Learn From

Greatness

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

“First, think. Second, dream. Third, believe. And finally, dare.”

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”

“A man should never neglect his family for business.”

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

— Walt Disney

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

“One of the most difficult things is not to change society — but to change yourself.”

“There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.”

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

— Nelson Mandela

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.”

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”

“I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”

“Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one's ability to persuade.”

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

“Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.”

“In the course of a marriage, one accommodates the other.”

“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant Be Your Own Person, be independent.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsberg

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

“It's only when the tide goes out that you discover who's been swimming naked.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

“I’ll give my children enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.”

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.”

— Warren Buffet

“Life is not fair; get used to it.”

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

“If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake.”

— Bill Gates

“If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.”

“Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.”

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”

— Melinda Gates

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”

“The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.”

“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.”

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

— Arthur Ashe

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”

“The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.”

“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

“Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met—obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.”

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

— John F. Kennedy

“Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.” 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.”

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

— Steve Jobs

“Make each day your masterpiece”

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”

“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.”

— John Wooden

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." 

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." 

"Do one thing every day that scares you." 

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." 

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart." 

"Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give." 

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself." 

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." 

"If someone betrays you once, it's their fault; if they betray you twice, it's your fault." 

— Eleanor Roosevelt

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it”

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

— Albert Einstein

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.”

“If one has to submit, it is wasteful not to do so with the best grace possible.”

“It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.”

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential”

“One always measures friendships by how they show up in bad weather”

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

“A Pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; An Optomist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.”

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”

— Helen Keller

excerpts from

“Meehan’s Bartender Manual”

By: Jim Meehan

On Dressing Up

“I always respond to people who ask me why I dress up that once I met Angelo Gaja - back in the days when there were no $200 bottles of wine and Angelo’s were already $200. He was like seventy years old at the time, wearing a sharkskin suit, crown of gray hair: Dude looked like a lion. And somebody asked him, ‘Angelo, you’re always so finely dressed: why do you dress like that?’ He said, ‘Well, if you want people to think your wines are delicious, perhaps you should look delicious.’ What a badass! I love that guy.”

— Garrett Oliver

On Good Versus Great

“When you’re budgeting to build your house, a lot of it comes down to money. So I like to tell my clients that the difference between 90 percent and 100 percent is about 100 percent. Meaning it’s going to cost that much more time, that much more effort, that much more planning, and that much more money to attain that extra 10 percent. in other words, the difference between good and great is tremendous. Out of the general population in this country, only 1 or 2 percent of people care about making this commitment or even notice the results.”

— Bo Hagood

On Pleasing People

“You get this massive adrenaline rush out of pleasing people. There’s a huge feedback loop from it. My dopamine rush doesn’t come from shopping; it comes from making people laugh, having a great night, and feeling cared for.”

— Jacob Briars

On The Well-Rounded Bartender

“I think bartenders should be well rounded. If you’re great at one thing and terrible at another, that doesn’t make you a good bartender. You have to be good in general. Treat the customer well. Make really good drinks. Take care of running the bar. Mr. Kishi-San used to say we are the sheepdog in the bar. The drunk customers are going right and left, and we have to lead them. You try to be good at everything - not perfect. Some people make really good drinks, but they do not treat their guests well.”

— Hidetsugu Ueno

On Individuality

“To me, wine can’t be distilled into one thing. Wine is history, wine is geography, wine is geology, it’s anthropology, it’s philosophy, and it’s sociology. It’s all of those things.”

— Jordan Salcito

On Being Humble

“You have to have enough passion to carry it through to do a good job. Basically, don’t take shortcuts, stick to what you know, and if you don’t know it, ask somebody who does know it. And don’t be so far above yourself. There’s always people below you who come up with a suggestion that works. So accept that fact.”

— Tom Nichol

On Remote Villages

“I love big cities; I love eating well and relating to people and sharing ideas. Cities are a place of commerce and intellectual exchange. Ideas and commerce; that’s what a city is. But cities exist for commerce, trade, capitalistic physical stuff, and ideas. And that’s how culture advances. The opposite is the small village where you live your life. You’re in touch with the earth. You see sunrise and sunset. You see stars. You taste things. You smell things. The cities have a reason for existing, and they’re not better or worse [than small villages]. But there’s a fountain of intellectual and spiritual energy in these remote places.”

— Ron Cooper

On Diplomacy

“These days, I have a feeling that our whisky has a tendency to mix with other things. Japanese culture accommodates European, Western, Chinese, and Indian culture into it. We learned how to make whisky from Scotland, but now we make Japanese-style whisky. Japanese whisky seems to be united with other things. Japanese people always try to be friendly with other people. We are very peaceful, friendly, and modest, and look up to our neighbors. As a whisky, we don’t want to conquer the world. We’d rather see it taken gently and nicely by other people.”

— Mike Miyamoto

On Maturity

“As the greatest of the great brown brandies will live in barrel for the time scale of a human life, so do they pass through life cycles from birth to childhood, teenage years, adulthood, middle age, and elderly distinction. It is in these contexts that one must reflect on and judge the characteristics of an aged brandy. Clearly one cannot expect a refined conversation with a child any more than one would expect childlike energy from a respected elder. Yet in both cases there is beauty and inspiration to be found, albeit different in nature.”

— Dan Farber

On The Drinks

“At a Connoisseur’s Club talk back in Belfast in 2008, Sasha Petraske posed a series of questions to our audience. ‘What’s a good customer experience in a bar and how do you measure it?’ ‘What makes a customer go away thinking, tonight was a great experience?’ Some suggested service, while others said ambience and drinks. Sasha, whose bars were renowned for cocktails, singled out drinks and told them they were only one element to a great experience. He said, ‘I would say if you have ten different metrics you’re measuring a bar on, the drinks are only ten percent of what makes a great experience.’”

— Sean Muldoon

On The First Impression

“The most important service step is the greeting. People need to be recognized when they walk into a room. It could be a maitre d’ recognizing them, or the manager working the floor, or a bartender or server working in proximity to them. The greeting is the magic touch. It sets the tone for everything. I teach this to all my bartenders: no matter what you’re doing - whether you’re in the middle of building a cocktail - stop what you’re doing, say hello to the guest, give them a menu, and give them a glass of water. I’m a huge fan of the glass of water and menu, as it buys you time to go back to what you’re doing, and it makes them feel appreciated and welcomed.”

— Brian Bartels

On Negativity

“I don’t want negative people in this bar, and that goes for the guests and staff. You come to a bar to find positivity. You’re not coming here to get more negative. There are different styles of management within the bar world. There are ‘me’ people and ‘you’ or ‘team’ people. As soon as I walk into a bar I can feel whether there’s negativity. Obviously, the first thing is, is this bar good? Do the operators car about it? But from there, you can also sense the operator’s attitude. Are they an optimistic or positive person? You’ll quickly see that trait mirrored in their staff.”

— Jack McGarry

On Discipline

“I knew if I wanted to be great, I had to be disciplined. I come from an athletic background… Running has been the cornerstone of my sommelier career. That’s how I got through my Master Sommelier program. I think about things when I run. A lot of practices we’ve established at the restaurant have come from my runs. Monday night menus came from a run. Guest chef series came from a run. [As for drinking on the job], I like catching a buzz as much as anyone else, but it’s going to affect what you’re trying to do. So more nights than not, I have only one beer on a shift. Or just one glass of wine at dinner. That’s enough - and all of a sudden everything starts clicking into place.”

— Bobby Stuckey

On Team Building

“Do I want my team to be homogenous or dynamic? There’s no right or wrong answer, but I want mine to be broad. When I’m building my team, do I just do what I want to do, or do I share it? And if I share, am I just sharing it with the other coaches and managers or with the whole team? Do I allow the team to have a voice in what’s going to happen? That’s the most difficult form of management and that’s the form I’ve chosen. It’s also the closest one to democracy. I want my people to feel like they’re critical to the success of the team.”

— Jimmy Bradley

On Travel

“You need to make money at what you do to pay your bills and your taxes and take care of your family, but I swear to God, if you look at life, it’s about the experiences you have and the time you get to spend with people. It always ends up being beneficial.”

— Julio Bermejo

On Teaching

“I look for the twinkle in your eye when I see that you got it. When I see that light go on, and you get it, for me, I’ve done my job. I live for that moment. I was a service animal and loved being on the floor. People say, ‘Don’t you miss that?’ I say, ‘I did, but I don’t anymore.’ Because I realized I can reach even more people. So instead of reaching a six top, or twenty people in my station, or one hundred fifty people in my restaurant, I can reach thousands by doing lectures and TV and radio. I can reach more people and help them learn to make their own decisions by empowering them with information. I love sharing.”

— Steve Olson

On Happiness

“Don’t forget about happiness. When you’re on the road, chances are you’re full of energy, because you’re out there doing the thing you love to do. Quality of life is really important. You talk to a lot of people who work in the hospitality industry, and you ask them on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you? And a lot of them will be pushing up to 8. You flip that to someone who is corporate or has a desk job and it’s below 6. There’s something really important about happiness. Sleep, routine, and having a semblance of a normal life are important, but normalcy isn’t as important as happiness.”

— Georgia Van Tiel

On Community

“I tried to bring people together to push our industry forward, with education being the key. I brought bartenders from America to England to meet each other, but it didn’t have to be that way. I could have just taken bartenders on a trip to Plymouth to show them the distillery. But that would have defeated the objective of everyone meeting, sharing ideas, building a friendship, and developing a network of like-minded people to push the industry forward. I was constantly trying to champion the industry through these decisions.”

— Simon Ford