Toast

Possibly the simplest thing there is to make in the world and the first thing people learn how to make. Take some bread, put some heat in direct contact and put on the right topping.

Yet, toast has subtleties to it. You can toast it in an oven. In a machine for doing so. In a pan with butter.

It can come out evenly toasted or striped. It can come out light or dark. It can be made with any type of bread. It can be sliced to any thickness.

Something as simple as toast has millions of ways to do it, and if done properly, even something this simple can be great.

I judge nearly every restaurant that serves breakfast by how good their toast is because the more amazing this simple thing is, the more likely every item on the menu is amazing too. Plus, just about any meal comes with it making it easy to compare regardless of what else you ordered at different restaurants.

Yesterday I wrote about differentiators. Today, I add the caveat to all differentiation, every breakfast restaurant has toast, it’s likely a new one trying to stand out still needs to have it, however, the care and the attention such a simple item is given is still a differentiator too. This goes well beyond breakfast places to nearly every industry you can think of. Care is always a differentiator.

One last thing, just like toast, someone is likely comparing something at your job with something your competitors do and it’s likely something simple and overlooked just like toast often is. Figure out what it is and become phenomenal at it because doing so usually doesn’t take much skill beyond identifying the overlooked item itself.