Twenty years after his bestseller Setting the Table, legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer (Founder of Shake Shack & Union ...
What Daniel Meyer said
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Daniel Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack, discussed his new book 'What Could Possibly Go Right' on Forbes, 20 years after 'Setting the Table'. He explained the book's premise: asking 'what could possibly go right?' rather than focusing on bad news. Meyer reflected on two decades of change, noting the absence of smartphones, social media, and apps 20 years ago, and that he had only one Shake Shack and had never closed a restaurant. He identified his biggest mistake as not trusting his gut, which he said has a better batting average than his brain. Meyer emphasized that effective leaders combine humility, vulnerability, and empathy, and that these can be celebrated and learned. He shared a pivotal insight from advisor Erica Anderson: the question 'how do we maintain culture with growth?' is flawed. Instead, he now asks 'how can we use growth to advance culture?', a principle he explored in the book's chapter 'Culture Is Like a Shark'.
Key takeaways
Growth should be used to advance culture, not maintain it, a principle from advisor Erica Anderson.
Meyer's new book 'What Could Possibly Go Right' is based on the question that has driven his successes.
20 years ago, Meyer had one Shake Shack and had never closed a restaurant.
2:05So, you know, I would love to hear a little bit about, you know, what some of those big mistakes over the last 20 years were and you know, what did you learn from them?
3:31How much of that do you think is, you know, innate and how much of that do you think can be learned and how much do you think you've learned?
5:26So, can you talk a little bit about what that is and how you came to that?
While not everything does go right, anything good that's ever happened in my life, in my business life, always started with that question, what could possibly go right?
I'm here with Danny Meyer, who's the founder of Union Square Hospitality Group. Some of his biggest hits include Union Square Cafe, Grand Mercy Tavern, Manhatta, all beloved restaurants here in New York. And of course, Shake Shack, which is everywhere. So Danny is out with a new book entitled What Could Possibly Go Right. It's been 20 years since your first book, Setting the Table, which was a big hit. So yeah, thanks for being here. And you know, why the new book and why now?
I've been thinking so much about how there's just so much bad news that we read every single day and people are divided on this and wondering about that. And I just felt like sharing my optimism that while not everything does go right, anything good that's ever happened in my life, in my business life always started with that question, what could possibly go right? And I think that we all have the opportunity to actually impact the number of things that do go right and that can go right. And so I took this moment to look back at 20 years. I wish I could have written a little more quickly than 20 years since Setting the Table, but a lot has gone right and a lot hasn't. And I really wanted to try to learn, especially when you think about 20 years ago. We didn't have smartphones. That means we didn't have social media. We didn't have apps. We hadn't gone through the great financial crisis. Certainly hadn't experienced the pandemic. And I had one Shake Shack and I had never closed a restaurant. And I really wanted to look at those 20 years and say for the stuff that worked out really well, what did go right and for the stuff that didn't work out as well, what could we learn from it? And I wanted to tell those stories.
Yeah. And you know, from the outside, so much success in the last 20 years. You know, Shake Shack is huge public company, something like 700 locations, right? Multi-billion dollar corporation. And you know, you have a string of very successful restaurants, this catering business, all this great stuff going on at Union Square, but the book is also full of just mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. So, you know, I would love to hear a little bit about, you know, what some of those big mistakes over the last 20 years were and you know, what did you learn from them?
Well, the first thing I have to say is that I'd like to hope that the book is full of lesson after lesson after lesson. You'll never in the entire book hear me say you should do this or here's what I suggest you do. So it's really talking to myself. And for every single lesson there was, it was preceded by a mistake. And I think one of the great learnings that I had above all is irrespective of the specific mistakes and sometimes failures that each one of them ended up being kind of okay in the end. Like none of them put us out of business, none of them hurt people, but there have been a number. And I'd say that the biggest mistake if I were to look and say what's the biggest global mistake that I've made, it's not trusting my gut. And it's not that my gut is always right, but it has a much better batting average, I think, than this brain up here.
You know, one of the things that you mentioned in the book is that you feel like you always had a pretty good knack for knowing what people need in the moment, you know, how to motivate them when they need support, you know, when they need maybe a bit of a push. How much of that do you think is, you know, innate and how much of that do you think can be learned and how much do you think you've learned?
6 more exchanges in this transcript
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Meyer, D. (2026, September 29). Danny Meyer’s New Rules For Business 20 Years After ‘Setting The Table’ [Interview transcript]. Forbes. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949275/
MLA
Daniel Meyer. "Danny Meyer’s New Rules For Business 20 Years After ‘Setting The Table’." Forbes, 29 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949275/.
BibTeX
@misc{meyer2026_2949275,
author = {Daniel Meyer},
title = {Danny Meyer’s New Rules For Business 20 Years After ‘Setting The Table’},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Forbes. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949275/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
