We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jestin Lahair a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jestin, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
There is no one thing that constitutes success. Success is a recipe with several ingredients. It requires you to have passion for what you do. Learning what you are capable of can be fun and exciting but it’s also important to keep moving forward without losing perspective. Along with that it takes hard work, self-awareness, analytical ability and the motivation to do a thorough job. And all of that takes discipline. Discipline might just be the most essential ingredient to being successful. The act of setting goals and making plans would be pointless without the discipline to carry them out.
Jestin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Jestin and I’m 28. I recently got married to my beautiful wife, Rachel, and when I’m not driving her up a wall or on the road with work I’m spending my free time on one of my many hobbies. I’ve been working for Spectrum Catering going on six years. I started working there as a warehouse worker and before Covid had made my way up to being part of the equipment team on the Cirque de Sol tour. While the catering business was on hiatus due to the pandemic I had to pursue other ventures until things picked back up. Fast forward to the beginning of 2022, they started pulling people back in for tours and before I knew it they were offering me a spot on the PGA Tour working as Site Operations Manager and Sous Chef under Chef Price.
Now, I’ve always considered myself a cook. It didn’t matter the occasion, I was always down to cook something up for my friends and family. I loved to experiment and try new things. That, of course, had varying results! So when I was faced with this opportunity to learn new things and fine tune the skills I already had, I couldn’t pass it up.
Right off the bat I learned so much – how to pick out the best tools, cooking techniques, proper knife handling, timing, how to communicate with a full kitchen staff and so on. It was a lot but I loved every minute of it. I couldn’t wait to go home and show off my newly acquired skills.
Start to finish it’s been a great experience and I find it hard to believe how far I’ve come. I can’t wait to continue on, to keep learning and honing the skills I learn along the way. I’ve worked hard every step of the way and I’m proud of the work my team and I have done.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The ability to bring people together and see the delight and satisfaction on their face -that’s truly something to cherish and strive for. There is no greater reward.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
How to hold a knife. You grow up doing things a certain way, it’s ingrained in you forever and you’re sure that THAT’S the way it’s supposed to be done. When I started working under Chef Price he told me straight up ‘You’re doing it wrong, you’re going to end up cutting yourself if you keep doing it that way.’ Well, he wasn’t wrong. I did end up cutting myself. Thankfully, I have since improved significantly.
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