Recently, I was chatting up a friend of mine who's in the hospitality industry. He was a Chef in a previous avatar, before he decided to become a hotelier.

Chatting with him was akin to sitting in on a story telling session. The only thing missing was the bonfire.

I was fascinated by the `inside-stories' in a commercial kitchen.

He said, "There's a strict hierarchy in the kitchen. No matter who you are you gotta climb up the ladder. And the lowest rung gets treated like crap. They work the longest hours. They do the menial jobs. And they get abused the most. They are the punching bag for everyone." And he said it without any rancor. He made it sound like a rite-of-passage that he was proud of.

Not many last the drill. There are more dropouts than one cares to count.

It is not an easy job to chop heaps of vegetables - a job so monotonous that you can drop asleep and chop your finger. Still you must do it, if you have to climb the career ladder.

Some rise up to the top position. Some float around in the middle.

The former invents ways to enjoys the monotony, finds meaning in monotony, and all along keeps his eye on the goal.

The latter loathes monotony, gets sucked and then stuck in the drill, and somewhere down the line gets consumed by the monotony and loses focus.

Therein lies the difference between success and failure.