I don’t like asking a waiter for a recommendation at a restaurant.

The reason is that waiters are often motivated to get rid of certain dishes. At the start of a shift, a restaurant manager will say, “We’ve got a ton of flounder that we need to move tonight. Push the pepper encrusted flounder dish.”

Then you sit down to eat and ask the waiter, “What’s your favorite thing here?” And he responds, “I love the pepper encrusted flounder.”

That’s not to say every waiter does that. A lot of honest ones are out there. But how do you find them? How do you sort through the ones who aren’t going to shoot you straight? How do you weed through the ones who have ulterior motives? Easy.

You ask them a simple question:

“What’s your least favorite dish here?”

If they respond with, “I love them all. They’re all amazing. There aren’t any I don’t like,” then they’re not telling you the truth. When you’ve eaten 30 different items while working at a restaurant, there’s at least one you don’t like. That’s just math. When you have 30 students in a class, somebody gets an F.

If they tell you, “I’m not a big fan of the skirt steak. I personally find it to be kind of dry and bland,” then they’re telling you the truth. And if they’ll admit what they don’t like, you can trust them when they say what they do like.

The same goes for bloggers.

If you write a blog and all you talk about is your successes in life, eventually readers are going to lose interest, if not trust. Nobody’s life is perfect. Nobody wins every time. Everybody gets an F at some point. But if you refused to admit that and, instead, edit your life, shine up your mistakes, and never share anything but your wins, then you become a waiter with 30 favorite meals.

That’s why I love how Dave Ramsey talks about the time he went bankrupt.

That’s why a lot of the lessons I share about parenting or blogging or writing or life are about the times I’ve blown it.

That’s why, in Quitter, I told you about the time I got fired and the time I got asked to leave a company before my two weeks notice was up and the time my wife cried in the kitchen because I was chasing my dream the wrong way.

I hate the flounder. And I’m going to tell you about it because I want you to believe me when I later tell you that the grouper will change your life.

And, if you’re a blogger, I hope you’ll do the same for me as a reader.

Question:
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve shared on your blog?