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Have you seen the movie Chef?
It stars Jon Favreau as he takes his son across the country with his food truck. I loved the movie, so when Netflix came out with The Chef Show last year, I had to watch it.
And now Jon Favreau is my total inspiration/hero/#goals for everything I do in life.
Let me explain.
I first saw him as an actor—Monica’s hilarious billionaire boyfriend in Friends—and I thought of him as that funny and lovable supporting character. Nothing special. Watching The Chef Show I learned more about the films he directed and produced. Then I heard him talk about writing Chef. Dang, this guy writes, directs, produces, and stars in films. Respect.
Then I heard him talk about sitting with the film on the cutting room floor and working through scenes, piecing them together. As someone who edits a lot of videos, it really surprised me to hear how involved and skilled he was at every part of the filmmaking process.
And he’s talking about doing all these things while he’s chopping vegetables and mixing dough with his buddy and celebrated chef, Roy Choi.
Roy Choi was the inspiration for the film Chef and he taught Jon how to cook for the film. “To get comfortable in the kitchen, Choi sent Favreau to a French culinary school and then had him train in several of Choi’s kitchens.” (source)
In episode five of season one, while talking about directing films and making pizza, Jon draws a dragon.
(At this point I feel like I’m describing a dream I had, but stick with me here.)
And it hit me.
This is the kind of person who chases his curiosity.
Heath heard this phrase a couple years back from Adam Nubern (episode 151) and it’s stuck with us.
Chasing your curiosity: To be interested in something and let yourself go down the seeming rabbit hole of learning it and figuring it out (especially applies to things not necessarily business-related, like cooking for example)
I think it’s an affliction that affects more creatives than anyone else. This need to chase the things we are curious about.
Jon loves food, so he wrote a movie about cooking. Then he took it a step further out of his comfort zone and went to culinary school. He trained in commercial kitchens. Short of opening his own restaurant (although he basically hosts his own cooking show which is pretty close), he’s tried everything to master his skill. It’s the ultimate form of chasing that curiosity.
And the same goes for his film career. He’s chased down every part of filmmaking. Tried it, learned it, honed his schools.
Plus he can totally draw a dragon while his pizza cooks.
He found what he loves and leaned in.
Another example is Terry Crews.
Football player, hilarious actor, illustrator, flutist, furniture designer.
Chrissy Teigen.
Model, blogger, TV host, best-selling cookbook author, created a line of cookware, mother.
Chip & Joanna Gaines.
Home designers, builders, TV hosts, best-selling authors, basically run the whole economy of Waco with all their businesses, currently launching their own TV network, FIVE kids.
How can one person be amazing at so many things?
Years of practice.
And also giving yourself time to chase down those rabbit holes. To try things that maybe you’re just curious about or have always wanted to try.
For Heath, that’s sketchnoting. He for years has talked about cool it is, but never did it himself.
For me, it’s cooking. I cook daily because, you know, food keeps us alive. But I also really love it.
For you it might be music or design or baking or painting or skydiving or mountain biking or computer programming (hey, no judgment, I’m sure programming is really fun).
With the addition of our daughter last year, it really hit us that we love our work, but we also want to make time for things that light us up. Things that we do just for fun.
Like baking a flourless chocolate cake or filling up a page with the word hello written in a dozen different styles (AKA things Heath and I have done lately).
This might not help your business.
This might even distract from your business.
But it’s a way for you to grow and to keep that satisfying balance in life.
By just chasing your curiosity.
What’s something you’re curious about that you’ve always wanted to learn or try?
