A Year in review

So here we are with another year behind us! If I got a dime for every time I was sure that we would not make it past the next day, week or month in the past year, I could stop selling coffee. But driven by the kindness and patience of our suppliers, landlord, utility company, creditors and the list goes on and on, we are able to still open our doors and serve the best coffee found anywhere in Conyers. While doing what matters most to us, building and strengthening new and existing relationships with you guys.

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I have been profoundly discouraged many,many times through the course of 2008. I’ve even many times looked back at my past as a sort of escape hatch from my current troubles, felt like simply not showing up the next day, screamed, cried, been afraid or angry, you know all the usually emotional suspects when you are faced with the possibility of your dream coming to an end.

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I know of at least a dozen businesses in a 3 mile radius of the store that opened their doors shortly before or shortly after we did that have gone out of business this year. I know how that must feel to those owners who all started with the same passion and love for their ideas as we did and do today. As is true of so many things in life, you just don’t really get it, until you really do it. It’s the doing that makes the difference not the thinking about it.

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I have gotten more gray hair worrying about what might happen, that never did in this past year than I have in my previous 34. Its stupid guys! Stop doing it; take it from the coffee guy it’s a waste of your time.

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And now a word from our sponsors: You! While this has been an extremely challenging year for us it is you that has made it manageable. I can’t stress that enough. It is you that has made it manageable! Just in the last month and a half alone I have had the husband of a cancer survivor tell me that this past year since they have discovered us has been “good for them”. They live out in Loganville and we get to see them about 2-3 times a week. How many coffeehouses and other places that sell coffee do you think they pass before reaching us? That is one of the amazing dynamics that makes me keep going. I have had a single mother share a conversation she had with her son earlier last year in which she told him that times are tough and will be for a while and they will have to make changes to they spending to try and restrict it as much as possible. With tears in her eyes she told me she said she would do what ever possible not to in her words”cut Moose out”. I will never forget that conversation as long as I live.

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Around Thanksgivings day I heard many, we are thankful you are here Moose. These are the things that have encouraged me through the past year. You see I’m a guy from South America who has lived most of his life in the North, who decided to move to the South, to a little city called Conyers, and open a business that he had no previous experience with. You can’t make this stuff up! In exchange for all of my fears I have a business that is within striking distance of the 2 year mark, prides itself on knowing every single person that comes through our doors, and, have made more genuine friends in the past 2 years than I have in my entire previous life.

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More significantly, I have had to stop running. You see as many of you know prior to opening Kaiteur, I worked in the financial services industry and I was blessed and fortunate to achieve a good amount of success there. In fact if you ever want to find out how to burn through a good bit of money and pile up a significant amount of debt without buying expensive things. Open a Coffeehouse right before the worst economic collapse in a couple generations. But I have discovered a pattern in myself, when ever I was faced with a difficult boss or got temporally tired of the monotony of my function I would start looking for the exit sign. This was in the form of a new job doing largely the same things but just in another setting and always making several thousands dollars more to help smooth the transition. This would pacify me for a short time but eventually I was back in the same position or rut and a move was only a few months away. When you buy a job you can’t quit, you have to stop running. You have to fight through the dark times, wake up the next day and see that the end has not come. There is a great Helen Keller quote that goes “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” I wish it were different but I have learned through this process that she is absolutely right. I have grown here.

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It’s customary to talk about New Year’s resolutions at this time of year so here is what I resolve to do in the New Year. I am determined to fight to see what we have started here through to its end, to keep delivering the best cup of specialty coffee around, and be less fearful of what might happen. You may have heard this before but the acronym F.E.A.R stands for - a Fantasized Experience, Appearing, Real), interesting isn’t it?

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We will make it through the challenging times ahead together, and in the process as I have already seen we will all learn some new things about ourselves. Thank you all for your support of me, my family and our coffeehouse in 2008 and we look forward to continuing to grow with you all in this New Year. Keep the stories coming.

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Happy New year from Shealy, Erin and Me!

Moose