Passion with knowledge.

Someone I know "18-year friendship" came to me and asked me for my opinion to open a restaurant, I was so excited for him, my first question was: why do you want to open a restaurant?? why restaurant, not anything else?

His answer was: Ahmed you know me, I like food a lot!!

Me: Ok ... I like food as well, everybody likes food to the best of my knowledge!!.. that doesn't mean to just open one.. and knowing him he is not a cook or a chef..he insisted to open a restaurant and he wanted my support as a friend.. I thought for a few seconds while he was talking..

I told him the following.. I'll help you to get a job in a restaurant since I know many restaurant owners.. If you make it for three months and you think you like what you are doing, with cleaning, dishwashing, preparing and see how restaurants are being managed and ran in a daily basis, and preparing the menu, opening mornings, ordering process, dealing with employees, payroll, extra .. extra....then I can help you in putting the plan together. a week later we met and he said you are right, he thanked me for looking into things for him... its too much to handle and he changed his mind...

The moral of the story..not because you see someone like mechanics making money so you want to become a mechanic because you like cars or fixing homes because you like nice homes, or any of that.. yes passion is important... but the passion without knowledge and experience, planning and speaking with experts and advisers is a bad idea.

We worked together and finally, we found what he really likes the most.

He did end up opening his dream business, putting the 10-12 hours daily almost 7 days a week. I couldn't be more proud.

I'm a believer in starting your own business and following your dreams, but don't shoot from the hip and turn the dream to a nightmare.

Ahmed Abusharbain.