WORK. PLAY. COOK: Or my personal recipe for success
You may think of my basketball past, and passion for cooking and piano as pure hobbies, I love to think of them as parts of my coaching, as a person, as a leader, and as a team player. Each skill I mastered and still am working to improve brought me something invaluable I use in my more official business life.
BASKETBALL
Basketball and a pro sports career taught me that discipline and hard work go a long way when you set your mind to achieve something. Plus, of course, you learn about the enormous impact you can make on the team and how it affects you—being aligned, empathic and open to various scenarios is what you should be ready for at all times in life.
THE PIANO
Piano playing is more about helping me to switch my mind to something I don’t ordinarily do in my everyday routine. It relaxes your brain but not in a silly way, it helps your brain cells work in a different way so, after a few piano recitals, you might finally come up with a solution you couldn’t think of. It really helps—I’m not sure if it’s those new neural pathways that are unique to when you play music or anything else, but playing the piano sure teaches how to be patient and not rush to achieve perfection.
COOKING
Cooking is just an art of its own. And I enjoy mastering this art, every day. I love to see the results of my work and compare my on- and off-recipe works. It’s very similar to building a business actually—you always have a framework but sometimes you need to go off-structure to make it work. Just like with cooking.
In fact, I am currently documenting my cooking, tasting and drinking journey in the PERFORM in The Kitchen website. By the way I have also committed to finish my upcoming book “Perform in the kitchen, 5 dinners for 20 people” before December 2024. Check out my blog.