This Dream of mine, to open a coffeehouse, goes back some 14 years now. It is the result of several convergent factors and it has stood the test of time. Truthfully, it likely goes back even further than that but the epiphany, that moment where I thought I need to open a coffeehouse, was about 14 years ago. The year following that I started to really dig into what starting a business might entail; like drafting a Business Plan, for example.
For years it was nothing more than a hobby played out on random Internet searches, an idea with no clear direction. I had a young family and was deploying often in those days; it was busy. I did write the skeleton of a Business Plan though. It is something from which I still draw inspiration, especially as it relates the questions surrounding why. I think this is telling of the passion I continue to have for this dream. This slow start got its first afterburn while I was living in the United States and surrounded by the strong entrepreneurial spirit Americans exude. I thought it would pass; it did not.
I found I couldn’t shake it. I started reading and learning and engaging more and more, until when in 2017 I started attending seminars and city-run business education fora. One after the other after the other, it kept going.
One night, empowered with a glass of wine – or maybe two – I wrote up a business concept and submitted it to a competitive entrepreneurial bootcamp, a ‘mini-MBA’ offered to veterans. I was accepted. I haven’t stopped since. My return from that bootcamp became for me a watershed. I was emboldened by the Act Now and Do Something mantras I was, and continue to be, encouraged with (thank you Stephen Pressfield). The result? I acted. I’ve since fully adopted Kaizen principles of continuous improvement – small steps towards large goals; one percent a day.
I am hooked. This dream has been beat about for a long time and despite the many rethinks, adjustments and opportunities that have come and gone, it always comes back to the coffeehouse. This, at least, I have sorted out and recognize as the path forward. Everything else? Well, stay with me, and enjoy the ride …
