LET’S MEAT: Stories, Lessons, and Reflections on My Life in the Meat Business

This book is about a life in the meat business. It contains a little about a lot. It has some personal history, an early personal tragedy, it’s a little emotional, contains a lot of frustrations and a lot of honesty. There are a few interesting stories, a lot of valuable lessons and some guidance on how to create worksheets to collect and sort data. It contains an interesting conflict between a subordinate and a superior that doesn’t end well for one of them. The purpose of this book is to give some insight into a business that most people really don’t know anything about. Until the 1980’s primarily a blue-collar business run by some smart men grinding out profits by the pennies. A business that wasn’t and still isn’t for everyone. Only a select group of people who can get up every day knowing there is no finish line and can withstand an ever-changing environment, vicious competition that doesn’t always play by the rules, ever changing markets that can change in the blink of an eye and the pressure to continually “meat” the bottom line until you say, I had enough. After reading this book my hope is that you walk away from it with an understanding of the behind the scenes work that goes into getting that steak you see under the glass at your local butcher shop or supermarket and all those delicious deli meats and salads at your favorite deli. That you can takeaway an idea, learn something from one of the lessons that you can use to help with your everyday routine or use to help you work better with your teams and customers. If nothing else, you enjoyed reading it and it helped you relax and get a few smiles trying to visualize me trying to stick the devils head out the porthole plane window. Over a 55 plus year career I can break it down by using Jack Welch’s 20-70-10 rule. 20% learning, 70% doing and 10% BS.