Day 2: The story of the five star restaurant and the soup kitchen or: Are you getting paid what you are worth?

Day 2 of “The fine restaurant and the soup kitchen” talks about the consequences of giving without receiving. Both have to be in balance to maintain the wonderful service.

Do you remember yesterday’s story of the soup kitchen and the restaurant?

Does this story ring a bell for you? Do you feel like a five star restaurant where people come and go, expecting to receive the best from you because they have great need, but don’t reimburse you for what they received? Do you feel increasingly desperate because those that you help get better, while you are struggling to pay the bills?

OK, let me take you by the hand for a moment and let’s think this through:

Think about what will happen to the fine restaurant, after the word spreads that everything is free:

The word will spread in the soup kitchen that there is better food available for free. The owner will continue to feel grateful to be able to help so many. Eventually, the other guests will begin to find it unfair that they have to pay while others don’t. In order to feed the many hungry, the owner will have to change the fine menu, lower the quality of the food and find ways to make ends meet. He will increasingly struggle, sacrificing his savings and the good relationship with his paying customers.

His guests will begin to wonder what happened to their fine culinary retreat. They will have to find a new place to relax and take a break from their hard day’s work.

Eventually, the restaurant owner will go bankrupt, and the people he fed for free will have to return to the soup kitchen. The restaurant owner will join them there, sad and overwhelmed by what happened to his life and his dreams.

And in addition, the free guests will be very uncomfortable for having caused this situation, as this was certainly not their intention to hurt the owner.

Something went wrong that could have been prevented for everybody’s highest good, and without sacrificing what is true and important about helping those in need.

Let’s talk about this tomorrow!

Love

Ingrid