I’ve been watching a TV show on Netflix called Chefs Table. For the record – just brilliant! All the chefs had traits in common, one being the need to be the very best and succeed.

The first chef in the series is a young man named

Massimo Bottura.

That's him above.

He decided to open his place first in Italy. It was average and he couldn’t find his flow. In fact, he struggled for years living and only just surviving on crumbs.

One day an old lady knocked on his door. She was in her sixties and a very typical older rounder Italian mamma, dressed in a floral country dress with her long hair tied in a bun. She was well fed but had one problem, she was losing her eyesight.

The young guy laughed.

She said I could help you make a certain dish incredibly well. That dish being particular pasta.

She left saying she lived just across the road, and he could give her a call anytime.

The young guy smiled and thought it would be nice to help out an old lady.

That lady changed his life and was the mentor he needed to propel him into worldwide fame.

Here is why.

She had what you cannot buy from a book and that was her experience and time in her life from years before.

She had what he didn’t and that was time and experience creating pasta the way it of the old traditions of Italy.

She also had technique he had never seen. This technique had been passed through generations from her grandparents and grandparents before.

It wasn’t written in books but if you tasted you knew it was the real thing.

Massimo couldn’t get enough of her and her knowledge. He was and is a famous chef that wanted to be famous for his great work. She had given him the keys to his chef kingdom to the point Massimo started to gather his Michelin stars (recognition).

One day he had a call from Paris. Not just Paris but Paris’s top restaurateur. They had called to ask him if he would join them in Paris and teach them what the old lady had taught him.

He went and one thing led to another including his long stay in New York where he met his wife.

Finally, he had fame, he had glory and he had a restaurant that had been voted the world's best at what he does.

I loved the end of the documentary and here is why.

Massimo had everything yet he decided to walk away from what he had to start again – strip it all back and give more thought to his work at a root level.

So he went back to Italy, found his old mentor who was still living, set up a new restaurant and placed her in charge of training a particular pasta.

He lives there with his wife, their children and the old lady who not only still trains his team but he says to this day gave him what he has right now

Again the show is on Netflix and it is called Chefs Table.

Not that long ago I had an email from a young woman. She had been a mentor-student of mine. During her mentoring, she wasn’t quite sure what direction she wanted to go yet her father insisted that she work with me.

Anyway, I got her email and it simply said that she had got a job with Ogilvy Agency. During the interview, she told them she had worked with and been trained by no other than - Alan Forrest Smith. Thankfully the interviewer knew of me and gave her the job despite her lack of experience.

No, she isn’t a copywriter making tonnes of cash yet she got her dream job after college and that make her happy.

Today ... This morning I had a call from a very good friend. We met in 2005 when I first mentored him. Honestly, he was all over the place and very very broke with another failing business under his belt. Through working with me, he discovered direct marketing, headline writing, strategies and just about everything direct marketing.

His current business is now in its fourth year. His takings online alone are just under £900,000.

His takings offline are around £300,000. When we met he was dead broke. We are now best of friends.

The point being is this.

Everything starts somewhere – everything.

Everything is connected to the last part of the puzzle.

It all leads to where you are right now.

Time and life aren’t long enough to endlessly hope and pray it’ll work… is it?

I hope you enjoyed the Chef story. Go and watch for yourself.

MENTOR & ALLIANCE

Right now I have space for a MENTOR client and an Alliance Partner.

NOTE: Places are limited so might have gone long before you found this post. If that is the case pelase stay in tocuh, I'd love to help you succeed.Is this a moment where things could take a turn in the direction for the better?

Is this a moment where things could take a turn in the direction for the better?

This is the difference between success and failure.

That is your choice of course.

You know where I am.

Iconoclast Collective OrangeBeetle 2nd Floor 213 Ashley Road Hale Cheshire WA159TB (Above Thornley Groves Estate Agency)

Tele: 00 44 (0)161 928 838 (office hours) Text: 0044 (0) 7793069486 (text anytime any day) Email alan @ orangebeetle.com

Or hit reply and let's start a conversation to see where we can take your life and business.

Your mentor

Alan Forrest Smith

Ps

Massimo's website is here

http://www.osteriafrancescana.it

Address: Via Stella, 22, 41121 Modena MO, Italy

Book here: Phone: +39 059 223912