The Best Trading Advice Comes From A Guy Who Makes Tapas

Unless you are a foodie the name Jose Andres will mean nothing to you. But in the restaurant world, Mr. Andres is a big deal. He owns 26 restaurants across the world, several of which carry Michelin stars. Ha has also been the face of Puerto Rican relief, serving more than 100,000 meals in PR daily.

In short, Mr. Andres is what my grandmother would call a mensch — a good and decent person who also has done well for himself.

Although I’ve known about Mr. Andres for years and have even eaten at his Las Vegas restaurant, I really didn’t give the man much thought until I came across a Business Insider profile of him.

Unlike many Emperor Chefs who brook no criticism, Mr. Andres has stayed humble and in fact, does something remarkable that caught my eye. Every day, before he starts his day Mr. Andres reads every Yelp review of his restaurant. Unlike most chefs who refuse to even consider the words of the hoi-polloi, Mr. Andres takes the reviews seriously and tries to instantly fix matters if he considers the complaints to be legitimate.

This is, of course, easier said than done. No one likes to be criticized, least of all chefs who are some of the most domineering personalities in the world. But Mr. Andres uses a very interesting trick to help him cope. As he tells the interviewer,”Thicker skin is something like, José the person, José the chef, inside me, I’m, like, ‘What the heck do those people think? Who are they? I don’t want them in my restaurant anymore,’ which is good to have, but it’s good that you do that internally.

“And then he’s José the businessman, who says, ‘Man, this is free advice that I should thank the person for, taking the time, and this we will use to communicate.’ Every day on my phone, I receive reports of every restaurant, social media, comments in-house by the guests. We use them. We don’t use them every day, but sometimes maybe something needs immediate attention and other things is information you put together and then three, six months later, you say, ‘Listen, look at the pattern here.’”