The food: French Chocolate Snail

Where to find it: Copenhagen Bakery, Burlingame, California

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Welcome to another edition of #FoodEntrepreneur Friday, where I serve up an order of international food with a side of guidance for entrepreneurs.

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Oh, 2013, like a free chocolate sample at a ravenous food market, you have come and gone in a flash. Already, I’m sure your plate has been filled—for you, for your work and, to all you (food) entrepreneurs out there, for your business. But before the noisy to-do list gets piled too high, it’s time to work smart rather than work hard. For the first #FoodFriday of 2014, I recommend you take some time and contemplate your bigger to-do list. I challenge you to think about how to set goals for your business, your work and your life for the upcoming year.

One of the best ways of doing this is to sit down and put your goals down in writing. Whether it be binder paper, PC word document or post-it note, anything where you can write your aspirations will do.

Now, I know it can be hard to contemplate, set and write your goals, so I’ve created an online document for you that will help you during the process. It’s a letter you will write to yourself in 2014 that will be sent to your future self in 2015. Click here to get cracking on the letter.¹

Take a moment and brush aside the noise of newspapers, coffee meetings and car repairs and put your dreams to paper.

As I mentioned in a recent #FoodEntrepreneur Friday post, I want you to think about how you might earn an ‘A’-grade for the work you dream to do. Make your own grading rubric. Shatter your expectations.

You can do anything. Maybe you want to find a mentor. Or perhaps you might want to learn how to stop being a perfectionist. Or you want to just travel the world and meet awesome people along the way.

Whatever you do, it starts now. It starts by considering how to set goals for your business, your work and your life for 2014. And you can start right here by sending your future, 2015 self a letter.

At the very least, you can use this letter writing exercise as an excuse to curl up with a delicious writing companion. May I suggest one of the best pastries in the world?

As for me, I sent myself a letter last year, and it helped me shatter my expectations and goals—for life and business. At the beginning of 2013 I was a recent grad seeking what I was truly passionate about in life. In 2013, I wrote in my letter to myself that in 10 years I would like to travel to 10 countries; I did that in just one year. 2013 was the year of Brunei, Cambodia, China, Germany, Malaysia, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and Vietnam. In my letter I wrote that I wanted to learn some of the ropes of entrepreneurship; so I attended Draper University—a Silicon Valley school for young entrepreneurs. Finally, I challenged myself to pursue my dream of creating food and travel tv shows. So I scraped into my life savings and set out with a camera to go film food creators in Asia & Europe. During my travels I was fortunate enough to meet wonderful people and learn that all entrepreneurs in food—from the aspiring street food chef to the global beverage company—have a story to tell. And so I began TASTE, a documentary series that will feature the stories of global food entrepreneurs.

So, in 2014, I hope to further develop TASTE so that we may learn about the food we eat, the world we live in and the people who make it delicious. You can bet I put that in my letter to myself for 2015, and I would feel honored if you reach for your goals and write yourself a letter, as well.

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¹ I give big props for my friends at the Silicon Valley-based startup Everest for lending inspiration for the creation of the “Send Yourself a Letter” concept.