Life lessons from a sandwich artist

The Daily Drip

My first job was making sandwiches at Quiznos.

I would show up in my oversized shirt (all shirts were oversized for a scrawny kid like me), I would put on my visor, and I would take orders.

By the end of my shift, my face would hurt because of how much I was smiling at customers.

It didn't matter what they said or looked like, I was going to be the best, nicest, most helpful sandwich artist on the East Coast.

No one noticed. No one cared.

There's this lie that if you work hard enough, someone will notice.

Not only will they notice, but there's this fantasy that they'll give you more opportunity or some sort of recognition for the work.

Sometimes this is true, but it's not typical--and it's certainly not a practical career approach.

At some point in my late 20s, I realized that working hard didn't really give me the results I expected.

I had to do some math.

I literally wrote out what I thought was a formula for success.

Here's the original post on Medium if you want to spend 5 minutes of your life reading about it.

Basically, the simplified version is Success = (Talent + Opportunity) * Hard Work

There's a ton of nuance in there that's difficult to explain with math--so, yes, I know I'm oversimplifying it.

The point here is to highlight 2 things:

1. Don't hustle so hard. Spend some of that time focusing on opportunity and developing your skills.
2. When someone smiles and works hard and does an amazing job, go out of your way to tell them how they impacted you.