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In Australia we are coming to the end of the first series of Masterchef. There have been tears, surprises and interesting twists as we have watched non-chefs compete to be the first Masterchef. But what are the business lessons from this program?

• You don’t have to be perfect all the time. Sometimes you will be brilliant and sometimes you will stuff up. As long as you don’t stuff up more than your nearest competitor you will survive.

• Have a passion for what you do. Being passionate about your job or calling is the magic ingredient. You can’t fake passion.

• You can be nice and still succeed. The obviously obnoxious or competitive fall by the wayside. Nice people can succeed in the longer term.

• Practice and think about what you are doing. If you looked at the bags and rooms of each contestant throughout the series, each had favourite well thumbed cook books full of notes. They continued to re-read, learn and plan while they were competing. They didn’t stop learning. The ones who didn’t make it were the ones who thought they knew it all.

• Plan your implementation. Once you have a clear idea of what you are going to do, plan how you are going to implement it.

• Improvise. Not everything goes according to plan – at times you have to find another solution or “wing it”.

• Learn from your mistakes. Some things go really really badly. Work out why it failed and then learn from it. Failing doesn’t make you a bad person – it means you gave something a go and you needed another attempt. Practice and review your failings until you have mined all of the lessons from them.

• Take calculated risks. At times you need to take a risk to see if an idea or concept works. Calculate the return for the risk before you take the risk and work out a plan B in case it fails.

• Put your learning into practice. Each week they would be given a masterclass in some aspect of cookery. The ones who did well took aspects of that masterclass and immediately applied them into their next dish – with their unique twist or amendment.

• Have a clear vision. If your vision is fuzzy you get fuzzy results. The clearer your vision – down to colours, textures and taste – the better you will succeed. Vision is something that you discover – it takes time and trying out different approaches until you find the right vision for you.

• A bit of stress never hurt anyone. Two of the greatest stress monkeys have wound up in the finals. Yes, stress has cost them at times, but at other times it lifted them. Use your stress to give you that extra lift.

• Remember the bigger picture. This is a competition where one of the prizes is your own cookbook. It is not a competition to find the best amateur chef. These may be mutually exclusive goals. Remember you want to sell cookbooks – which means you need to appeal to a broad enough audience that will buy your book.  Don’t lose sight of why you are in the competition anyway.

• Make great friends and greater contacts. People will come your way – some will be friends and some can boost  your career. Be polite, warm and friendly to everyone you meet – you may never know which is which.

• Celebrate your successes. Bask in the warmth of success. Take time to celebrate and enjoy your achievements.

• Learn from the best. If you really want to succeed, watching a master in action can shorten your learning time. Take opportunities to learn from the best.

• Competition can lift your game. If you have no one to compete against you can become complacent and stale. A little bit of healthy competition can force you to lift your game to the next level.

• The most talented, consistent or gifted doesn’t win. Just because you have a gift doesn’t mean you will win. At times the other factors outweigh the gift.

So what about you … what business lessons have you learnt from Masterchef?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer