18/11/2025
🔥 I’m about to say something 99% of restaurant coaches would never dare to say — but every restaurant owner needs to hear.
Today this post appeared in my feed.
Hundreds of likes. Dozens of comments praising it like it’s a holy scripture of hospitality.
And in just a few words, it represents everything I proudly — and loudly — do NOT believe.
I won’t mention the coach who posted it, because this is not a personal attack.
He’s not the problem.
The mentality behind this message is the problem.
And I didn’t comment under his post out of respect — for him, and for the many people who jumped on that train so passionately.
It would have been useless and unnecessary.
Some conversations are better held with the people who are ready to hear the truth, not with those who are comfortable in the illusion.
This unconditional, one-way-only worship of the customer…
This fantasy that “every guest must leave feeling better than when they arrived”…
This is the exact ideology that destroyed the restaurant industry.
It’s outdated.
It’s unrealistic.
It’s disrespectful to every server, cook, chef, manager, and owner who deals with the public today.
And it perfectly highlights the difference between me and thousands of restaurant coaches out there.
They sell what people want to hear.
I sell what people need to hear.
And honestly, I hope one day some of these coaches stop chasing the extra buck and stop feeding this industry with fairy tales.
Restaurants don’t need motivational posters.
They need truth, real solutions, comfort, and real help — because this industry is desperate for change.
Here’s one truth nobody wants to say out loud:
**The biggest mistake today is treating every customer the same.
They are NOT the same — and they do NOT all deserve the same treatment.**
It’s not a one-way road.
Good customers deserve your best.
Bad customers deserve boundaries.
Period.
The future of this industry is authenticity — not fakery.
Feeling good about the people you serve.
Demanding respect.
Creating an environment where you genuinely enjoy your guests.
NOT trying to make everyone happy.
We are not in the convincing business.
We are not in the slave business.
We are not in the prostitution business.
We are in the hospitality business — and that only works when respect goes both ways.
And here’s something else the “customer-is-god” coaches will NEVER tell you:
I ran the controversial Botto Bistro successfully for 10 years — and for two decades I’ve been doing the complete opposite of what they teach.
According to their logic, I should have been out of business a thousand times.
But I didn’t.
And not only did I survive — I thrived.
I built a smoother business, a happier life, a stronger culture, less chaos, fewer headaches, and I certainly never walked on eggshells for anyone.
I beat entitlement.
I beat Yelp.
I lived in peace, not fear.
And I did it all by rejecting the corporate fantasy they keep selling as “good hospitality.”
And today, my clients and I continue to do exactly that — every single day — without selling our soul to a god that is everything but a god.
This “make every guest leave happier” mentality didn’t just create entitled customers — it created monsters.
People who walk into restaurants with zero respect, unrealistic expectations, and the confidence to act however they want because the industry taught them they’re gods.
And you know who pays?
Owners. Staff. Everyone.
And here’s the part nobody talks about — not even the “hospitality gurus” selling this fantasy.
In the past 20 years, the most important thing I learned is this:
Not only the people who work in this industry are exhausted by this “customer-is-god” mentality…
the good customers themselves are damaged by it.
This toxic cloud of entitlement ruins the real restaurant experience for everyone — the honest guests, the loyal regulars, the people who actually respect your business.
They walk into a restaurant under a different energy, a different tension, a different expectation, because the entire culture has been poisoned by a loud minority of entitled customers.
It’s not just the staff suffering.
It’s the good customers too.
When your employees are brainwashed into this thinking, they don’t feel protected or respected.
They feel forced to put on a fake mask and walk on eggshells, terrified to enforce boundaries or say “no” to abuse.
That isn’t hospitality.
That’s humiliation.
A powerful restaurant today has:
Clear rules.
Firm boundaries.
Mutual respect.
Not an open door to tantrums, threats, manipulation, and emotional blackmail.
This entire “every guest must leave feeling amazing” manifesto is corporate ideology — safe to sell, easy to digest, and completely disconnected from reality.
It keeps owners weak and customers entitled.
The saddest part?
Seeing how many people cheer for it.
Not because they’re stupid — but because they’ve been conditioned to believe this is “good business.”
It’s not.
It’s the reason the industry is collapsing.
I’m glad I’m not part of that circus.
And I’m glad I don’t work with the masses.
Yes, I have fewer clients than the feel-good coaches.
But the ones who work with me don’t get fairy tales.
They get their life, respect, sanity, and business back.
And I’m damn proud of that.
They are too.
