How to impress your customers

“In order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food. The quality of ingredients is important, but one must develop a palate capable of discerning good and bad. Without good taste, you can’t make good food. If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers how will you impress them?”
–Jiro Ono

I was at a taco shop for lunch this afternoon, and I saw this quote hand-painted on the wall. Of course, it’s from Jiro Ono, of Jiro Dreams of Sushi fame. This quote stirred me today.

I’ve discovered something similar with writing. To write well, I must be reading. To have interesting ideas, and to present them in a way that people enjoy, I need to be reading enjoyable writing about interesting ideas. This is the way to develop taste with anything—engage with the good stuff. 

There’s no way around this. We may be able to strike gold once or twice in our lives, purely from our own experience, but it won’t keep coming. We must go back to the well.