It will be 2 years come April since opening our cafe at West Queen West. 2009 was a great year and now being 2010, it got me thinking, "have I been successful"?
And it got me thinking further, what is Success?
Naturally, money and status come to mind. But if that is success, I am not successful at all.
Reflecting on my experiences operating a cafe, I think sometimes, money and status might take a while to come but what I have now, is precious.
I have a team of great baristas. They are keen to provide the best coffee experience they can give, they always want to learn more of coffee, learning about cupping, roasting, the many different methods of preparing drinks and trying to keep up to date on the ever changing coffee industry.
We as a cafe has bought some amazing coffees. We bought some beautiful micro-lots of award winning coffees and are proud to roast them at the cafe! And People are loving it!
I had the chance to cup with some local cafes and also the chance to study and learn more on coffees. We also have overseas visitors and farmers come and share their coffee knowledge with us. And this makes us all a Coffee Global Village!
We are constantly working towards balancing commerce vs fairness in our business. We have achieved beyond what we set out to do by paying farmers more than the fair trade prices.
My business partner was on the team of jury for COE (cup of excellence) for Guatamala, Bolivia as well as Brazil and this allow us to sharpen our cupping profile and roast some excellent single origin beans.
One customer helped at some renovation, another helped with our postcards design, one helped with logo design on our window, while another sewed our cushions. When I broke my leg, everyone helped and supported me.
There were hugs, smiles, laughter and lots of great times over coffees! A great community rallying around the cafe and myself. It is very rewarding and inspiring. When the going gets tough and everyone is my cheerleader, I simply cannot give up!
It helped put things into perspective and helped me get back on track and continue my coffee journey.
I count it my blessing and privilege to be able to learn so much. I learned so many wonderful lessons, the good and the bad.
And learned that as a community, it is important to build roots and I am learning that it is important to give as much as i can while I make money (very much needed when operating a business).
So, I think I am successful. And now, I need to work at being Rich. Any tips? :)
