"Life imitates art far more than art imitates life." In trying to pin down the origin of this familiar phrase, I read that Oscar Wilde first wrote it in an 1889 essay, “The Decay of Lying: An Observation.”
Since I have a fondness for matching snippets of movie lines to real life, I thought the following might be a good start to this week’s fresh produce message. You may recall the 1997 adventure thriller, “The Edge,” featuring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin.
At an obvious low point after surviving a plane crash, the duo’s characters struggle to find their way through the Alaskan wilderness and are stalked by man-eating bear, which has already killed another member of their party. Hopkins plays a cool-headed, backwoods-savvy billionaire, and Baldwin is a basket case, ready to give up.
That’s when Hopkins challenges his traveling partner to get a hold of himself, encouraging him to believe in Hopkin’s plan and assert, “Today, I’m going to kill the bear!” Along with shouting another line repeatedly to one another, “What one man can do another can do!”
It was an intense scene, almost as good as the climax where their plan soon thereafter takes place.
I guess the point in traversing down this art from memory lane is in the resolve. So many times, a produce manager goes to work, as peaceful as it may seem on the surface, with plenty of challenges ahead. Sometimes the challenge may lie in tearing apart a set of merchandising cases or tables to — finally — get the reset done that you’ve had in mind for far too long.
What’s stopping you? Lack of hours? Not having the right chemistry on your crew? The timing is never right? Or could it be a lack of resolve?
Related: More produce insight from Armand Lobato
We’re all guilty of kicking this can, among others, down the road, so to speak.
However, when you have that one big idea that’s been nagging you, percolating in your head for far too long, isn’t it nice that it’s still there? At some point, it’d be even better to execute the plan.
For example, I knew a produce manager who in one night single-handedly reset two 70-foot refrigerated cases, completely switched the traditional wet-rack set from one side to the other and likewise set up the specialty and packaged salads to the opposite side. Why? It wasn’t his original plan that day. He did it on impulse because, since the store’s grand opening months earlier, he asserted that customer traffic was better suited to the switch. And he was right.
He was chewed out by his store manager at first, but everyone soon realized it was the right move as sales took an immediate upturn and stayed that way. All was forgiven, and in fact, the produce manager was held in even higher regard afterwards; all because of a burning hunch that lingered within the produce manager — until one day that burning resolve kicked in, and it worked out.
He walked in that day with the business equivalent of “Today, I kill the bear.” And he did.
“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” — Rene Descartes
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.