In Search of Fundraising Mastery: Lessons from a Sushi Chef

The excellent Gaping Void blog recently featured the story of Jiro Ono, a Japanese sushi chef who has dedicated his life to become a master of his profession.

He does this from a tiny, 10 seater sushi restaurant in Tokyo. 

As Hugh comments:

"Why did he do it that way? Because he wasn’t inte­res­ted in money, he was inte­rested in the MASTERY of his cho­sen craft. The big­ger he made his res­tau­rant busi­ness, the less time he would have to spend on his TRUE calling, making sushi...

"He wasn’t in it for the money, he was in it because it allo­wed him to strive for perfection.

"In a world that often rewards money and office poli­tics over mas­tery, maybe more mediocre peo­ple get to drive fancy cars, live in big hou­ses and wear a lot of bling, but something is lost in the pro­cess. And we are the poo­rer for it.

"Jiro reminds us that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can achieve mas­tery, or at least aim for it, if you decide to.

"But only you can decide that, of course. Only you can decide what kind of exam­ple you want to be for your children."

How many of us are truly trying to master fundraising and not chasing the next promotion or big spending client?

Being honest, not many of us (I'd love to hear your examples of people you think are fundraising masters) and the fundraising profession is worse off for it.

It certainly made me stop and think and I'm going to try and get hold of a copy of the film to learn more about this remarkable chef.

You can watch the trailer below: