Over the last years I’ve exchanged lots of mails with some Gurus like Gary Regan, Hidetsugu Ueno, Stanislav Vadrna, Dom Costa during my Bartender crisis (who has never had one?) and had amazing inputs on subjects like:

— The perfect workplace
As a Bartender you need to be able to shape yourself and adapt to the different challenges and work surroundings (without loosing your identity, of course), it’s not an easy task but with tolerance, patience, respect and time, you’ll be fine!

All living species are born with a sense of adaptation.

— Devil wears Ego
Just do your things bro!!

And well too, since doing them well or bad takes the exact same time (actually doing them bad you need the time to fix it, no?)

Why do you need to show off? You’re already on stage behind the Bar, so what’s the need to push it further?

Why if someone orders a Vodka & Cranberry you look at him as if he was idiot…and think you’re not there for this sh….??

Why when visiting a colleague in a Bar you give him an hard time?

Wouldn’t it be nice to take a deep breath, pause and think: “would I be happy if someone will act the same way back at me?”

— The pressure of Worldwide Bartending
Once I was talking to the great Mauro Lotti, unforgettable Bartender of the Grand Hotel in Rome during “La Dolce Vita” and he told me: “Has a Barmanager it is your duty to have an agenda and write the likes and dislikes of your customers as well as their telephone numbers to contact them everytime there is a Party/Event you would like them to join!!”

I was speechless…but today we do it with files, Facebook, Iphone reminders, no? So the principle is (nearly) the same.

Blogs, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, they’re all fine, just imagine how this profession was in the Old Times without this powerful tools that in a matter of seconds enable us to get an incredible amount of information.

Sometime all this information can put us in a state of mind of always wanting to know more, have
more spirits/tools/books, wanting to always get a better job position, leaving us with a feeling of never being good enough..

On top spending a life doing long shifts, web researching and extra work on your days off, not having a social life, do we really need to feel that way?

I don’t think so!! As long as you’re the best for you guest, here and know, all the rest will come to you, you’ll be amazed!

— Complaining about what happens in life
Instead of complaining about how things turn out, use this energy to do the work that will determine how they turn out.

Only from the moment you start ACTING on the problems you’ll see a completely new scenario in front of you.

— The power to say NO
As Bartenders, even outside work ,we are most of the times inclined to say YES to things that happens around us and to people’s requests

So what about start setting priorities and freeing ourselves from this big weight??

This video will keep you thinking..

— Your IDENTITY after work
You are a person and THEN you are a Bartender, that’s all!!
I’ve seen a lot of colleagues that don’t go out with certain people because they’re not part of “the business” or they’re not considered worth enough hanging out with..

Or they only go to places where they’re well know in order to be seen and (once again) fullfill their EGO’s thirst.

What’s with this crap?

Once you take off your uniform our SOUL needs to detach and be back, carrying out our normal life with walks, movies, friends, family, hobbies, so please start reconsidering the whole scenario.

SOME of this represent my mistakes at the beginning of this wonderful career, and thinking back on them, they made me feel lonely and miserable and I wanted to share them with you all, begging you not to do the same, in order to lead a peaceful life and really ENJOY your profession at the fullest, as I’m doing NOW !!

And please don’t take yourself..TOO SERIOUSLY

Max La Rocca