WIll your principles survive the storms?

​I was having dinner with my boys at Cracker Barrel the other night. I saw something there I never thought I'd see. The man next to me was drinking a Budweiser with his southern fried chicken.

I picked up my menu. Sure enough, a restaurant that had been alcohol-free since they opened in the 60s was now serving alcohol.

Listen, I take the boys to eat at places where they do and don't serve alcohol. Most of the people who drink alcohol in a restaurant do so responsibily. I don't have an issue with restaurants that serve alcohol or people who drink it there.

I don't have an issue at all, really - more a curiosity.

I came home and read all the principles Cracker Barrel was founded on. In the founders view - alcohol-free was more in line with the family environment they wanted people to feel at the restaurant.

I think it worked. Because when I saw the man drinking a Budweiser next to me, it felt different. Not because a man was drinking. Not because a restaurant served him his drink. But because the presence of alcohol radically changed the way I felt in that moment.

Cracker Barrel knew I'd feel that way before I felt it. So why do it? Why change a principle they'd stuck to for 50 years?

Everything I read said it was because they wanted to be more competitive with restaurants who get a lot of dinner time business. Company surveys told them they'd get more customers at dinner if they served alcohol. They needed more of a happy hour feel.

What this highlights to me more than anything is just how hard our principles are to stick to. One minute you're about building a restaurant based on what you believe; the next your rebuilding it to accomodate what others want.

I get it. That's business. And principles and business are always going to collide.

Just like our principles and culture are always going to collide.

I always have some level of admiration for people who can stick to their principles in collisions. Both people with principles I agree with and disagree with.

Because I know it's not easy. It's not easy to hold on to things you've decided are the foundation of who you are when the rest of the world doesn't like what you stand for.

I - for one - haven't always been as firm in my stance as I want to be.

I - for one - spend a lot of time these days trying to stand stronger in what I believe while being less concerned about how many people are going to show up for dinner.

That's a tough deal when you're trying to drum up more business.

That's a tough deal when you are longing for acceptance.

We will all get there at some point. Principles or business? Principles or acceptance?

I have deep admiration for people who choose principles. Because I know that's not an easy choice.

The easiest choice is always to go with the results on the survey.