For a little while now, I’ve been thinking about writing a piece about the fact that when people have No Vested Interest in a whatever it is that they do, they do not truly care about what happens to the overall outcome of their whatever.
 
The fact is, there is always that One Person who has the All-In about that Some Thing. That individual who must make it survive. And then, there is the everyone else—those who maybe cares a little bit, but, at the end of the day, they are not Where the Buck Stops Here, so they do not really care all that much.
 
This idea kind of all came home today when I went to have breakfast at this new restaurant in my area. The first time I went there, it was all great. The service was good, and the food was great. Then, today, I went in, and it was a completely different experience.
 
What happened was, we put in our orders, and we literally waited thirty-five minutes for our meals to be brought to us. This, while I could see the staff and the servers and the chefs all laughing and joking and having a good time in the back. I mean, fun is fun—happy is happy, and that’s all good. But, not on the dime of the customer.
 
The thing that kind of really drove me over the edge was—just at the point when I was saying to my lady, “I’m going to ask for the check and leave,” I saw one of the servers brushing her long brown hair in the kitchen. I mean, I love long hair. All good! But, that is a literally a health code violation to be brushing your hair in the kitchen of a restaurant, at least here in California.
 
Finally, the food was brought to us, after I asked about it two times. It was good. I’ve eaten here/there before. But, there is no excuse for the wait, as there were only two other couples in the restaurant at the time.
 
Why this happened, I do not know? The server said to us, “The chef forgot our order.” What!
 
In any case, when we were done, almost immediately, I wrote my second Yelp review for the restaurant. My first one was four stars. My second one was a one star review. Within just a few minutes, the owner postered a comment and apologized. That’s very unusual. He is obviously watching his restaurant very closely and taking stock of his staff. He said that, yes, it was a health code violation what the female server did by brushing her hair in the kitchen, and that he would speak to his employees about what took place, and he hoped I would return.
 
Here's the things… And, the point to all of this… If you don’t care, you don’t care. That’s just a fact of life. Generally, when you are a young person, with your whole life in front of you, you believe that your life will become that something grand and that something MORE. So maybe, you do your job with a focused level of excellence, understanding that each step your take equals your next set of choices in your life. Or, maybe you do not. But, at the end of the day, many believe, who cares? There’s that other bigger and better job just around the corner. …That great life waiting for me.
 
If you’ve ever owned a business. If you’ve ever been a true creator. If you’ve made a film, or something like that, you know that it is essential that you, the central focus of that whatever, must be one-hundred precent in, as it is you who must make it happen. For, it is you in the bullseye. But, in endeavors like this, you must also bring on a staff, a cast, a crew together. If it does not happen, if it does not thrive, then all you have done to make it happens does not matter. But, if someone else messes the process up for you, that is the ultimate crime. For they did not have the vision. They did not hold the dream. They did not really care. All they did was to crush what you envisioned. How wrong is that?
 
The fact of the facts is, in any endeavor, there may always be those, below the central creative force of the whatever, who do not really care that much. If it succeeds, that’s fine. If it fails, oh well, who cares? There’s another job around the corner.  
 
Why is it so easy for them to not care? Because it is not them who must take the fall for the failure.
 
Do you ever think about this? If you are a worker bee, how much do you really care if the queen bee fails and falls and dies? Moreover, when you are doing what you are doing, even if it is as a low-level participant in a project or a job, do you really care what happens to the instigator? If not, why are you there? What does that say about you?
 
I get it, when you are young, you have forever. You believe there will always be a tomorrow and something new and good is just around the corner and it will come to you. You are filled with dreams about the what will be. But, for all of those who hold that belief, how few actually end up living that reality?

Maybe you have a very supportive family and friends. And, that is all a good thing! But, if you cannot care about what you are doing in any moment when the career and the investments of that someone else are at stake—if you are not giving one-hundred precent, don’t you believe that you should just leave and be somewhere else, where your actions are not affecting and hurting the overall life of the person or the business you are representing?
 
If you have no vested interest, you have no vested interest. But, if you have no vested interest and you do your job with disregard for the greater whole and the everyone else, all you have created is an atmosphere of calamity that will eventually come back and take its toll on you. 
 
Remember this!