pas and took out my phone to make a note of this quote, delivered by Matt Damon playing Odysseus:

“The clearest view of a man is from below.”

What a beautiful articulation of something I’ve known since my very first job as a busser.

Readers of Unreasonable Hospitality may remember a story about a powerful chef screaming at seventeen-year-old me in a crowded dining room over a mistake. I’ve never forgotten it; in fact, I believe it was as important in shaping my behavior as a leader and a boss as the (many) more positive lessons I gathered along the way.

I truly believe there are as many benefits to serving others as there are to being served, and one of them is perspective—the chance to see someone from a vantage point you otherwise wouldn’t. You may not always be able to see the truth of someone’s character in how they treat a peer or an important client, but you can always see it in how they treat someone who can’t scream back. Which is an important thing to remember when choosing people to surround yourself with, and deciding how you want to show up in the world.

Have a good service,

Will