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Lesson #5: As the Head Rooster, You Can Have a Little Fun

Article Overview: Running a business is about hard work, inspiration, and ambition, but at the end of the day, all entrepreneurs need to ask themselves one question: Did you have fun?

Lesson #5: As the Head Rooster, You Can Have a Little Fun

Running a business is about hard work, inspiration, and ambition, but at the end of the day, all entrepreneurs need to ask themselves one question: Did you have fun?

Because of the 24-hour nature of being an entrepreneur, a business cannot succeed unless its owner enjoys each one of those 24 hours. In that respect, Hines was no slacker.

As seriously as Hines took his business, he was known for his eccentricities and for willing to have a little fun on the job. After all, stopping "two or three times a day for waffles, sausage and eggs, and at least as often for fried chicken, baked clams or black-bottom pie," could take its toll on anyone without a little fun thrown in on top.

In 1951, a girl by the name of Mary Herndon found herself on Hines' doorstep applying for a job with the restaurant critic. She had completed her studies at Highland Park Junior College, and thought she was ready for taking this next step.

Expecting to be interviewed by one of his secretaries, Herndon found herself directly in front of Hines himself. With no interview, no tests, and no applications to fill out, Herndon was hired on the spot and told to return the next day. After realizing that interviews rarely revealed the true nature of someone, Hines had given up on that process and decided to put people right to the test.

When Herndon returned the next day, Hines immediately took her to his living room and gave her a seat at his card table. He then began to dictate letters. But Hines' style of dictation was not what Herndon was used to. It was jerky, unorganized, and interlaced with frequent jokes. Herndon did not know what to include in the letters and what to leave out. When Hines advised her to sign all of his correspondence from "the Head Rooster", Herndon was forced to ask the other secretaries if he was serious. It turns out, he was.

Hines wanted his letters to amuse the reader, with entertainment being his top priority. It was that light-hearted approach to his correspondence that Hines frequently took in other areas of his business as well. One of his restaurant reviews read, "Baby beef, baby lamb, baby lobster, baby chicken. Who wants to eat babies?"

Hines enjoyed his work, and he wanted others to enjoy it as well. Whether it was working as one of his employees, or reading one of his books, Hines wanted people to be entertained. Stubborn, eccentric, and out for a laugh, Herndon found herself working for one of the most entertaining bosses she had never expected out of secretarial school.

In the end, Herndon kept her job, and worked for Hines for the next three years. Her school training might not have prepared her for Hines, but working for Hines definitely prepared her for all of the bosses who would come after him.

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Article Tags: ambition, baked clams, black bottom pie, correspondence, dictation, doorstep, eccentricities, eggs, entrepreneur, fried chicken, highland park, living room, restaurant critic, rooster, sausage, secretaries, three times, top priority, true nature, waffles



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