What Bacon has taught me

Besides being delicious, I’ve learned some deep life lessons from bacon over the years. Although I’ve narrowed it down to just five, there are many more. Why do I know this? Because it’s bacon! It’s hot and its popular. So popular, in fact, that in a survey conducted by Smithfield, 65% of Americans would support bacon as their "national food." Personally, I think the percentage is higher.
 
So, bacon, what say you?
 
Have taste.
In sociology, taste is an individual's personal and cultural patterns of choice and preference. Taste is drawing distinctions between things such as styles and manners, and relating to these. Social inquiry of taste is about the human ability to judge what is beautiful, good, and proper. Like golden-brown cooked bacon.
 
Beautiful, good, and proper. I like those words in respect to taste and so I have chosen to aim for having taste in many areas of my life. I started with my shoes. I bought some nice ones for working, hiking and playing. I keep them shined or cleaned and I care for the soles. The soles are like the tread of a tire. Keeps you from slipping, so to speak.
 
Bottom line: Bacon has taste. So should we.
 
Mix well with others.
During our waking hours, most of us eat some sort of breakfast, lunch and dinner. And if we’re lucky, we squeeze in a tasty dessert. Bacon does the same. It shows up and pairs quite nicely with its associates for every meal - bacon and eggs, bacon bits in salad, bacon-wrapped steak and even the savory bacon-maple cupcakes.
 
Notice in each example, bacon comes first on the billing! Bacon even took it a step further with two cohorts and created a name for himself – bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. And Americans love bacon; we eat almost 18 pounds of bacon a year. You’ll find bacon all over town mingling with people from all walks of life, making them smile. As we should. After all, if we want to be loved like bacon, healthy relationships are one proven key to happiness.
 
Smell good.
One of my all-time favorite smells… freshly baked bread. Ha! Yes, bacon, of course. Bacon continues to reign as a top-five favorite scent of all-time, in polls across the world. In following bacon’s lead, we should smell good as well. This goes for both body and breath.
 
Women seem to have mastered this one. Most women smell nice all-day long. Thank you, ladies. A few reasons for this is because they layer complimentary fragrances in lotions, oils and perfumes, they know when and where to apply it, they keep their skin hydrated, and so on. Not much to say to women at this point, but men…
 
Men, let’s just please get rid of the stench with a pleasant or non-scented deodorant, a light touch of some smart cologne and some mints or mouthwash throughout the day, because coffee = good; coffee breath = bad. And when we work hard, we sweat, even in the office. And it shows… and smells.
 
Pleasant scents work well in business in all sorts of ways. For instance, if we’re selling a house, let’s cook bacon and let the aroma fill the rooms! Some realtors bake chocolate chip cookies for a nice fragrance. Personally, I’d purchase a bacon-scented home over one with the smell of warmed-over dough any day of the week.
 
Be open and available.
Yes, we’ve all seen it. Bacon shares itself with us in the display section of its packaging. We know just how much meat and fat is involved. Not to mention the printed package where we’re exposed to the salt content among other non-pronounceable words. Frankly, that’s what most of us like to see, transparency.
 
I’m not saying we expose ourselves. What I am saying is we need to be open, authentic and approachable. In business according to Inc. Magazine, authenticity is one of the traits of the most successful people.
 
Being available is also important in business and friendship. Let’s have an open-door policy, as they say, and share our experiences with friends and business partners. These are two more identifiers of successful and respected people. Bacon does this well. According to market researcher, Technomic, about 80 percent of the top-500 restaurant chains have some sort of bacon item on the menu. Bacon is a mover and a shaker.
 
Sizzle.
​That’s right, let’s be unique and bold. In today’s world there are thousands of messages per day that cross our paths. To be successful, we need to differentiate ourselves in our jobs, our relationships, our cooking, and our extracurricular adventures, to name a few. We need to set ourselves apart from the chaos and clutter. Boldness has lent notice to companies like Nike in its “Just do it” campaign, in Amazon with broadening into food space and drone delivery, and in Southwest Airlines with its fun and personable approach to air travel. So, let’s go out there and hit it.
 
Bacon is a leader in this area. Across the entire pork category, Nielsen research shows bacon was the only area seeing significant growth in the 52-week period ending in April 2017. In other words, bacon was doing better than its competitors - fresh pork, luncheon meats and sausages.
 
What’s more, a University of North Carolina study said a micronutrient in bacon, called choline, is essential to healthy brain development for babies in the womb. Choline contributes to the development of the parts of the brain associated with recall and memory. So, there we go… bacon makes us smarter!
 
And to my friends that are, dare-I-say, non-bacon fans… there’s always coffee. But that’s another post.
 
Thanks bacon. I love you even more now.
 
Yours,
 
Blaise

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