“We do this out of love， and to love is to be vulnerable， and to be willing to be wounded.”

Today I want to share a few values I can confidently say has led to my personal and professional happiness and success.

The first isrelationship development.

I get asked often what I think the key to success is. This question is tricky, as success can mean so many things, and the perspective is not the same for everyone. However, in this case, I want to share about my success as an entrepreneur. There are lots of things I’d point to that’ve helped guide me down this wildly windy road as a business owner. The one that sticks out most is my absolute obsession with developing relationships. I go out of my way to connect with people at scale; some would say this is a personality trait or an inherent skill set. That may be true, but it doesn’t mean we all can’t be better or great at it. There is not much in life more gratifying to me than meeting new people, especially people I have things in common with and build a connection with. The hospitality business was perfect for a guy like me, I was the restaurant owner that talked to every guest that walked through the doors at my restaurants when I was in house. I loved it. In truth, this weekly email to you all is my version of that in the digital world… So thanks for filling me up, reading these and responding! I’ve recently developed a few new friendships with inspiring humans that have totally charged me up. I feel like a kid, like I just made a new friend in the schoolyard but I happen to be 43 years old. These friendships have touched all areas of my life, personal enjoyment for sure, but will also enhance my business life. GO OUT AND MAKE SOME NEW FRIENDS!\xa0

At the end of the day, the most powerful form of marketing is word of mouth and community. No other marketing strategy has ever been able to outperform word of mouth and community… You may see an ad on social media, it may stop you for a second, and sometimes if that ad is INCREDIBLE (😜), you may purchase a product… BUT, if you are with a friend and they tell you about a product, restaurant, experience that they have recently participated in, and loved, you want in… In order for word of mouth to be an actionable strategy for a business, you have to go out of your way to build community, to connect, and of course to have a great product for the community to talk about. SO, I make sure to connect with as many people as I can, it fills me up as a human and definitely helps me build Kreatures of Habit in a super gratifying way.

The next value I want to discuss is a mindset I live by, I call itThe Get Back UpMindset. I have committed to getting back up no matter what! I have found that failure only truly comes to fruition when you stop taking action, when you allow your mind to trick you into believing you are at the end of your rope, when you feel like there is nothing left in the tank and quitting is the only option. I am here to say that I have definitely failed over the years, I am incredibly grateful for those experiences. And quite frankly, I think we all need to experience failure in order to feel the hard and the hurt. I have used this philosophy of “getting back up” in all areas of my life, especially in the day to day combat of being an entrepreneur in small business… One of the hardest things to do! I learned what “getting back up” meant from having to build from ground zero when I decided to get sober almost 20 years ago. I was a shell, I had nothing, hated who I was, but slowly was able to put the pieces together day after day. After seeing success there, I applied conviction to almost everything I set my mind to.. I do not quit, I do not give up, I do not allow the fear of failure to stop me from taking action and pushing. I have had to navigate some rough terrain, and when I am there, no matter how hard or stressful, I go to a place…. I think about the idea that most people would throw in the towel, that most people do throw in the towel, and that thought tends to motivate me to get right back up on my feet and fight…. I have said it before and I will say it again, I will fight to the death… haha. That may seem harsh, but it is real to me. I am the guy that may not be the smartest, strongest, fastest, but I am the guy that will keep getting up, no matter what…\xa0

I am going to leave you with this quote. I don’t remember where I pulled this quote, but I do know it really hit me when I read it: “We do this out of love, and to love is to be vulnerable, and to be willing to be wounded.”\xa0

I love you all, have the best Thursday ever.
Chernow