I just got back from one of my favorite restaurants. No, let me rephrase that. I went to get some lamb and grape pie at Nick the Greek's. It isn't my favorite restaurant. I don't think it's anyone's favorite restaurant and that's part of the problem.

The food is excellent. I happen to have Blood Type B (good book on this - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039914255X/susandunnmome-20 ), so I do well eating lamb, and it isn’t that easy to find. The French fries and salad are the best in town, and Nick's very own mother makes the grape pie.

Ever had grape pie? I hadn't. Now that should be a "draw," wouldn't you think? Great homemade pie? But no one's ever in there.

Today I struck up a conversation with Nick the Greek. He always has a persona going and he didn't change it. I had noticed when I drove up that in the big letters on the front of the building NICK THE GREEK'S RESTAURANT some birds had built a nest around the curve of the bottom of the letter "S" and I thought it sweet. I also recalled it means good luck in Holland (storks nesting), and I asked him if it meant good luck in Greece.

Well, he just wasn't 'there' for the conversation. I think it was something about the word "luck". As I said, I don't think his restaurant is doing well. He did tell me he thinks it's bad luck in Greece for an owl to come to your house.

As I was leaving, I talked to him about a mutual friend of ours, Anthony, who also owns a, yes, Greek restaurant. Then Nick the Greek opened up. He said owning a restaurant was “too hard”. He tells people not to do it. He smiled, but it was a wince -- there is no joy in his eyes -- and said, "I have to be here 6 days a week. I have no freedom."

Now don't you think that feeling of his is making the restaurant toxic? We don't like to be around that kind of energy, and emotions are contagious. Underneath that smile of Nick the Greek's is misery and we sense something’s amiss. If he doesn’t want to be there, why should we?

Of course I gave him my coaching card and asked him to call me about getting some "balance" in his life. Well, let's say we'll start there. Nick the Greek can't be 35 yet, and all he can think about is “getting out of there.” Apparently he’s trying to do something his heart isn’t in, and that never works. Without passion, you’re like the walking dead, like Nick the Greek.