1. Be fully committed. Don't be a fence-sitter or a waffler. If you're going to be a chef [creative director] someday, be sure about it, single-minded in your determination to achieve victory at all costs. If you think you might find yourself standing in a cellar prep kitchen one day, after tournéeing two hundred potatoes, wondering if you made the right move; or if some busy night on a grill station you find yourself doubting the wisdom of your chosen path, then you will be a liability to yourself and others. You are, for all intents and purposes, entering the military. Be ready to follow orders, give orders when necessary and live with the outcome of those orders without complaint. Be ready to lead, follow or get out of the way.
5. Never make excuses or blame others.
7. Lazy, sloppy and slow are bad. Enterprising, crafty and hyperactive are good.
9. Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious or corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying his company, working with him or finding him entertaining. This business grows assholes; it's our principal export. I'm an asshole. You should probably be an asshole, too.
10. Try not to lie. Remember, this is the restaurant business. No matter how bad it is , everybody probably has heard worse. Forget to place an produce order? Don't lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don't do it again. Ever.
13. Read! Read cookbooks, trade magazines—I recommend Food Arts, Saveur and Restaurant Business magazines. they are useful for staying abreast of industry trends, and for pinching recipes and concepts. Some awareness of the history of your business is useful, too. It allows you to put your own miserable circumstances in perspective when you've examined and appreciated the full sweep of culinary history. Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London is invaluable. As are Nicholas Freeling's The Kitchen, David Blum's Flash in the Pan...Read the old masters: Escoffier, Bocuse et al., as well as the Young Turks: Keller, Marco-Pierre White and more recent generations of innovators and craftsmen.
14. Have a sense of humor about things. You'll need it.