Walk in My Shoes: Why Everyone Should Spend a Year in Hospitality.

Published 24.03.2025 - Michael A. Di Palma

You don’t truly understand hospitality until you’ve lived it. Until you’ve balanced a full tray while dodging a swinging kitchen door like it’s an Olympic sport. Until you’ve been on the receiving end of a snapped finger or a guest who treats you like an iPad that takes drink orders. Until you’ve smiled through exhaustion because you know a small gesture can turn someone’s day around.

Working in hospitality isn’t just about learning how to serve—it’s about learning how to read minds, dodge chaos, and handle pressure with the grace of a swan gliding across water (while paddling like hell underneath). It teaches resilience, patience, and a deep appreciation for the people who keep the world caffeinated, fed, and sane.

But if we want future generations to develop these skills, we need to rethink how we’re shaping the industry. Hospitality has become too transactional, too automated, too focused on efficiency over experience. If we want it to remain the ultimate training ground for life, we have to bring back the personal touch—the art of service, the warmth of human connection.

Because at its core, hospitality is about making every guest feel like the biggest diamond ever found—priceless, rare, and worth more than just a quick transaction.

And that starts with all of us. Before you judge the person behind the bar, at the host stand, or carrying five plates like a Cirque du Soleil act, take a second. Have you walked in their shoes? And if not, how can you show them the same respect and care they show you?

NOTE:

• Sandra Bullock – Worked as a waitress and bartender before making it big in Hollywood.

• Barack Obama – Scooped ice cream at Baskin-Robbins as his first job.

• Pope Francis – Worked as a bar bouncer in his younger years.