Athletic consulting

I'm reading this cool book called Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara, who was the general manager of Eleven Madison Park, the famous three Michelin Star restaurant in NYC famous for it's service.

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

This restaurant is known for doing crazy things for its guests in order to deliver an amazing experience. For example, a couple who was celebrating their anniversary asked their server if they thought a bottle of champagne they had in their freezer would explode before they they returned home.

The server told them it probably would, and then proceeded to acquire their keys, drive to to their house, pull the champagne bottle out of their freezer, and left it in an ice bucket along with some chocolates and a nice note from the restaurant.

This was so they could enjoy their meal without worrying about their champagne exploding.

Awesome!

I find most business management books to be cheesy, and this one sort of is, but I respect the author because the restaurant industry is a place where you can't really BS your way to success.

Your food, service, and business HAVE to be good for you to survive and thrive. It's obvious when things aren't run well, so management practices have to be good.

There was one management/business concept that they used that I thought was particularly useful as a solo 1099: "Athletic Hospitality."

“Athletic hospitality” meant always looking for a win, whether you were playing offense (making an already great experience even better) or defense (apologizing for and fixing an error).

A lot of government employees and contractors simply sit around in a sort of stuck position. They're not playing offense by helping their organization make progress nor are they improving things that are broken.

As a solo 1099 in the "athletic consulting" game, you should keep your eyes open for opportunities to play both offense and defense.

If you code, maybe you can make a new tool for your client that helps them do their job. That's offense.

Did you make a mistake on a deliverable? Correct the mistake, and offer a way to make the deliverable even better the next time.

Feeling stuck at work is uncomfortable and demoralizing. Making progress and fixing mistakes that leave the client better off is energizing, and ultimately, good for your 1099 career.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.