The Bear: An Ode To Love And Capitalism

 by Joe Siano

If you have not seen The Bear TV series. You should.

For those who have, please walk with me a bit.

The show is a celebration of love, family, and free enterprise.   Rotten Tomatoes gives this synopsis:

“A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. A world away from what he's used to, Carmy must balance the soul-crushing realities of small business ownership, his strong-willed and recalcitrant kitchen staff and his strained familial relationships, all while grappling with the impact of his brother's suicide. As Carmy fights to transform both the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges kitchen crew that ultimately reveals itself as his chosen family”

 

The show’s protagonist, Chef Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, sees his inheritance – a greasy spoon sandwich shop – as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - a lump of clay to be molded into the world-class, Michelin Star eatery of his dreams.

This launches Carmy on a risky capitalist mission to materialize his dream.  His dream is not riches.  It’s a Quixotic quest to do what he loves the way he wants to do it.  Art through cuisine.

FrankKnight, founder of the hardboiled School of Economics, understood that a business enterprise can be about something greater than money. “Economic activity is at the same time a means of want-satisfaction, an agency for want- and character-formation, a field of creative self-expression”

Carmy is not a businessman. His passion is for creating and serving innovative, one-of-a-kind dishes.  He’s practiced his craft in some of the world’s finest restaurants, while others worried about setting prices, paying bills, making payroll, and ends meet.

He needs practical help to create a sustainable business.

Neither is Carmy well-versed in motivational and management skills.  Like a Juilliard violinist in a symphony orchestra, he is accustomed to working with other highly trained professionals drilled to perform flawlessly on cue.  His inherited staff are Jackson Browne’s Pretenders, content to earn their hourly wages, then “come back and do it again”.

Carmy’s gastronomic aspirations call for a platoon of C-school graduates, but that’s unaffordable.  Therefore, he must transform his inherited and indifferent crew into creative culinary craftsmen.

 

In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli recommends fear as the most effective motivation strategy:

“it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”

 

Fear and intimidation will not fly with this bunch.  They are reluctant and skeptical - Chi-Town tough.  They also have numbers on their side.

This is where love enters the equation. Carmy needs them to buy into his vision - willing to pay the cost of discipleship.  Converts to the cause.

True believers are never won by the sword, whipping post, or rack,

They are won through demonstrations of love and self-sacrifice.

Adam Smith, widely regarded as the father of modern economic thought, was a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow.  He understood that people are motivated by more than ROI or big paychecks.

In his 1759 work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, he explains:

"Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love."

 

Smith distinguishes between being loved and being lovely. To be loved means to receive affection or approval.  To be lovely means to actually possess the virtues, praiseworthy qualities, and integrity that naturally command and deserve that love. It highlights that true happiness comes from internal moral worth rather than just seeking validation or fame from others.

A few centuries later, Limp Bizket put it crudely, “ I did it all for the nookie”.

However, Smith is better remembered for his observation of tradesmen acting in self-interest: 

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

Still, astute business observers hold that it runs counter to self-interest to treat customers, suppliers, shareholders, or employees dishonestly or with disrespect.

The Golden Rule is the best policy.  Treating others well earns “goodwill" for a business. 

Investors and accountants recognize goodwill as a real but hard-to-quantify value in a business. Goodwill includes those “soft” assets that don’t show up directly on a balance sheet but drive long-term success.

Examples of goodwill include:

• Brand equity: a recognized name that wins customer trust
• Customer relationships: recurring contracts, sticky products, or loyal users
• Reputation and trust: the credibility a company has in its industry
• Team and culture: employees’ know-how and collaboration
• Market position: distribution advantages, partnerships, or first-mover status

It’s an accounting entry that reflects the extra price paid for intangible value. 

Human beings with hearts and souls seek more in life than the accumulation of material goods.  They want love, respect, meaning, and purpose.

Economist Deirdre McCloskey argues that virtue is an essential driver of bourgeois capitalist success.   It is a fundamental component of the explosion of material prosperity that our world has experienced since the Nineteenth Century.  And the cardinal virtue is love.

From her book, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce:

“…love in the extended sense is necessary for a company, or England, or any human project. Love does make the world go ‘round. Robert Frank has argued at length that the trustworthiness necessary for business “is motivated not by rational calculation,” which would reduce all virtues to Prudence, “but by emotions—by moral sentiments, to use Adam Smith’s term.”True. But there is a deeper argument available. Harry Frankfurt points out that “love makes it possible . . . for us to engage wholeheartedly in activity that is meaningful.” Humans want meaning. They just do, and they do not make an exception for capitalism.”

 Chef Berzatto has little to give but love.  In this instance, love is his conviction that each of his newfound employees has more to offer than they think.  He must make them believe in themselves by convincing them that he, a world-class chef, sees the worthiness and potential in each of them.

He invests his time, talent, energy, know-how, patience, and what little money he has in his team. He makes big bets on his people.

It won’t be easy.  There will be mistakes, pain, pushback, insults, disappointments, fights, and failures.

But that’s how love is.  That's business.  That's life. No pain, no gain.

 Love hurts.

 

Related Articles:

Burgers and Bullets

Capitalism or B Students

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