Hello there. I can't speak to everyone, but I can speak to my personal journey. In my late teens I was working in food service, both of my parents had run resta

Hello there. I can't speak to everyone, but I can speak to my personal journey. In my late teens I was working in food service, both of my parents had run restaurants or been bartenders/servers. I had seen the issues that came from that, and when I went to culinary school in my mid-20s, on the first day they asked everyone "Why are you here, what is your goal?" Most people said "I want to be a chef-owner, I want to open my own restaurant, etc.". My answer: "I want to work in an industry where there is always demand and never open a restaurant on my own dime". And that's what I did. I worked at some of the best restaurants, with some massive multi-unit restaurant groups, and some of the shittiest dives. I loved the work, and the fact that I was never the one scrambling to figure out where the build-out money would come from. I could go to work and focus on making great food. My point is, it doesn't make sense for you, but there are thousands of people out there right now running restaurants they don't have an ownership stake in, and being happy with that choice. Jobs are different things for everyone. Some people want control and power and to show the world their vision, and some people just want to convert time into cash in a way they don't hate.