Book] Unreasonable Hospitality
“Unreasonable Hospitality” is a book by Will Guidara. He is a young restaurateur (only 43 years old now) well known for Eleven Madison Park and NoMad. This book shares his career paths and mindsets to succeed in the hospitality business, which I think can be applied to many other areas. It also shares his stories with Danny Meyer from his time at Union Square Hospitality Group. If you’ve read “Setting the Table” by Danny and liked it, you will enjoy this book as well.
“The moment you start to pursue service through the lens of hospitality, you understand there’s nobility in it. …, we do have the ability to make their lives better by creating a magical world they can escape to — and I see that not as an opportunity, but as a responsibility, and a reason for pride.”
He speaks about why his work is important. Opportunity, responsibility, and reason for pride. After reading this passage, I started to project the three concepts into my work. Working in the healthcare industry as an AI/ML scientist hasn’t always been butter smooth. Healthcare AI is probably still in an early stage. There is a lot of potential, but some of the basic building blocks are missing, resulting in delays or pushbacks in research work and the productionalization of research outcomes. We explore a lot, navigate many paths, and struggle often.
Although many scientists come and go due to challenges and realities, I decided to stay in this industry and grow. I realize that to succeed and deliver products with actual benefits in this healthcare world, there is a lot to learn beyond technical skills. It includes, but is not limited to, how to plan, navigate, and execute with many multi-dimensional uncertainties and dependencies, how to lead a decision-making process with a group of multi-disciplinary people, and how to continuously deliver prototypes and products that use modern AI technologies. It’s never been easy for me.
When I lost my dear colleagues in the healthcare AI world or in my org, I took a walk a bit for refreshment and tried to recall why I jumped into this world and decided to stay on this path outside my comfort zone of core AI/ML opportunities. I wanted to improve the quality of many people’s lives at scale. AI technologies have the power to enable smart interaction with services or assist service providers at scale. I see this as a responsibility to make progress and serve people in need, and a reason for pride. Imagine helping people live with independence and dignity. How amazing.
This book has other inspiring lessons: Listing only a few:
Drink your best bottle not on your best day, but on your worst. <= I’m definitely going to use this on bad days of myself and my family
Hospitality means more thoughtful. <= Will do this for people working for my family
two conflicting goals → innovation <= Will set this goal for new projects and initiatives
The power of vulnerability in leadership <= Will do this for colleagues working with my mentorship.
