I read in the Advocate that Dagwood’s Restaurant was closing. Who would have guessed? The business had been in the family since the 50′s and it was a Newark, Ohio legend. What could go wrong?

Apparently, a son that didn’t care about it is all that it takes. The Advocate’s story showed a picture of the disheveled chef on the front page. Hair a mess and a shirt unbuttoned at least half-way. The article went on for Mr. Cochran to moan about everything that went wrong of about the past 15 years of the restaurants steady decline. Not one mention of what he could do to turn things around. I couldn’t believe that the Advocate bothered to run the story as anything other than one of those humanitarian articles.

I’m sure Dagwoods seen some tough times. Some of his tales would be setbacks, but nothing overrides the fact that he got handed a once booming business that was bought and paid for. So much so that it took him 15 years to run it down to nothing. Who among us would not love to have been handed an opportunity like that?

Maybe it was bad reporting, but the owner sounds like many that I have heard lately. They add up all of the bad things that have happened and make a decision that things are what they seem, and figure, “What’s the use?”. Dagwood’s owner explained in detail how he had given up. Not so many failed businesses are so revealing. He took no notice that he was sitting on a restaurant that was a Newark legend that had a name. It may now be a bad name, but everybody knows about it and they wish for it’s return to success.

It makes me think about how blinded all of us can be to our current situation. Most of the time, things are not nearly as bad as they seem. A few steps in a positive direction can reverse everything. Dagwood’s owner could have reversed everything today with that one article, but he was to telling his tale of woe. Lesson learned.

On a final note, this is one more failed Newark, Ohio business that did NOT have a website. Since I have started Newark, Ohio Links, I have yet to see a failed business that had a respectable website. I’m not claiming that is why they failed, I’m saying it’s a symptom of failure.