On Respect

Nothing means more to me

So I built Omnivore.io, which you may not have heard of unless you are in the restaurant industry. But if you are, you are probably a fan.

I don’t mention it often unless I am interacting with a manager or owner, but then they love to hear about it and talk all about how they use it. And it’s very flattering.

And how I get treated after is a very humbling experience.

The bar near my house where I go to relax has a some great non-alcoholic beverages. Tonight I had five $11 drinks.

And they charged me $5.

I was very touched and made sure to leave a $20 tip. This is very common as the manager and all the servers are huge fans of Omnivore.

My favorite restaurant in Boston, one of the fanciest, also gives me the only booth in the place every time I go, which is the best seat in the house by far, and then gives me a 40% discount, no questions asked. Again, I make sure to leave a huge tip and give lots of gratuitous thanks.

These unbelievable signs of respect are so overwhelmingly meaningful to me and probably the most meaningful reward for having worked so hard to create a piece of technology that so dramatically changed their businesses. It wasn’t the returns. It’s the look on a manager’s face when he tells me all about how they use it in their operations. It’s not about the monetary savings. It’s that they go out of their way for me to show me respect for what I conceived and built.

Nothing in the world is so overwhelmingly rewarding to me.