Daniel Coyle

They had worked at the Ritz-Carlton in Paris, and they decided to come back to Ann Arbor because it is such a fulfilling, meaningful community, Zingerman says.

And when you dig into that and ask, how are they doing this?

How exactly are they doing this?

The answer is that they're really skilled at creating what I call in the book awakening cues, which is little moments that connect us to meaning.

in the average everyday course of things and i got to sit in on an orientation class which was led by ari weinsweig who's the co-ceo co-founder of zingerman's and there's new employees the scene is simple classroom setting there's about nine or ten new employees they're there the ceo walks in and they're all sitting expectantly they got their pencils in their hand they're ready to take notes it's orientation i'm going to learn they're going to orient me

I'm going to be given information and I'm going to be given the secrets of how to succeed here.

So I'm ready to learn.

And Ari walks in, he flips it.

He's like, what's your story?

How'd you get here?

oh, wow, cool.

What's your story?

How did you get here?

And they walk around and share their stories.

And then Ari shares some stories about Zingerman's evolution, how they came from, what their philosophy is.

There was a, I don't know if he told that story that time or not, but there was a time where Walt Disney came in and offered him $50 million to partner because they wanted the best deli in America in their park.

And

Zingerman's took about 15 minutes to think about it and said, no, thanks.

And Walt Disney is like, you don't understand.

You don't get it.