8 Business Lessons from Julia Child
Posted by Emily Brooks
Julia Child has been called one of the most beloved figures in twentieth-century American culture. She had a source of inner power that the food industry has spent millions trying to replicate. People trusted Julia Child. She was a rare celebrity who never fell from grace.
There are EIGHT entrepreneurial lessons that can be taken from Julia's life as it is every entrepreneur's dream to accomplish what she did: to single-handedly change the world and make it a better place, while finding one's own happiness in the process.
Lesson # 1 Do What You Are - Refuse To Fit The Stereotypical Mold
At 6'2" with a nasally voice that could summon lost ships at sea, a contagious sense of humor, and a bluntness that made many shudder, Julia did not fit the typical mold of a diminutive, nonopined housewife. She spent nearly 50 years on television and has remained in our memories alongside Lucille Ball, Steve Allen, and Milton Berle. She allowed herself to make mistakes and laughed alongside with us as she did so. She swam against the tide, didn't fit any existing "pretty girl" categories, refused to invent a palatable character through which to placate us, staged no formal stunts, and proceeded to use her media time to hold true to herself and her mission - to teach.
Lesson # 2 Fail Gracefully, but Never Make The Same Mistake Twice
For all of Julia's endless, obsessive study of her craft, she clearly understood that failure might still have a horrible way of occasionally seizing control. Chin held high, Julia said "I don't believe in these women who are always apologizing for their food. If it is vile, the cook must just grin and bear it, with no word of excuse. Never apologize." The other side of that coin, when failures graced her table and her life, the harder she worked. It's safe to say that she never made the same mistake twice.
Lesson # 3 Learn, Study. Study, learn, and Study Again.
Julia Child was a detailed perfectionist. She spent long hours in the kitchen under hard labor, writing page after page of instructions. She tested and retested, often remaking the same dish 10 times or more in one day. Cooking was Julia's passion. It lit a fire in her soul, but she didn't just rest on those laurels. She mastered her own skill set to keep that fire burning. "Life is hard & earnest," she scribbled. "Most pains - most results. If you know what doing - half battle is won." And she is right! There are too many books and articles on how to do things quickly, and very few on how to do things right.
Lesson # 4 Climb Obstacles and Master Doubt
It took Julia Child nearly 10 years to write and publish Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She suffered through multiple publishing houses, defended her stance (against current popular trends towards convenience foods) that American cooks actually want to learn to do what chefs do, in their own kitchens. Her first draft of Mastering, which only included 2 chapters to that point on poultry and sauces, exceeded over 800 pages. The book was rejected outright. "I am deeply depressed, gnawed by doubts, and feel that all our hard work may just lay a big rotten egg."
While doubts come, Julia also was wise enough to let them go again. She trimmed her recipes, abandoned her plans to write a gigantic treatise to French cooking and, capitulating to Americans need for speed, decided to "prepare a short and snappy book directed to the somewhat sophisticated housewife-chauffeur. Everything would be simpler, but nothing humdrum." The new manuscript ran about 300 pages, requiring another year and a half of hard labor, another agonizing round of finding a publisher, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking was finally published in October of 1961.
Lesson # 5 Trust Thyself And Thine Own Expertise
When Mastering was finally published in 1961, it sold only about 16,000 copies. Knopf, the book's publisher didn't really want to invest in advertising, and wasn't particularly interested in pushing sales. "Our publishers really are about as unbusinesslike as any I have encountered," Julia fumed. Quit? NO. Julia and her co-author Simca, created and funded their own media tour. In its second year, 65 thousand books had gone out; orders were coming in faster than the book could be printed. Twelve years later in 1974, Mastering appeared on the New York Times list of the century's best-selling cookbooks, with 1.3 million copies sold. And more than half a century after publication, Julia's book still sells more than 20,000 copies per year.
Lesson # 6 Tend Your Image Carefully
Julia tended her public image with great care. The only photographs allowed to be used were the ones taken by her husband Paul. She believed that commercial endorsements were demeaning, and that they tarnished one's reputation. She held her stance firm on that point, and kept her name free of commercial taint throughout her career. She closely guarded her privacy, and vigilantly controlled her media exposure.
Lesson # 7 "Bon courage!" Be of Good Courage!
Julia's sign off to the famous flopped-potato-cake show is wise advice not only to home cooks but all entrepreneurs. Julia held her personal beliefs in line with her craft and her mission. Whether you agree with her opinions or not, she believed in herself and, knew her path, and stuck to her guns.
Lesson # 8 Support All Of Those Around You
Julia Child generously supported the career aspirations of every gifted cook who came her way, regardless of her prejudices. Why? Because it was the art of cooking itself that was important, and she simply would not allow any prejudice, not even her own, to rob the world of a good chef. Julia fostered and encouraged her cooking competitors. In doing so, she single-handedly launched a new generation of "wacky, off-the-wall" newcomers, like Alice Waters, who in turn have shaped the American culinary landscape in their own way.
Julia Child has much to teach entrepreneurs. She followed one simple dogma: To Thine Own Self Be True. In doing so she forged a career path that made her personal life both happy and fulfilled, and she nurtured her competitors without threat to her own brand. Julia Child found what made HER happy. Her tools and the product she sold were perfectly cut onions, the right wrist angle for lacing caramel, and copper pots with singed bottoms.
When Julia Child died and our country mourned, it was clear that we never remembered anything about veal Prince Orloff. What we do remember is that Julia taught us that determination is what really matters, that skill is the only shortcut anyone in any situation will ever need, and that any task that takes a long time is probably worth it.
She used the skill of perfectly measuring the temperature of roasted duck to teach us something more important: cuisine as an art form, available to everybody as a joyful endeavor of love.
Edibles Advocate Alliance Products & Services: