With a side of business.

• Author: Gearino, G.D.
• Position: FINEPRINT

Business people, if they were honest with themselves, would have to admit to being the biggest self-help junkies around. You need look no further than book publishing for proof. The surest road to riches in the publishing world is to create a gimmicky book built around leadership secrets of some faintly obscure and decidedly nonbusinesslike figure from history--Attila the Hun, for instance, or Sun Tzu. Once the author has teased out various business applications from the old Hun's or Chinese warlord's utterances, the path to the bestseller list is open, and high-paying consulting and speaking gigs will stretch ahead for years--all because business people have an endless appetite for self-improvement.

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Call me old-school, but I prefer to absorb my lessons in success via observation and study rather than paying $24.95 to the likes of Donald Trump, who has 14 books detailing his secrets of success, secrets of recovery (after his success proved fleeting), secrets other people have shared with him, etc. Want to understand the key to success in business? It's as simple as spending time in a well-run operation watching how it's done. I do that at my local Waffle House in the quaintly named town of Fuquay-Varina. (Informal civic motto: Don't pronounce it like that, you pervert.)

Go ahead and laugh. 1 don't mind. I'm a Waffle House partisan, accustomed to people rolling their eyes when I say, in all sincerity, that it's my favorite place to eat. My fondness for breakfast eateries probably has a hereditary component, considering that my late mother's photograph still hangs on the wall of her hometown greasy spoon, Huddle House #92 in Clarkesville, Ga. But seven months ago, I received some reinforcement in my Waffle House crush when the tony food magazine Saveur published a paean from a fellow cult member, a well-traveled soul who declares in the article that "I've never found a breakfast joint to replace the Waffle House."

Preach it, brother. He admires Waffle House for the food, and so do I, but my business writer's eye can't help but notice the operation itself. And therein are found four lessons ever so important in these trying times. To wit:

1) It's better to do a few things well than many things inconsistently. The menu, a laminated sheet covered front and back with various offerings, may look extensive, but it's mostly different combinations of a few simple things: eggs, toast, potatoes, grits, batter and meat. Don't...