Excuses are like A**holes

In my youth, I had a job in fast food to pay for my car insurance and gas money. During my short stint flipping burgers and breading chicken I learned an amazing piece of advice from the owner of the business.

Now this restaurant had the same protocols as a company like McDonald’s (the business I worked for was a small ma & pa owned) back in the day when receiving an order in the kitchen. The person at the front counter would take the customers order and if there was anything special, such as ketchup only, the order taker would notate that on the order slip sent back to the kitchen.

One afternoon, I was in the kitchen working hard to keep up with the lunch rush that my boss was on the front register. We were doing pretty well up to the point a mistake was made.

As I was working, my boss interrupted my flow of throwing lettuce and tomato on a previously ordered cheeseburger. Here is what happened next.

“Jeff, why the hell did you put mustard on the burger?” MC asked.

I walked over to the tray and noticed the order slip. There was nothing under the ordered burger telling me that it was a “special” burger. When the order slip says nothing we were directed to ketchup, mustard, pickle and onion on the burger.

“Well, there is nothing on the ticket so I put the standard on it.” I replied.

It was at that point I knew that was the wrong thing to say. MC picked up the plate and threw it about 12 feet hitting the back of the grill. Pieces of the destroyed plate laid on the grill that had food cooking on it. I was shocked.

MC looked at me angrily and biting his bottom lip. He said, “You know what, excuses are like assholes. Everyones got one.”

He turned and walked back to the front of the restaurant leaving the mess for me to clean up. Honestly, I didn’t know if I should be mad or cry. Should I stay or should I go? Did I just get fired?

My first reaction was to take my apron off and leave. I got three or four steps out the door and I realized that I committed to working that day and I should finish the shift. Took a deep breath and walked back in. MC was at the grill picking up the pieces of broken plate and throwing away the food that couldn’t be consumed now.

He gave me a glance as I was putting my apron back on. At that moment, I earned MC’s respect by coming back and finishing my shift.

When my time was done for the day, MC walked up, patted me on the shoulder and said “Thank you.” I nodded and walked out. The next day I started my shift with a nod from MC and got to work.

What MC did was wrong. He was three times my age at the time and shouldn’t have responded the way he did. However, what he did say at the moment taught me an important lesson that I have carried with me to today.

Excuses are like assholes and everyone has one. People give reasons why they can’t do something when they should give reasons to do something. They give excuses like ‘I can’t lose weight because of this or I don’t have time for that’.

Stop making excuses in your life. Take ownership of the shit you have done. Accept responsibility and move on. Do better the next time. But never live up to MC’s famous statement, “Excuses are like assholes. Everyones got one.”

Thanks for reading!

JP