- For 20 years, I'd worked to realize my dream.
Things don't happen overnight.
If you need to be a rebel, make sure you win.
If you're going to be a revolutionary,
then fight for what you truly believe in.
Success, what you want to speak about,
is born out of arrogance.
People thinkin' they're good.
But greatness comes from humility.
- He's a British chef, restauranteur
and television personality.
He has been dubbed, "The First Celebrity Chef."
He was, at the time, the youngest chef
to receive three Michelin stars.
He's Marco Pierre White.
And here's my take on his top 10 rules for success.
And as always, guys, when you're watching the videos,
if you hear something that really resonates with you,
please leave it down in the comments below.
And put quotes around it,
so other people can be inspired as well.
Also, as you are writing something down
it's much more likely to stick in your head too.
Enjoy.
- My head chef, Robert Reed said to me,
"So, where do we go from here, Marko?"
And I said to him,
"When I was a young boy,
"Mr. Reed used to tell me abour a restaurant
"in Paris called La Serre, which was the ultimate,
"because it had three stars in Michelin
"and five red knives and forks."
I said, "We got three stars
"and four black knives and forks.
"Let's go for five red knives and forks."
For the next three years
we pushed and we pushed and we pushed
and we did everything.
In January '98,
we won our three stars with five red knives and forks.
I'd realized my dream all those years later.
And that dream I had when I was 17 years old,
I was now 37 years old,
so, for 20 years I'd worked to realize my dream.
Things don't happen overnight.
You have to make the emotional, the personal investment
to make your dreams come true.
Many people have condemned me for being controversial.
I was never controversial.
As I've always said, most of my reputation
is the product of exaggeration and ignorance.
Did I shout?
Yes I did.
But, I led from the front.
I nailed my colors to the mast.
I fought for my profession.
If you're going to be a rebel, make sure you win.
If you're going to be a revolutionary,
then fight for what you truly believe in.
And that's all I ever did.
And the boys behind me, they followed me.
My father sent me to Harrogate, which was a spa town,
and told me to find a job.
The most daunting task in my life.
And I went to Harrogate and I found a job
at the Hotel St. George in Harrogate.
And I started there on the 20th of March, 1978.
It wasn't great food,
but what they taught me was how to push,
how to run, how to be consistent,
because consistency is born out of discipline.
How never to be late.
How to go to work when you're not feeling well
and let the chef send you home.
Success is born out of luck.
It's an awareness of mind
that takes advantage of that opportunity.
You'll all be confronted with opportunity.
You must take advantage of it,
because, if you don't take advantage of your opportunity,
you'll never realize your dreams.
Whether you want them or not is irrelevance.
You don't know that until you achieve it.
I think what gave me the drive to succeed
was my insecurities.
Reading, writing, struggling.
It gave me that individual drive to prove myself,
because I'd been belittled at school.
I've never been taken serious.
I was always looked upon as being a fool, as being stupid.
So, it was the fuel behind me,
and that's what made me work far harder,
was to prove to my father and other individuals,
including several teachers,
that, you know, maybe I struggled with reading and writing,
but I had and possess other great qualities.
So, had I been dealt with as a child,
I may never had the energy or the fuel
to drive me to get to where I got.
I'm not a celebrity, I'm not a talent,
I'm no one special, I'm like everyone else in this world.
What I crave is ordinary, which I said to you earlier,
is I come to work and I do my job,
and my job today, really, if I'm honest,
is inspiring the young, like having the catering students
come and visit me this afternoon
and show me respect and kindness.
And I only hope that my stories and my philosophies
and my thoughts inspire them.
The last thing I said to them today
is a story is more important than a recipe.
A recipe can confuse you, but a story can inspire you.
When I was a young boy,
I had that privilege of working with people
like the great Michael Lawson at The Box Tree.
The great owners of The Box Tree, Mr. Reed and Mr. Long.
Ken Lamb the baker.
Albert Pierre Kalfon, the great Ramon Balan.
What did they really teach me?
Was how to tell stories.
How to inspire people.
That's what's important.
I've had lots of bad luck in my life.
But, I think having bad luck is equally as important.
Because, when you have bad luck in life,
you have to reflect,
you have to take the knowledge from that experience.
We've all been treated badly.
We've all made mistakes.
We've all had bad luck.
So, what we have to do is reflect,
take the knowledge from the experience,
and then allow it to enrich our life.
It's as simple as that.
And, let's be honest,
when people do you have any regrets Marco, I say, "No."
Because had it not been for all those mistakes I made
I wouldn't have the knowledge that I have today,
I wouldn't have the experience that I have today,
because mistakes are fine
as long as you take the knowledge from the mistake.
And, so, the one thing my father gave me,
which is really key, was that work ethic.
That ability to get myself up in the morning
no matter how tired I was
to push myself through those pain barriers.
And, again, the combination of the loss of a mother at six
and, then, being sent out to work at 10,
I mean, started work at five o'clock in the morning
through the milk round,
being dropped off at 8:45 at school in the milk van,
you know, that work ethic,
so, that combination of those two,
work ethic and great insecurity
was what got me to where I went to.
I turned my dream into reality.
But, sometimes reality is not what you think it is.
Winning three stars
was the most exciting journey of my life.
Then, the day comes where you're king of your world.
And people views of you now change,
because you're up there,
and you have to play a systematic game.
It's a formula.
You just roll out the same dishes day in, day out.
And then, you know,
I sat down one day and thought to myself,
"Do I really want to do this anymore?
It's not pleasurable."
And, so, I sat down and I thought to myself,
"What are my options?"
My first option was to continue working six days a week,
between 80 and 100 hours a week.
My second option, live a lie.
Pretend I cook when I don't cook.
My third option was to pluck up the courage from within,
to give back my stars,
to abdicate from my position,
to accept that tomorrow I'm unemployed, I have no status.
But, what do I have?
I have an opportunity to discover myself as a person
and to let go of everything that I've ever worked for,
to let go of my status,
to walk away from my dream is a very tough decision.
And, one day, a little thought just drifted into my mind.
And that little thought was
that I am being judged
by people who have less knowledge than me.
So, what is it all worth?
Very little.
And, so, that's what gave me the courage to walk away.
You have to fight the ego every day.
The ego is the most extraordinary part of us,
because, when we think we've suppressed it
and we've beaten it,
it manifests itself into another form and another shape
and starts to take you over again.
And, so, every day you have to fight the ego
and allow the humility to come through, in my opinion,
and, by allowing humility to come through,
because, let's be honest,
success, which you want to speak about,
is born out of arrogance.
People thinkin' they're good.
But, greatness comes from humility.
And, being successful is not good enough.
It's all about being great at whatever we go in life.
You can have the most humble job in the world,
but you can be truly great.
You can be a humble guy, but you can be a great person.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because Ian Atkins asked me to.
So, if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to profile next,
leave it down in the comments below
and I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to know what did Marco say
that had the biggest impact on you and why.
What did you learn from this video
that you're going to immediately apply to your life
or to your business?
Leave it in the comments and I'll see what I can do.
Finally, I want to give a quick shout out
to Anastasia Zinchenko,
thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book,
Your One Word,
and making that awesome YouTube video on it as well.
I really, really, really appreciate your support.
- Believe in yourself, believe in your abilities,
and believe in your future.
- So, thank you guys again for watching.
I believe in you.
I hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one word is.
Much love, I'll see you soon.