To Starbucks or Not To Starbucks

I meant to write this a long time ago. I actually had it written and then it got deleted, afraid that it was too "personal journal" feeling. I'll do another post on vulnerability later. My coffee drinking started at the credit union but grew on the campaign. I was driving an hour and a half to work in the morning and found out that if I left my house at 5am I could skip all the traffic and headaches associated with driving the 57 south into Orange County every day. At the time I was still living with some buddies outside my university.

So in the morning out of necessity, I needed a place to go and hang out before the office opened. Starbucks seemed the obvious choice. I had always despised people that chose to drink Starbucks coffee, in my head that was constantly focused on utils per dollar, I couldn't make it make sense. That was until I started going to this place and watching the people there.

Key realization. It's not about the coffee. Starbucks makes everything an event. Carrying that cup is like wearing a pair of designer jeans and having a $100 bill in your pocket. It let's people know that you started your day before you got to wherever your first agenda item was.

On top of that, the amount of semi-retired businessmen I saw sitting around talking about politics and the latest Orange County register article was fascinating. Their day to day job now consisted of riding their bike to Starbucks, meeting with their buddies, then leaving at 10 am to make a few phone calls and go to a lunch meeting. They were the epitome of time-wealthy that spurred me on my quest to learn how it was done.

In my 13 months of going to the same Starbucks 5-6 days a week, I met a bank president, chief of police, the store manager, and several business owners. I couldn't beat them, so I joined them, and I found the utility that is sometimes hidden in that marked-up coffee.