Success - Plan For It! Success - What Is It?   Previous Page

On Medicine Men, Notebooks and Blaming the Boss.  On Being Dull

Finish this page then go to: Recipes for drinks and Recipes for success!  And make sure you come back, for more smiles and ingredients for feeling good.  This is where you learn how to feel good.  

For Drinks - watch listen and write!

Keep you ears and eyes wide open and don't be afraid to copy.  

Chef's notes.  I always kept a very small spiral notebook with me and took notes all the time.  A new friend was on a cruise and watched the "Barista" put together a great looking concoction but could not remember a key ingredient, orange syrup, and the drink was flat.  Watch, listen and Write.  For more on notebooks go to The Well - its short and sweet - but come back.

Street names.  Store names.  People.  Television shows.  Newspapers.  Conversation.  People's reactions.  Write them down and go to the well.  This is your well.  This is the water in the dessert.  This is where you go when you need to feel better.  Do something new and then blame the boss.  Always blame the boss for changing the routine and never letting it get dull around here.

For Success - just keep smiling!

The first rule or goal of business is staying in business!  This is true in any business but is seldom discussed.  If you want to be in and stay in business then you have to make it happen.  You can never, never give up.  Go to the well and then go to the well again.  Dig deep.  Something got you here and those same qualities will keep you in business.  

Never complain.  Success is contagious and it is easier to keep a good thing going then turning around a heavy load.  If you start to tell outsiders how  tough it is they will get the wrong idea - and wonder if you are cutting corners.  People are in your store to feel good; make them feel good always - your late hours and demanding customers are what you decided to get involved with.

Find ways to make money out of mistakes.   Brew your mistakes.  Add sugar to your mistakes.  Add sugar to your mistakes.  Add sugar to your mistakes.  Remember the scene in "Dancing With Wolves" where Kevin Costner first shared coffee with the Indians.  He ground not so fresh coffee - I'll not forget the way he turned and turned the handle - hilarious and worth the price of watching again the movie.  He was having fun and you could see it in his acting.

The best part was watching the Indian reaction to sugar!  Costner could do no wrong and the Indians kept coming back.  Your customers will too. 

Keep smiling and as the Brits say - "Stiff Upper Lip 'ole Chap".  This means swallowing your pride sometimes - crying in private and always being positive - even in the face of .....  Only you can keep you in business.

Staying Power.  Develop this power.  It is internal and radiates outward to all you touch and all you do.  People will see it in you and will be attracted to you and your coffee store.  Like magnets seeking happiness and good cheer.  An unfriendly Barista not smiling in the morning?  Non sequitor.

If your coffee is good, your medicine is good, and you will be smiling.  So always smile.  Be serious, yeah, but keep the smile close to the surface.  Smile on the telephone, smile in the backroom, smile in the mirror, smile in the morning, smile when you go to the bank, smile when you talk with the health department, smile when you talk with the plumber, the lawyer, the surveyor, the contractor and especially the Medicine Man with the tribe.

Remember, the Medicine Man can bring the tribe around.   He will not, he will too.  He will if you want him to, and show him where and how to and give him a reason.  Medicine Men have good magic and they like to use the magic.  It helps them stay Medicine Men.  They want the tribe to be happy with their magic - so help the Medicine Man do his job, make sure he knows your sugar.  Be happy!

Sometimes it is nice to be dull.  If you want quiet you don't want to be with the class clown or your best friend who is in a talkative mood.  Dull.  Quiet.

But most of time you don't want your store to be dull.  Something should be going on.  If it is dull, then look in the mirror.

Go to the well.  More Recipes