“I just needed some air,” chef Carmy says. When the restaurant where you learned every trick of your trade closes down, who wouldn’t? Especially if that restaurant had two Michelin stars—and was thriving.
“Me too,” chef Terry, the owner, responds. Standing in the cold Chicago air, the two chat until, eventually, Carmy has worked up the courage to ask the big question. Having just started his own fine dining establishment, The Bear, he can’t help but wonder: “What would you tell yourself when you were where I am?”
“I know, I know,” Carmen continues before his mentor can point out the cliché nature of his request, but she admits: “That’s a toughie.” And while she doesn’t believe there’s any one thing she could say that would change Carmy’s outlook dramatically, chef Terry ultimately shares a glorious piece of advice:
“You have no idea what you’re doing—and, therefore, you’re invincible.”
No one likes feeling like a fool, yet every beginner inevitably does. Whenever we start anew, there’s nothing we know and everything to learn—yet it is in this very predicament that we’ll find our ultimate chance to create, to have fun, to chart our own path and reinvent ourselves in the process.
Experts have a lot to lose; amateurs have a lot to gain. Only fools, however, are invincible—and like all the best power-ups, our invisible armor decays with every second. Make the most of your foolish days.
