I looked at him and said, "Have you ever been to Portland's Saturday Market?" (I should explain that the Saturday Market is familiar to many across the country. You know... the craft fairs and flea markets. Where entrepreneurs gather to sell their crafts and services.)

"Yep", he answers in a quizzical tone.

Well, here in my restaurant, I'm in the same boat at the entrepreneurs at the Saturday Market. You see my "booth" is my five-table section and my success is completely determined by what I am willing to do with it. Ok, yes I am an employee. But, when I encounter my customers they only see me... I am the owner. I am everything they expect to happen. In my customer's eyes I am responsible for everything that happens to them during their visit... at my Saturday Market booth.

Now on a practical basis that's a ridiculous concept. But, the reality of my being "in charge" of my opportunity to stage myself for professional and financial success is to understand and appreciate what an entrepreneurial opportunity I have handed to me as a professional waiter. I dream of having my own business, but on the immediate, I don't have the resources to make that happen. I worked another career for ten years that was based on the concept of using other people's money to get ahead... insurance. (A dignified profession I might add.)

Well, I got hired as a waiter (not so dignified in some eyes) by a restaurateur who handed to me a facility (a clean facility with polished table tops and no sticky "gak" on the bottoms) that cost over $1,000,000. They also gave a food and beverage inventory exceeding $70,000 to offer my customers. They also provided an accounting department to calculate my business costs (to save a buck) such as taxes, health insurance, vacation pay, and even retirement. Plus, an executive division to plan my future profitable expansion (and managers to execute effective daily operations, staffing levels, guidance, and personal support to satisfy my customers). They even hired and trained a professional in-house support staff (other waitstaff, hosts, bartenders, cocktail servers, cooks, and dishwashers) so I could focus on my customers' needs and requests. Why, they even paid thousand of dollars for advertising to bring in customers for me. All of this for my own personal use!

You know what's crazy? The first day I showed up they paid me an hourly wage... without ever selling a thing for them! But you know what is really, I mean REALLY NUTS? I get all this opportunity handed to me... for nothing. I didn't have to pay a dime for any of it. All I have to do is show up and invest creative professional effort using the resources given to me. I am responsible for my future. My challenge is how am I going to maximize all this opportunity given to me at no cost?

Who says I'm not an entrepreneur? All I have to do is think like a businessperson. I have my own business as a waiter...

A dignified profession, I must add!!

(Paz wrote this in 1986 for Restaurants and Institutions Magazine’s “Year of the Waiter” contest. It was published October 1987 in Restaurants and Institutions)