Persistence & Poultry

How Dreamers Keep Their Hunger

For years, they shot him down.

They said he needed to change his approach. After all, no restaurant had ever survived serving just chicken fingers.

After sharing his business plan as part of a class project, his college professor gave him the lowest grade in the class.

You haven’t done the research, banks told him. McDonald’s is adding variety to its menus, not stripping them down.

Your idea will never work. Come back when you have a viable plan.

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If you haven’t had the pleasure of sampling a Caniac Combo from Raising Cane’s chicken fingers, don’t worry. With more than 750 locations and sales growing at over 30%, you soon will.

We’re reaching market saturation, where restaurants like Raising Cane’s are considering opening stores in forgotten locations like Grand Forks and Fargo.

Like a kid skipping a YouTube advert, I can’t wait.

And let me tell you something: once you try these chicken fingers, you'll wonder how you've managed to go this far without ever experiencing something so wonderful. Your eyes will roll back in your head just before you black out, unconsciously yearning for more delicious chicken. You'll wake up and reach for another, starting the virtuous cycle again because they are indeed that scrumptious.

They’re the gift that keeps on givin’, as Cousin Eddie used to say, and they wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the company’s founder, Todd Graves.

Graves, now worth $7.6 billion and the wealthiest person in Louisiana, wouldn’t take no for an answer, nor would he quit.

After every lender shut him down, Graves decided he’d do it alone.

He worked as a boilermaker on California oil rigs and risked his life slogging through twenty-hour days fishing for sockeye salmon off the coast of Alaska.

No matter how often they tried to snuff out his chicken finger dream, Todd Graves wouldn’t quit, and in 1996, he’d saved enough to open his first store, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Graves's story is inspiring, regardless of whether you’re like me and have a seven-year-old’s palette or not, or even if you dislike chicken fingers.

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The week between Christmas and New Year is like the first week at a new school.

You’ve got no idea where you’re supposed to be or what you’re supposed to be doing, so instead of figuring it out, you sit around like Tony Soprano, watching Lonesome Dove while inhaling a case of cannolis and fifteen Doctor Peppers.

If that’s you, don’t be so hard on yourself. It happens to the best of us.

The last week is also an excellent time to reflect and review your scorecard for the year.

How’d you do?

What’d you learn?

Would you change anything if you had a Delorian and a few spare gigawatts?

Did you quit or give up on anything?

I know I often say to not dwell in the past. What’s done is done, and we can’t go back to change anything, no matter how much we’d like to un-eat that Shepherd’s Pie last night, the one that kept us up most of the night with the burning heart.

It is what it is.

But it’s still a good idea to reflect. It’s hard to keep moving forward if we don’t know where we’ve been.

Looking back over 2023, I think about people like Todd Graves and his chicken finger dream.

I think about people like Lou Gehrig, who played 2,130 straight games for the New York Yankees.

I think about people like my Dad who keep on truckin’ through the flat tires and shitty roads and countless engine overhauls.

I think about those who didn’t have it in them to quit, the ones willing to do what it takes to keep their dream alive, whether it’s baseball, chicken fingers, or trucking.

I look at them, and they keep me going.

Their spirit, tenacity, and true grit inspire me to keep cranking out this silly newsletter every week. They inspire me to not give up on my dream of being a writer, no matter how hard it gets or how tempting it is to throw up my hands and say nobody cares and quit.

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Maybe 2023 wasn’t your year.

Maybe you’re looking back at a year that challenged you with drought, poor yields, and not enough left over to pay back the bank.

Maybe you’re ready to quit.

I don’t blame you.

Some days, I want to quit, too. But if there’s anything 2023 taught me, we can’t throw in the towel.

Back in June, I would’ve sold the wheat crop for forty bushels per acre, the same wheat crop that turned out to be the best ever.

I wanted to give up and start over.

I’m sure there were times when forty-foot waves were crashing down on Todd Graves’ Sockeye ship, and he wanted to say the heck with it and expand the menu so a bank would finance his dream.

There were probably days when Lou Gehrig wanted to go home instead of playing the second game of a doubleheader.

I’m sure there have been times when my pops wanted to throw a flamethrower to his truck and do something else.

But they didn’t. Those people kept going. Their perseverance is what inspires the rest of us to do the same.

I don’t care if it’s a crop, a book, or a semi-truck; if it’s your dream, you can’t give up on it.

If there’s one thing I want to wish you for 2024, it’s that you find that inspiration that keeps you fighting.

Chase your dreams.

Don’t give up.

There’s too much at stake.

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1. What was your biggest challenge in 2023?

2. Do you like chicken fingers?

3. Would you spend five years on a shrimpin’ boat if it meant fulfilling a lifelong dream?

4. What’s your favorite Sopranos episode?

5. Have you learned how to eat things like Shepherd’s Pie late at night while avoiding the burning heart?

6. If you answered yes to question five, can you share your findings with your humble newsletter narrator?

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Thank you so much for reading my stuff in 2023, and Cheers to a successful 2024!