What Starts Well, Ends Well

As I sit here and type up the first blog for Business Over Coffee, I cannot help but think of Dr. Greene. He is the dean of the School of Business at Oral Roberts University and one of his most used quotes in class is, “What starts as mush, ends as mush.” I keep thinking about this quote because I realize that it is these first few blogs that are going to set the tone for Business Over Coffee.

It was just last night that Austin, David, and I were sitting at Starbucks discussing some final details about our new blog. I have been in the blogging space writing about collectible games since early 2007. They however, are a bit less experienced when it comes to blogging. Knowing this, it’s not shocking to find out that I am the one penning the first post. Without further ado, let’s talk business.

Why Business Over Coffee

One afternoon after several weeks without being able to come up with a name, I began to think back to all of the meetings I had been having with Austin and David. As I was thinking back, I realized there was one common component to all of these meetings: coffee. Essentially, this is where the idea of the name came from but it represents so much more than a name.

The name, for me personally, brings about an avalanche of thoughts and feelings. When I think about business over coffee I immediately think about the comfort I feel when I’m sitting at a coffee shop with a warm cup of coffee. Not only that, but I also feel this sense of openness and honesty to the conversation taking place over coffee. For some reason, in all of the meetings I’ve had at coffee shops there is just a sense of comfort that embraces me and those around me. Something almost encouraging me to open up and speak my thoughts.

It is this feeling that we are hoping to evoke. From the look of the website to the style of our writing, we need you to be ready to open up and discuss business over coffee with us. It’s in the open and honest discussion that you and I will learn and grow. It’s taking a step back or letting someone see your business from a new lens that presents opportunity for immense growth.

$1.40 a Minute?

You may have noticed that this post is in the $1.40 a Minute category. Since this is the first blog in this category, I wanted to let you in on the secret to it’s meaning. After some serious calculation one year in an undergraduate class (okay, it wasn’t too difficult), we found out that we were paying about $1.40 per minute for each class we were taking.

This was always the inside joke when a professor would be a few minutes late or let the class go early, that we were wasting that $1.40 a minute. While there definitely has been some waste over my years of college education, there have also been some of those minutes worth millions to me. From time to time we will have some nugget of knowledge that we feel is so priceless we will have no other choice but to blog about it.

Thus the category was born and from time to time you’ll be getting (for free nonetheless!) these little tidbits that we feel are critically important to success. I would imagine ten or so weeks down the road you really might be tired of hearing about Dr. Lewandowski or Dr. Greene.

Tall, Non-Fat Caramel Macchiato

If you didn’t know or couldn’t guess, that’s what I order about 80% of the time at Starbucks. I sincerely appreciate consistency which is one reason I love Starbucks. I can go to pretty much any Starbucks in the world and get that warm, delicious cup of coffee. Among other things, this is why they have been as successful as they are. While I won’t be going to deep into this issue today, we will be talking about companies and their success… or lack thereof.

In the mean time, I hope you’re as excited about talking business over coffee each week as I am. Do yourself a favor and invite a friend out for coffee. Talk about life, or business, or both. Regardless enjoy it, because life is good.

Zach