Being in the bartending business for a while allows you as a bartender to learn a few of life's lessons earlier than if you'd live them yourself. One of them is prepare for your future. Some bars are neighborhood bars where you see the life lesson much clearer. Some bars have a group of regulars that show up day in and day out. Those regulars maybe younger or older it's the same kind of lesson for each group. Watching a customers "life cycle", so to speak, is any customers beginning and their end.

We have witnessed the start or beginning when the 21st Birthday party (legal drinking age in US ) and seen endings to the drinking cycle in various forms, passing on from old age is one of the forms of the customers "life cycle" ending and a couple more are marriage or children are born into the lives of the customer. I know you see what I'm talking about as people come into your life and leave your life as a general rule but looking at this from a bartender's view it seems compressed and valuable lesson can be seen if you look close.

Those of us that prepare for the future are preparing for a better life in the future. An example would be a regular on the older side with or without a job and the expendable income available to drink and tip. A prepared customer can afford to live the lifestyle of a daily bar bill and not think anything of it. The customer that is not prepared ( in life ) is seen infrequently, drinks less and may tip less or not tip at all.

So what am I really getting at? Plain and simple "save some money earlier in you life", so you can enjoy the later years of your life in the lifestyle you choose. Plan to pay yourself first with a deposit into a savings account or 401k plan and NEVER touch it. The deposit can be as little as 10% of your tips, or what ever percentage you can afford. Just do it NOW. You really will not miss the money as much as you think.

Putting the money away now will assist you with your finances in future. Always remember  the future is closer than you think.

Who are you behind the bar, are you an actor or are you "you"?

I releazed, after to talking to a customer about another bartender that was training a new person to be a bartender, that new bartenders can take on the traits or persona of the person training them. New to the world of bartending, they have no other refence to go on. Bartender ( A ) seasoned pro, worked at many locations and has a following. Bartender ( B ) New from bartending school, no following, but good looking enough to get hired.  Bartender A can call or text out a message and people will show up and drink and tip. (B) nothing and no so much.

(A) has a rhythm and rhyme  so to speak and can speak to his / her customers a certain way even insult them to a point, as his or her way of interacting with his or her customers. When the new bartender (B) sees this he  or she picks up on this as a way to interact with her customers. (B) doesn't understand the relationship that bartender (A) has built and developed over a long period of time, to speak to these customers she /he has called in.

Poor (B) working his/ her shift alone see a new and unknown customer walk in to be served and insults them shortly after sitting down. (B) thinks this is how he / she is supposed to treat people to earn a living behind the bar.

This sort of interaction is almost like something from the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino, between Eastwood's charater and the Barber. Eastwood's character is trying to teach a young man how to speak to another man, in a macho or manly(sp)  manner.

So when you decide to work behind the bar, a fact is  people will like you and people will not like you. You can not please everyone all the time. Try to be your best always but, the things that one bartender does to create a connection between himself and the customer IS the reason the customer comes back and it may not work for you.

If you have a bar persona and you act a certain way behind the bar and you make money then go for it. You just always have to be "on" and in a moment of be surprised or started, the real you shows through, customers my catch on and change their ideas about you.

The individual, YOU is what will shine through as the reason people will come back and drink and tip.