The Other J & J

By that I mean, not me and Joanne, my business partner at VisionFirst. We are known by our clients as J & J - or sometimes even as "The Js" as in "Call the Js and see if they can help us figure out how to do something innovative around here." No, not those Js. Here, I'm talking about Julie and Julia - two great foodies, one great movie, and a knock it out of the park performance from Meryl Streep. (Is there anything this woman cannot do???)

See the movie and then invite a friend over and make baked cucumbers and potato leek soup as I did with my friend Jane (another J!) a few years back after we read Julie Powell's memoir on cooking 524 recipes of Julia Child's in 365 days. You'll trip over the lessons here:

1. Start now. Whatever passion is percolating inside, give it a shot. Julia was 50 when "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was published, arguably the beginning of her career.


2. Seek collaboration. Whether it's with your business partner, friends or significant other. Nothing worth doing can be done alone.


3. Press on. Failure and rejection were day to day experiences here. Did you know, for example, that Julia failed her first exam at Le Cordon Bleu because it was...too simple?
   
4. Don't temper your enthusiasm. No hiding your light under a bushel.


5. Eat butter. Enough said.