Audacity — acting without asking permission

2019. Saint Petersburg. A Burger King restaurant director slides into my DMs.

"Hey, do you still have that schedule with the macros? You know, the one you built back then, with the 'make it pretty' button that calculates all the expenses?"

I'd quit a long time ago. Moscow had officially banned everything I created. They rolled out their own system — stolen from KFC.

But directors kept using my tools on the down-low.

Because they actually worked.

How it all started

Burger King, Northwest region. Before the first restaurant even opened.

I came in as a training manager. Flew to Moscow and Berlin for certification. Came back right before launch.

Knew everything. Became the go-to training guy for the entire region. Consulted restaurants and operations leadership.

Then I became training director. Took initiative. Step by step, built a system around real problems.

Nobody asked me to. I just did it.

Three phases, zero approvals

Phase 1: Lightning-fast system. Laser focus on rapid crew prep. We were opening restaurants back to back. No time for lengthy programs — we needed people on the line within a week.

Phase 2: A year later — more stable, deeper, more systematic. Growth slowed down. Quality became more important than speed. Rebuilt everything for long-term development.

Phase 3: Mature state. Refined processes. Documentation. A well-oiled machine.

I built all of this without a single sign-off. Because if I'd asked for permission — it would've meant months of meetings. Instead, I just solved problems as they came up.

When bureaucracy wins

Then training managers showed up from Moscow. KFC veterans.

They'd stolen KFC's training system. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. Replaced "KFC" with "Burger King." Didn't bother adapting it properly.

Broke what I'd built in Saint Petersburg. Buried directors in paperwork. We kept finding references to "secret spices," KFC branding, Colonel Sanders.

I was furious — not because a powerful central office forced their decision through (that's just how power works). But because they shamelessly stole a competitor's system and didn't even bother to properly hide or adapt it.

Bureaucracy beat common sense. Just like in government.

But what works survives

Here's what happened after I left.

Directors secretly kept using my tools, spreadsheets, documents.

Moscow had strictly prohibited using anything I'd created.

They used it anyway.

Why? Because it worked. My system was built around their actual problems. The KFC copy-paste job was built around Moscow's ego.

When something solves real problems — people use it regardless of official policy.

Audacity works twice

First time: you don't ask permission to build. You just build.

Second time: others don't ask permission to use what works. They just use it.

Bureaucracy can win on paper. It can replace your system with theirs. It can ban your tools.

But it can't make people stop using what actually helps.

Back to that conversation

Director from Saint Petersburg. Private message. 2019.

"Hey, do you still have those spreadsheets?"

I did. And I sent them over.

Not because I wanted to stick it to Moscow. But because those spreadsheets solved problems. The director knew it. I knew it.

What you create without asking — stays yours even when they ban it.

Bureaucracy can blacklist your tools. But it can't stop people from using what works.

Drop a comment if this resonates — I genuinely appreciate the feedback, mostly because I'm looking for people who connect with what I write. Kindred spirits, if you will.