The Restaurant vs the Cooking Lesson

Some people want to be trained. Some want to learn how to train themselves.

One of the books that gave me the confidence to make a business out of this is a book called the $100 Startup by Chris Gullebeau. It’s a great book for someone who wants to start their own business but isn’t interested in being a typical “startup”. If you just want to create something, help people, or serve people in some way and don’t want to be the next Facebook or go through the whole venture capital cycle, it is worth a read.

Having said that, there is one part that I thought was especially interesting. He talks about how a business should give people what they want. He describes a restaurant where you go, sit down, choose your meal, and then the waiter/waitress comes out and tells you that they’re ready for you in the kitchen so that you can make your own meal. Most people wouldn’t want to come back. His point is that a business should provide what the customer actually wants and not bog them down in the details of what is going on behind the scenes.

There’s just one problem. I can name four people right off the top of my head who would love that. I often gift my wife with a couple’s cooking class where this is pretty much exactly what happens. Not only is she happy to do it, she is more than happy to pay extra.

The $100 Startup would argue that I should be taking people, putting them through workouts, and leaving the planning, analysis, and general programing behind the curtain. In my experience, there’s definitely a subset of trainees who want that. They don’t even want to know what they’ll be doing on any given day. Some trainees want to show up, be told what to do, and not think about it again until next time. On the other hand, there are trainees I have who want to understand everything about what they’re doing. Why do I put certain exercises on certain days? Why different rep/set schemes for certain exercises. What is the next step after we reach certain milestones? I actually like these questions and will often go on far too long about them and need to cut myself off.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either approach, and most people want some combination. You should never be afraid to ask questions, but if you just feel like going through things step by step, that can be a really freeing way to train as well.