Thinking things through got him far, Dan.

Dan was standing next to the stove in his kitchen. The kitchen was almost perfect, as it was impeccably clean, everything was very tidy and even had a somewhat minimalist style. That kitchen belonged to one of the best restaurants in the country. He had founded that restaurant in the days of his youth with his mother. But it was he who brought it to the success it has today. When this family business started, it was just him and his mother. At first, it was a restaurant like any other, but without anything that made it very special. People only came to eat because they were hungry, but from then on, nothing more.

At this point in the business, Dan realized that if the business continued in that direction, they could not compete much longer with the competition, that if they had better restaurants and many better dishes that made customers feel more attracted to them than to his and his mother's restaurant. That is why he decided that they should innovate a little in their way of doing things. His mother was already a little old for such hustle and bustle, so she delegated all the responsibility to him.

Thanks to this new initiative, he came up with a brilliant idea that would lead them to the success they have today. The idea was to expand the restaurant with more dishes. But not simple dishes that are more common, he wanted something that was special and somewhat unique. That is why he decided to include most of the typical dishes of his country on the menu. That is, national dishes that were the identity of the country. That way, if a foreigner or a native of the country wanted to go to a place where the best national and typical native food was available, they would find it in his restaurant.

This idea was difficult to carry out because he had to travel to many places in his country to learn the recipes, and he had to hire several chefs who were already experts in the subject to advise him. That led him to spend a lot of money, practically almost all of his funds. But you know, all of this gave him a lot of results. Because as soon as the tourism agencies found out about his idea, they competed to join the restaurant and show their menus to tourists. In a short time, the restaurant was packed with customers from all over the country and the world, because they knew that there they could find the best in local cuisine.

The success was so great that they couldn't keep up. So they hired more staff and expanded the premises to accommodate at least 1,000 people at the same time. They were big investments, but the truth is that the money came back very quickly and they made a profit. Over the years, Dan amassed a large fortune that was enough for him to live without problems for the rest of his life. His mother unfortunately died, but Dan gave her a life of a queen until her last days with the best luxuries and care. So she died satisfied.

Their initial idea had taken them this far and anyone in his shoes would be satisfied. But something in him made him feel incomplete. Up to this point everything had gone well because he got everything he wanted thanks to his love for cooking, but he had already cooked all the typical dishes of his country. So he fell into a dead end that took away his motivation. Every day consisted of the same thing, serving the same dishes, saying the same words at the tables, giving interviews and receiving the same compliments over and over again. It's not that he was ungrateful but being in that routine every day made him miss the early days of the business when everything was more exciting.

That idea began to bother him, that's why one routine day when he got home, he plopped down on his couch with a glass of wine that he didn't finish. And he could see some news on the internet. As always, advertisements began to appear and among those advertisements there was one that showed a group of chefs touring street markets in a remote corner of India. They also showed the country's special spices, typical dishes and local cuisine. So he was drawn to all those different dishes and styles that were very different from those he made in his country Australia.

That is why, after finishing watching that advertisement, he began to ask himself the same question that had led him to success once before. What else can I do? Now, not so much to achieve success, but to be more satisfied with life and feel more active like at the beginning. Suddenly, out of the blue, he had an idea that would change everything again. He said to himself, “What if I open a restaurant in another country?” This followed the same dynamic that he had done in his restaurant in Australia. The idea was really novel, but it brought back many doubts about what awaited him in a country where everything would be different, it was like starting from scratch. But of course, later he remembered why he wanted to do it, so the desire came back to him again.

He spent the next few days thinking about how to carry out all that task. It was difficult, because it would require a lot of money. Of course, this was not a problem because he had a lot of it, but even so, he could not trust himself to go bankrupt. That is why he gathered his entire team and investors and told them the idea so they could give him advice. In the end, everyone saw the idea as something new and that not everyone was doing, so they thought it would be great if he did it. With the approval of his advisors, so to speak, he decided that his first country would be India, because this country was the one that initially caught his attention to do everything he was doing.

The next day he announced to all the employees what he was going to do. He told them that the restaurant was now going to become a chain, and they would no longer only operate in the country, now the objective was to create the same dynamic that he had used in his country in India. They wanted to create a second restaurant that had all the typical Indian dishes. That way everyone could go to the same place where the best of the best of the same country was. In addition to this, he also announced that in his own country he was going to increase the number of restaurants with more branches, because if they were going to move to another country, why not do it in a big way with more branches? Everyone applauded him and so the adventure began.

The next day he began his journey to India. When he arrived, he was also filled with enthusiasm and fear for everything that was to come. There were many barriers to getting started, mainly the language, which was difficult for him to learn. But he didn't let that stop him. He met with local advisors, who helped him choose the land to build the restaurant. In a few months the restaurant was ready and built. Now came the fun part: preparing all the typical dishes of the same country in the same place. That's why his advisors helped him get the best local chefs from all over the country. In a few weeks he had more than 100 professional chefs who were the best of the best in their specialty. With this great team, the restaurant opened its doors.

The success was more than resounding, with more and more clients and many tourism agencies wanted to become partners. It was almost a copy of what had happened in his first restaurant. Now it was necessary to expand with more branches throughout the country to keep up with everything that was coming. At this point he felt fulfilled and complete again because he knew he had the success he wanted. But something made him remember why he had done what he had done. The fear of routine and not being part of the process. He knew that in a few years he would fall into the same thing that made him open the restaurant in this new country. That is why this time he decided to get ahead of the process.

He began to think about what to do to avoid falling into the same situation. And it seems that our friend has good ideas because he came up with another one. This time it was the definitive one, it was the idea that would prevent him from falling into routine ever again. It was about something much bigger than any other company would have ever dared to do. The idea was to create a restaurant in every country in the world that had the typical dishes of the country. In other words, the same dynamic, but now on a global level. This way he would never fall into monotony again and he could remain active in the kitchen until the last day of his life.

His partners knew that something like this would be risky, but they trusted that he would do it great again, because he had already proven it. So they gave him the thumbs up. Dan felt great, because now there would be no more chains of routine anymore, his love of cooking had taken him this far, and now it would take him around the world.

Credits: The images used are free to use and royalty free. They were taken from pixabay.