Who’s your Bigfoot?
We all have had that one boss, mentor, or teacher who always surprised us by how much more she got out of us than the others ever could.
It’s the late 1980s. Anthony Bourdain, not yet the celebrity chef and travel documentarian, is 30ish. He’s in his own words ‘burnt out from my five-year run in the restaurant netherworld as a not very good chef — in rehab for heroin, still doing cocaine, broke — and reduced to…’ You get the drift.
Desperate, he answers a call for a lunch chef at a new bistro in NYC. While in cooking school, he has worked for this restaurateur he calls Bigfoot. But that’s a decade ago. Bourdain’s well aware that his reputation as a cokehead now precedes him.
On his very first day at work, Bourdain asks Bigfoot to lend him 25 bucks until payday. Bigfoot reaches into his pocket and pulls out two hundred dollar bills.
Bourdain goes on to write: ‘…he must’ve had every reason to believe I’d disappear with the two bills, spend it on crack, and never show up…. I was so shaken by his baseless trust in me… that I determined I’d sooner gnaw my own fingers off, gouge my eyes out with a shellfish fork and run naked down Seventh Avenue than ever betray that trust’.
💡This reaction from Bourdain — such a reaction — is what’s called the Pygmalion effect. Positive expectation can change behavior positively, leading to better performance.
How we see ourselves often depends on how others we respect see us. In their belief rests our belief. In their doubt lies ours. This is not just as kids. It continues well after.
Those around us are constantly labeling us. Their labels decide the choices we make for ourselves. Their expectations have the power to limit or spur us. This is not a post about breaking free of others’ expectations. It is about finding those who see the best in us. It is about finding your own Bigfoot.
Bigfoot wasn’t always giving. But he was generous where it mattered. Bourdain credits Bigfoot as the guy who ‘transformed me from a bright but druggie fuck-up into a serious, capable and responsible chef’.
Who’s your Bigfoot?
