“You have to have passion when you’re finding a recipe for a career,” says Fields. “If you love what you are doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Fields’ parents might not have been supportive of her future business efforts, but when she was still a young girl her father gave her some wise words of advice: “Debbi, whatever you do in your life, you’ve got to find something that you absolutely, passionately love.” And what did Fields love doing more than anything else? She thought about it for just a second before she realized what it was. Fields loved to bake chocolate chip cookies. She always had and knew she always would.
“I loved it,” she says. “And I sat there and I thought, ‘You know, I’m good at it. I’m really good at it.” Fields loved the fact that when she shared her cookies with people, she could give them an enjoyable experience. “I could make people smile,” she says. “All they had to do is eat the cookie. That was a magical thing.” Fields knew in an instant that she was getting herself into the right business. In fact, she never even considered it a business. It was simply what she calls, “an extension of me.”
It was that passion that finally convinced a banker to come on board in backing her venture. Fields had approached scores of bankers with her business plan but was turned down by all of them. Finally, she found one who saw something in her business idea that went beyond the cookies. Fields made her presentation, gave the banker her business plan, and let him sample her cookies. “Debbi,” he said, “I absolutely love your product. I think your cookies are great. And I absolutely love your passion.”
In growing her business, Fields was determined to bring on board only those people who shared her passion for cookies. To make sure she was hiring people who were going to love their jobs as much as she did, Fields began auditioning all of her employees. People who wanted to work for Mrs. Fields were not just going to sit through the regular interview process.
Fields would first make them try her cookies. “The reason I wanted to find out about what they thought about the cookies was because if they would take a bit and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I love these,’ I knew I would never have to teach them how to sell,” says Fields, “because if it came from the heart, that was passion, that was love, and that was something I never had to teach them.” Needless to say, the girl who refused a cookie for fear of developing acne did not get the job.
Fields would then send her prospects into the street with trays of cookies, and told them that if any customers came into the store mentioning their name, they would be hired. Fields knew that those people who were uncomfortable out in public with their trays would never convey the passion they needed to sell her product.
Finally, Fields would make her prospects sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her in the middle of the store. “That’s how I found the best cookie people in the world,” says Fields, “because if they would sing and belt out ‘Happy Birthday,’ I knew that smiles were going to be created, laughter, fun times; and we were going to have a relationship.” Her formula was a success, and as a result, Fields never wrote a customer service manual “because customer service comes from the heart.”
Lesson #2: Passion is the Key in a Successful Business Recipe
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