We were lucky to catch up with Yuichi Iida recently and have shared our conversation below.
Yuichi, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
I believe that the work we do is given by God and universe. So when we work hard everyday, God and universe protect us.
I believe that both good things and bad things happen for reasons for us to grow, and we learn something everyday to improve. So when bad things happen, I just accept them and try to learn something by solving the issue.
And I always try to think that it could be worse.
When good things happen, I give thanks and keep working the best we can.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a musician and my main instrument is percussion. I like to play drums to make people dance. And I like good food, especially the one that gives you good energy to play good music, or dance, or do good work.
When I was in college, I found about that well cooked organic brown rice is a super food, and I made a band called Brown Rice Family with my friends in 2006. And in 2018, I made a restaurant called WARUDE in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with my friends and wife to serve organic brown rice. I still perform with the band Brown Rice Family at various festivals, event, parties, etc…, and I play a lot of good music with a lot of percussions I like at the restaurant WARUDE.
I love to see people enjoying our food and music. And when I see the customers become our repeater, I feel special that I was able to share something I value with other people.
We just opened WARUDE 2nd location in Crown Heights, Brooklyn last August, 2023.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. It is important that you have a steady concept and theme. Don’t change it just because you don’t make quick money. In the beginning, the restaurant was not busy like now. And I was nervous because I’ve never run a food business before and I had bills to pay, family to feed. And many people told me that “You should sell white rice. You make money.” or “You shouldn’t use organic product. It’s expensive and you don’t make money”. But that’s not what I wanted to do to make money. So I sticked to the plan. It took time, but the business grew to the point that we have over 30 employees now.
Same for the music. I’ve sticked to the style of music I wanted to play, I call it World Roots Music. And I didn’t change the style to more commercial or trendy to make more money quickly.
2. Running restaurant is not about just cooking. You keep facing problems every day. The refrigerator stop working. Staff didn’t show up. Wrong ingredients were delivered. A fryer stop working. POS stop working. You have to have a mentality to enjoy solving each problem and keep moving forward. I don’t have time to be stressed. Instead of having time to be stressed, I use time to read manuals online, watch YouTube to learn how to troubleshoot, look for alternative solution, etc… so I feel like I’m learning something new everyday and improving.
3. Give thanks to all people working for you and supporting your business. I couldn’t get to this point without my wife and child’s support and understanding, I couldn’t run this restaurant at this scale without our staff, vendors and contractors. I couldn’t sustain this business without the customers who supported us. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
My wife. She’s been the most helpful person always next to me. Food quality for sure. Also covering staff who called out on the same day, moving supplies and ingredients we need between two locations, or go to buy from local market. And both of us didn’t really have any skills or knowledge about restaurant management. We just figured out as we run and keep thinking better way to improve.
Contact Info:
- Website: warude.com brownricefamily.com
- Instagram: @warude_ny @brownricefamily
Image Credits
Photos by Dan Ichimoto.
