“I don’t like it”

Everyone is entitled to their own taste.

But this isn’t the helpful answer to the question, “is this good?”

Whether it suits your taste might be irrelevant. “It doesn’t resonate with me” is not the same as “No one will like this.”

The professional understands that they need empathy to do their job. You don’t have to be a toddler to work at Fisher Price, and you don’t have to be a cancer survivor to be an oncologist.

If you can imagine that the audience that is going to be served would appreciate and talk about the thing that’s being made, then it’s in good taste for them.

It doesn’t matter much whether you’d buy it yourself.

Sell with empathy and recognize that not everyone is a candidate for your product. That is why you will see so many products at our booth at MWAA. We are solution oriented so recognize that we need to present lots of options. 

In addition, it always bothers me when someone asks the waitstaff "what is your favorite dish?" This makes no sense to me.  How can one persons' favorite dish mark directly to my favorite dish when I have no idea if we have common likes.  Especially since the sample size is just one.  I think a better question would be "which items are more popular on your menu?" or "which items sell out the fastest?"  And then you also have to be careful, as having been a waiter myself, it seems the item they often choose is the more expensive one--they work on tips after all.

Be careful out there.
Adam