This is the story of how I made the incomprehensible leap from cooking to finance.
Fast forward to 1999. I’m in high school at the Canadian championships for wrestling (I was pretty amazing at wrestling). I hurt my ankle in a match that took me out of the sport for the rest of high school. This was a huge bummer since, to this very day, wrestling is still my favorite sport.
Getting Into the Kitchen
After high school, I immediately got a spot at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. I worked in kitchens for years after that. When you’re young, you do as you are told and you don’t think too much about the things that don’t make sense. Once you have a moment of clarity like I did early on, you can only put up with keeping your mouth shut for so long before you go nuts.
I was way too idealistic to fall in line and too thick-headed to keep my mouth shut. Now keep in mind that I was thick-skinned enough to put up with bull for a long time, but remember that ankle injury? When you’re in a kitchen doing manual labour for 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, it catches up to you and it quickly became a severe back problem.
Completely Changing Gears
So what’s a chef with too big an ego and a busted back to do? Open their own restaurant! At the time, the world was going through economic Armageddon and there was no chance of getting funding of any kind. I was also pretty young and not taken very seriously…
Now, there was no way I was going back to working for someone else. That was out of the question. I couldn’t find people to help me do my own thing, so my option at the time was to do something completely different.
Right on the Money
Mark was an old high school buddy of mine and a financial advisor before me. We bumped into each other and he invited me to his office to tell me a little bit about what he did. That meeting was life changing. My first thought was how stupid I was. How could I not know any of this?
Being a financial advisor also gave me everything else I wanted in a career apart from the food. I had the autonomy I wanted and the challenge and life of being an entrepreneur. The fact that a world of people out there are sitting on their hands, waiting for a windfall of money before they started saving was a huge challenge for me. And I liked it. I love my message and I love the way I now help people.
So yes, it’s a big jump, but my hope is this story will put to rest the confusion of how this came to be. The rest, as they say, is history and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Interesting Aaron that you did the opposite of me. At 11 I was watching “The Galloping Gormet” on TV when my Aunt said she would help me cook what he was making. See, that was my favorite show, I watched all the time when I was at her house.
I became pretty good at cooking and by the time I was 16 I could cook with the best of them. My Dad offered to send me to France with my college fund to be a chef, but instead of listening to him I said no. I went to college, partied and had a lot of fun away from my strict father.
Today, while I am a every well respected network/technology professional, I wish I had went to France.
The Galloping Gourmet was AWESOME! Graham Kerr is the man!
Yes he was. I am passing on that passion to my kids who love cooking with me.
Do what you love and you will never have to work a single day.
Great advice
Good afternoon I was wondering how the transition from Chef to finance was. I am thinking of doing the same thing. I have been a Chef for about 30 years. Helping people has seem to be what I really enjoy. I belive I can do that in this field.
Thank you for your time!